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KnK All The Way At Coffs Harbour 12-Hour


by Ian McMah 8 March 2013
 

The first round of the Australian 2013 Track Safety International Australia ProKart Endurance Championships was contested last weekend in Coffs Harbour.

As the first round of the Australian Championship series, this event also comprised Round 1 of the KT Cable Accessories Queensland ProKart Championships and was the second round for teams contesting the Track Safety International New South Wales Championship.

Despite the anticipation and testing that usually precedes an Australian Championship round, talk in the week leading up to the event was dominated by the weather. With torrential rains prevailing for most of the past few weeks, there was a very real chance that the track would be inaccessible for those travelling from both Sydney and Brisbane – before it was even considered whether the track itself would be operational and capable of hosting the race. As it turned out, the weather and track conditions would play a factor throughout the weekend…


Above: Dustin Pocock in the #4 KnK Australia entry

The inclement weather didn’t keep teams away however and a total of 26 teams ultimately entered the event, which was held over two separate 6-hour races: one on Saturday and the final 6-hour on Sunday.

Teams were greeted with torrential rain on Saturday morning and it remained the same throughout the day. The rain was unrelenting, although local forecasts suggested that Sunday would see showers and possibly even dry running at some stage.

This presented teams with a dilemma however, as the race format meant that teams were required to start Sunday’s race on the same tyres they finished Saturday’s race – regardless of weather conditions or other factors. Tyre management and strategy calls would again play a large part in the fortunes of many teams as the weekend progressed with most teams trying to second-guess the weather and gain an advantage at various times.

As expected however, Qualifying for Saturday’s first 6-hour race was held in pouring rain, with Team HTB’s Adam Mercer demonstrating why he is the current Queensland TAG Light champion after a series of sensational laps saw him take pole position by almost a full second over current Australian Champions Phantom Racing.

Reflecting their status as Australian Champions, Phantom Racing have brought an all-new look and somewhat of a revised line-up to the series in 2013. A single-kart team ever since their commencement in the series, Phantom are this year running 2 MS Karts with primary support from Castrol and additional sponsorship from Racer Industries. Certainly among the best presented teams at Coffs, Phantom Racing had all-new livery, apparel and some new drivers, including former V8Supercar competitor and multiple car and karting champion Alan Gurr. Many considered them ‘the team to beat’.


Above: Adam Mercer driving the Team HTB kart, which qualified fastest

After their convincing win at Eastern Creek in the first round of the NSW Championships, the team from Horsepower Racing were also favoured to be well among the front runners this weekend – a prediction that was not without merit as the team continued their strong performances, ultimately qualifying in 3rd place and setting themselves up for another strong weekend.

Joining them as leading contenders were current NSW champions Starkey Motorsport, NSW runners up eWishingWell.com.au Racing in their #23 chassis and a new 2-kart team from KnK Australia, which had been formed with drivers from existing KnK teams including 2012 Queensland series champions Glenn Firth and Ian McMah of MF-Tech Racing, former race winners Scott Pearce and Dustin Pocock from RPM Motorsport and Nathan Pearce from the KnK Tigers.

KnK Australia Kart #5 featured support from Brisbane Motorcycles, Rock Oils, KnK and Alpinestars and was driven by Glenn Firth, Scott Pearce and Ian McMah. Kart 4 was piloted by Dustin Pocock and Nathan Pearce and also sported an all-new KnK livery. The team held high hopes but the late arrival of their chassis and inclement weather had limited their opportunity to test prior to the event, a situation that had faced many teams including Phantom Racing, who had also only received their chassis’ late in February.
After qualifying the Top 5 were:

Pos

No.

Name

Best time

In lap

Best speed

Diff

Gap

Laps

1

87

Team HTB

00:46.497

6

51.874

7

2

1

Phantom Racing

00:47.403

6

50.883

00:00.906

00:00.906

11

3

777

Horsepower Racing

00:47.557

10

50.718

00:01.060

00:00.154

13

4

29

Kaizen Racing

00:47.580

8

50.694

00:01.083

00:00.023

10

5

5

KNK Australia

00:47.652

9

50.617

00:01.155

00:00.072

12

The race commenced in the same conditions experienced throughout practice and qualifying: torrential rain and plenty of it. Visibility was limited for teams running down the order with significant levels of spray emanating from the leaders as they commenced the first of two 6-hour races for the weekend.

Team HTB’s Adam Mercer was untouchable throughout the majority of the first hour, all but lapping the majority of the field. His deft touch, bravery and remarkable reflexes saw him pushing the MS Kart of HTB Racing beyond the limits of grip more often than not, in the process enthralling many spectators who remained focused on his efforts to extend their race lead.


