Team Castrol EDGE Dominate Warwick 9-Hour
| press release | 20 May 2013 |
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Team Castrol EDGE have dominated the latest round of the Prokart Endurance Series with a big win in Warwick.
The team of Alan Gurr, Simon Ham and Nicky Laskazeski showed that they had clear pace over the field winning by 7 laps in the 9hr event.
In free practice Team Castrol EDGE topped the time sheets, which was followed by Alan Gurr setting pole position in the F1 style qualifying ahead of Brett Francis from BF Racing and the 2 KNK Team Australia karts.
Above: Alan Gurr at the wheel of the Castrol kart
With Gurr starting the first 3hr leg of the 9hr event the aim was to get clear air and gap the field with enough time to have time to get 1 of the compulsory pit stops out of the way and maintain the lead. Gurr managed to do so within the first hour while setting the fastest lap of the race, handing the kart over to Ham to continue the assault for the next 50mins.
With Gurr jumping back in after a fuel stop near the 2hr mark after Ham had continued to extend the lead for the Castrol backed team. With just over an hour left in the Saturday leg, pace was seeming to be not an issue. The aim was now to try and finish the day with a 1 lap lead and at least 1 pitstop up on the 2nd place kart of Francis. With Nicky Laskazeski at the wheel for the last 30mins of the day a number of pitstops were done not to give away any extra time they had managed to build on the field before the safety car came out to signal the end of the first day.
With Sunday’s final 6hrs of the race starting under safety car Ham was elected to start the day knowing that the 3 Castrol EDGE drivers being within 3 tenths of one another other, was able to do the job of maintaining the lap lead created the day before.
Above: Nicky Laskazeski
Ham managed to pull a 6 second advantage on 2nd place in the morning stint before handing the wheel to Laskazeski who did a great job of continuing her fine form by extending the lead prior to the first fuel stop of the day.
With Gurr on full a tank of fuel was in a great position to be able to run a long stint in clean air to maximize his team mates efforts in stretching the gap. While the 2nd place kart of Francis had to pit with a brake problem allowed the #87 kart of team HTB to inherited 2nd position.
Both Ham and Laskazeski were to bring the kart home over the final 2 stints knowing that providing any mechanical dramas they were in a very strong position to take the win. In true racing form they both proceeded to push to the flag finally extending their lead to finish some 6 laps ahead of the 2nd place kart of Team HTB with BF Racing recovering to finish 3rd. The result giving Team Castrol EDGE a good points gain to be leading the Championship after Round 3.
