Last Updated on 24 March, 2024 by gokartprix
The day in Järfälla began well. But right before the race started we received info that the timing system doesn’t work at the track. So we had no better option than to take their offered race setup that we never used before. It contained 3 qualification races and 1 final race. And it was fun. People started from different grid positions on different gokarts and, as an outcome, we got different results.
Do you remember when Berke started from the first row and Andreas 8th? Well, it never happened until this time with this race setup. The first lap of Heat 1 was led by championship rookie Fredrik and Björn, who was trying to defend his position so hard that almost forced Mattias out of the track but eventually ended up there himself. Fredrik had a bit of a leading glory when Andreas put everybody in their place and became 1st. Fredrik then for the last 2 laps lost some more positions to Mattias, Igor, Slawomir, Jani and another championship rookie Mio. In the end in the top 3 were Andreas, Mattias and Igor.
In Heat 2 Jani and Slawomir started in the front and kept their positions for a few laps. Igor got spinned by someone on the straight. But nobody from the track staff saw this moment, neither there’s good video footage to issue a penalty to the culprit. Igor finished last but Mattias won the heat.
It was Tomas and Viktor who started on leading positions in Heat 3, but Andreas was already in front of them by the first turn. Igor and Mattias started their breakthrough from the back of the grid, fighting with racers who were fighting among themselves in the middle. Tomas was holding for his P2, but at some point lost his momentum and one by one let five people pass. There was a fight for the 3rd spot between Jani and Fredrik. It was very tight on the finish line, but most probably Jani crossed the line in a fraction of a second earlier.
However, the total results of all qualification heats look weird. Finish positions were observed manually and unfortunately there were some mistakes made because of this. Due those mistakes the finish positions of Heat 3, as well as it’s points were recorded incorrectly as later investigation showed. Therefore in the Final Race some of the racers started from wrong grid positions. Of course the outcome of the race could have been different, but we have to officially accept what we got in the end. We as organizers apologize for this! And this is just another proof of how important it is to use our approved race setup and have a working timing system on track!
But let’s get back to the Final! Andreas started from pole position alongside Mattias. Andreas was so focused on not letting his opponent be first who comes to the hairpin turn that he missed Slawomir who took the advantage and took the lead. Another lost focus for Andreas and he’s already 4th diving into the hairpin. But then, everything got back to normal and he was following Slawomir for the lead. It was, however, not as easy as he might have thought. The Polish man felt comfortable with the open road in front of him and had a good pace. But still he couldn’t avoid some battles with the 2-time champion. Their fight attracted Jani to join them. Andreas started to defend himself and that pulled away some heat from Slawek who was determined to win his first race. Behind them alone drove Fredrik, but he was pretty happy with his position. Championship points leader Mattias already from the beginning couldn’t hold himself in the front and was stuck in a fight with Igor and Mio losing precious time. During the last couple of laps Slawomir was again under attack by both Andreas and Jani, but somehow managed to save his spot and crossed the finish line as leader, taking his maiden victory in GoKart PRIX! Andreas 2nd, Jani 3rd, Fredrik 4th… and the rest is history.
Race documentation is stored here. Thanks to all participants for this event and to Järfälla Hyrkart staff for support! Next stop – double header in Linköping!