Above: Barts Karts

The battle for second intensified in the first 15 minutes with Horsepower Racing in their #777 kart and eWishingWell.com.au’s #23 changing position several times. As the race progressed the initial order saw Team HTB lead eWishingWell.com.au from Horsepower Racing, KnK Australia’s #5 entry and Phantom Racing.

The ProKart endurance series, like many other forms of professional long-distance racing includes pit stops, safety cars, driver changes and refuelling; adding a new dimension to the sport of karting and an emphasis on strategy and reliability as well as speed and race craft.

In 2013, the regulations have been changed to ensure the first and last 30 minutes of any race are not diluted or clouded by pit activity and the pits essentially remain closed. Competitors can pit, but their stop will not count towards the minimum required (by regulation).

This change has considerably impacted on the strategy of many teams so it was not surprising to note that just after the 30-minute mark the pits came alive with activity as many teams stopped to change drivers or in some cases effect repairs. At this particular venue, a pit stop for a driver-change, including the pit entry and exit time, amounted to almost a full lap on-track and gave many team managers a lot to contemplate as they worked to determine the optimal time to get their karts into the pits for the first of their mandatory driver changes.

In ProKart competition, teams must pit at least once per hour, every hour including the need to undertake a driver change at least once every hour. The manner in which teams manage this strategy can and often does have a significant impact on their results.

At the end of the first hour’s racing, after the initial round of pit stops, Team HTB continued to lead from the #1 kart of Phantom Racing, with Horsepower Racing in 3rd, Kaizen Racing (#29) in 4th and Custom Decals rounding out the 5 in their #34 kart.


Above: Custom Decals

With the rain continuing, Phantom Racing’s hopes of a win took a massive blow as their #1 coasted into pit lane on lap 129, where it would remain for many laps as the team rallied to repair an inside sprocket carrier that had sheared the keyway. At the time of the failure the team had been running strongly in the top 3, waiting, like many, for their strategy to come into play as the race moved into the final few hours.

Unfortunately, repairs would take almost 70 laps and the team dropped to 22nd place before re-joining around lap 200, looking to salvage any points they could. They would ultimately recover to finish 19th.

At this point Team HTB led from Horsepower Racing and KnK Australia’s #5 entry in a solid 3rd. The team from eWishingWell.com.au are always a factor and in 4th place and running a differing strategy, looked likely for at least a podium. The fortunes of Team HTB changed quickly however as they not long after lost a chain and had to pit for repairs, losing a number of laps in the process. They would ultimately recover to finish a strong 3rd and may have finished higher had circumstances differed at the race’s conclusion.

The race continued and the rain continued to be relentless, at times intensifying and leaving the in-field so water-logged that any kart running off track would be invariably bogged and unable to easily re-join the circuit.


Above: KBC Racing 2

It was clear that the almost-flood-level rain when combined with the remnants and residual damage of actual flooding at the venue only weeks prior were contributing to one of the exit curbs deteriorating rapidly. Eventually, around 4 and a half hours into the 6-hour race, ProKart and Coffs Harbour Kart Club officials deemed that the race be red-flagged to allow for a full assessment of damage and if required, to effect temporary repairs to allow the race to continue.

After a red-flag stoppage of approximately 20 minutes, teams were given the order to restart their engines and to prepare for resumption of the race. ProKart and the Coffs Harbour Kart Club had identified a temporary solution, the result of which was that the final corner was deemed a ‘permanent’ yellow zone with no overtaking possible. This, and the tyre barrier moved to cover the damaged curbing would result in a number of late-race penalties for many teams.

The call to restart led to a flurry of activity in the KnK Australia pit as the team struggled to get one of their engines restarted. The engine initially appeared to have seized during the race stoppage however after a few frantic moments the engine turned over, restarted and clearance was given for the race to resume. It was only later that evening that the team discovered a stone had lodged between the fan blade and engine cover – evidenced by an upwards dent discovered late in the evening on Saturday, the team relieved that no apparent damage had occurred to the engine itself…


Above: Ian McMah in the KnK Australia #5, which won both 6-hour legs of the 12-hour

On the race restart Scott Pearce in the #5 KnK Australia entry pushed to extend their lead as the other front runners all played a game of cat-and-mouse, second guessing not only each other but ProKart and Coffs Harbour Kart Club officials’ determination on whether the race would run the full 6-hours or be red-flagged and declared beforehand.

Many teams adopted different strategies before officials ultimately declared the event just under 55 minutes shy of the 6-hour mark. This left many teams pondering ‘what-if’ and paddock discussion continued well into the night on how the end result may have differed, if at all, had the race run the full 6-hours.

Ultimately the #5 entry of Team KnK Australia won by 2 laps from the #777 of Horsepower Racing, with Team HTB in 3rd.

The top-10 finishers were:

Pos

No.

Name

Laps

Total time

Diff

Best time

In lap

Best speed

1

5

KNK Australia

316

5:05:14.507

00:48.084

22

50.162

2

777

Horsepower Racing

314

5:05:46.374

2 Laps

00:47.799

12

50.461

3

87

Team HTB

312

5:05:58.116

4 Laps

00:46.973

32

51.349

4

23

e wishing well.com.au

311

5:05:25.487

5 Laps

00:47.596

7

50.677

5

48

Starkey Motorsport

311

5:05:43.078

00:17.591

00:47.993

17

50.257

6

153

TJ Phantom

310

5:05:45.696

6 Laps

00:48.083

33

50.163

7

7

Bang Bros. Racing

307

5:05:59.812

9 Laps

00:48.088

23

50.158

8

34

Custom Decals

306

5:05:38.293

10 Laps

00:46.297

98

52.098

9

212

CJ racing

303

5:05:30.220

13 Laps

00:48.868

41

49.357

10

29

Kaizen Racing

301

5:05:50.105

15 Laps

00:48.273

7

49.966

The format of this event was such that whilst teams were able to undertake some maintenance on their karts after the first 6-hour race on Saturday, they were not able to fit new tyres. Tyres were immediately impounded by series officials after the conclusion of Saturday’s race and teams returned to their pit area with no wheels or tyres on their karts.

Given the relentless rain and consequential mud and debris, almost every team worked well into the evening preparing their karts for the following day’s 6-hour event.

All indications were that Sunday’s weather might show signs of improvement; some teams electing to modify their setup and consider revising their strategies whilst others remained convinced the status quo would remain… one thing was certain though, all teams would be starting the race on their used-wet tyres from Saturday.

Dawn broke on Sunday morning and whilst it was overcast, at that point there was only very light (and at times no) rain. Teams returned the track to commence final preparations for Sunday’s 6-hour event.

On arrival, they reported to ProKart officials in parc ferme to receive their tyres, distributed to each team minutes before the start of Sunday’s 10-minute qualifying session.

Qualifying was held in damp conditions, the track surface wet but the rain abating for the duration of the 10-minute session.


Above: Phantom Racing qualified pole for the second 6-hour

At the conclusion of qualifying, the #1 kart of Phantom Racing, piloted by James Stevenson, took pole position ahead of the #34 of Custom Decals, with Barts Karts (#34) and KnK Australia’s #5 entry rounding out the front 2-rows.

The Top 10 in qualifying were:

Pos

No.

Name

Best time

In lap

Best speed

Diff

Gap

Laps

1

1

Phantom Racing

00:48.585

5

49.645

6

2

34

Custom Decals

00:48.767

6

49.460

00:00.182

00:00.182

7

3

64

Barts Karts

00:49.008

7

49.216

00:00.423

00:00.241

8

4

5

KNK Australia

00:49.421

8

48.805

00:00.836

00:00.413

9

5

17

Racer X

00:49.479

8

48.748

00:00.894

00:00.058

8

6

87

Team HTB

00:49.597

4

48.632

00:01.012

00:00.118

5

7

212

CJ racing

00:49.742

4

48.490

00:01.157

00:00.145

4

8

7

Bang Bros. Racing

00:49.807

5

48.427

00:01.222

00:00.065

6

9

131

onlinekartshop.net

00:49.828

6

48.407

00:01.243

00:00.021

7

10

70

Life Style Auto

00:50.110

7

48.134

00:01.525

00:00.282

7

The race commenced in the same conditions experienced in qualifying, with a wet track but only very light precipitation falling.

James Stevenson in the #1 of Phantom Racing maximised his pole position and took the lead after a first corner challenge by both the #34 of Custom Decals and a fast-starting Ian McMah in the #5 KnK Australia entry.


James’ lead was to be short-lived however as he lost traction under braking for Turn 4 and ran wide into the sodden grass and lost a number of positions before re-joining the circuit and commencing a fight-back that would ultimately see him re-join the lead group.

On lap 35 a hard-charging Adam Mercer took the lead in the Team HTB’s #87 entry and the lead changed a number of times until the first round of fuel stops as teams ran on differing strategies.

The rain stopped and a dry-line started to appear as early as 90 minutes into Sunday’s race. Teams were continually referencing radar imagery and second-guessing the weather to determine when, or even if in some cases they would contemplate a change to slick tyres.

Meanwhile, many teams had been and were receiving penalties for impacting the tyre barrier put in place on Saturday to protect the damaged final-turn exit curbing. Whilst repairs had been effected on Saturday night, it was determined that this area would remain a no-pass zone and the barrier would remain in place to ensure no further damage occurred– the penalty for contacting the barrier was initially a drive-through, escalating to increasing stop/hold/go penalties for repeat offenders. Whilst this wouldn’t change the outright results, it did have an impact on a number of teams early in the event.

By the third hour many teams had changed to slicks, their wet-weather grooved tyres almost to the canvas. Several however elected to ‘roll the dice’ and gambled on the rain returning and stayed on their wet weather tyres, working hard to minimise tyre wear and ensure some tread pattern remained should it rain again.

With a tyre change taking approximately 3 laps, it was a gamble many felt worth taking.

For most of the 3rd and 4th hours the lap time variance between those who’d moved to slick tyres and those remaining on wets was marginal. With cloud gathering on the horizon there was a period where it looked like those who gambled to remain on wets had made an inspired decision, however ultimately the rain didn’t return and as the dry-line increased lap times started improving dramatically.

One team to try and stay the distance on rapidly wearing wet tyres were the team from KBC with drivers Kevin Mikilewicz, Corey Emr and Gary Emr looking to minimise the loss of 6 laps early in the event to fix a stalling motor and to change a tyre that kept deflating – a situation they’d noticed on Saturday afternoon and were unlucky to not be able to address prior to Sunday’s race given the format required teams to retain the same tyres for Sunday’s race start.

At the conclusion of the 6-hour event the #5 entry of KnK Australia won by a margin of more than 3 laps, drivers Scott Pearce, Glenn Firth and Ian McMah all having set fastest laps during their final stints. The #5 entry would leave the event with 2 wins from 2 races and a full complement of championship points.

Finishing 2nd again as they had on Saturday were the #777 of Horsepower Racing. This team demonstrated just why they’d won the opening round of the NSW championship only weeks earlier and are now surely considered favourites to take the NSW title with a win and a 2nd place overall to their name from the first 2 rounds of the series.

In third on Sunday were the team from TJ Phantom in the #153 MS Kart. Taking advantage of the ‘team’ regulations in place for 2013, Phantom Racing had elected to basically swap drivers from their #1 and #153 entries on Sunday after the #1 kart’s sprocket carrier failure (and subsequent poor finish and low points haul) on Saturday. They would place 4th overall for the weekend.

In 4th place on Sunday but finishing 3rd outright for the weekend was the team from eWishingWell.com.au, Matt Mosse-Robinson, Alex Mosse-Robison and Dion Scott driving well throughout the weekend and maximising the strategy put in place by team stalwart Chris “Santa” Mosse-Robinson. After a strong run at Eastern Creek this team appears the likely challenger to Horsepower Racing’s early-season run to the NSW title – no doubt pleasing their sponsors eWishingWell.com.au and Personalised Favours.


Above: Team KnK Australia kart #5 winners

Team HTB finished 9th on Sunday, however with the team running at the front for much of the weekend and demonstrating why they will be a dark horse in the 2013 Championship race – they finished 5th in combined points after both races on the weekend.

At the chequered flag Sunday’s Top 10 were:

Pos

No.

Name

Laps

Total time

Diff

Best time

In lap

Best speed

1

5

KNK Aust

481

6:00:24.728

00:37.684

451

64.006

2

777

Horsepower Racing

478

6:00:35.441

3 Laps

00:38.294

460

62.986

3

153

TJ Phantom

478

6:00:59.306

00:23.865

00:37.897

414

63.646

4

23

e wishing well.com.au

475

6:00:38.554

6 Laps

00:38.177

420

63.179

5

71

KBC Racing

472

6:00:47.512

9 Laps

00:37.834

437

63.752

6

131

onlinekartshop.net

470

6:00:58.221

11 Laps

00:38.229

439

63.093

7

7

Bang Bros. Racing

467

6:00:47.227

14 Laps

00:37.940

437

63.574

8

1

Phantom Racing

466

6:00:58.582

15 Laps

00:38.008

433

63.460

9

87

Team HTB

464

6:01:00.649

17 Laps

00:38.032

428

63.420

10

46

Starkey motorsport

463

6:00:30.386

18 Laps

00:38.111

401

63.289

The championship battle for both the New South Wales and Queensland series will recommence in April at Wollongong City Raceway (NSW - April 13) and Willowbank (QLD – April 6)


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