Last Updated on 24 March, 2024 by gokartprix
The last outdoor race of the year took place at Enköpings Kartingbana, the venue that opened this GoKart PRIX season back in May. 14 participants divided in 2 groups went on the track to set their best lap times in a short 6-lap Qualification session. Fastest in Group 1 was Andreas followed by Petras and Igor. But Group 2 went out on already warmed up tires and this advantage brought Mattias his first TQ of the year. Fredrik showed the second best lap time, but 0,013 seconds slower than Andreas that gave Fredrik P3 on the grid in Final A. Due to the racing format that has been used this time Qualification was more important than ever because it determined in which Final the driver will end up. So, despite Igor’s P3, he was only 8th after the session and that dropped him to Final B. Mio was only 0,1 seconds behind Kristoffer, but he still ended up below the cut line, while Kristoffer was lucky enough to start in Final A.
In Final B Igor took the lead right away. Björn made a couple of rough moves but spun trying to overtake Berke. Turk then was attacked by a championship rookie Saketh. After a couple of tries they bumped, but Saketh being a gentleman let Berke pass him to start all over again. Next lap Saketh locked his wheels on braking and spun pushing Berke drive out of the track. But again Saketh let Berke in front of him, but they both already lost 2 positions. Then came the yellow flag marking the end of segment 1. Everybody piled up and after 1 slow lap made a rolling start into segment 2.
Audrius made a move on Mio and got himself P2. Mio didn’t agree with that and took back his spot on the next lap. But Audrius was fighting hard and eventually pushed Mio off the track which got him a yellow card. Mio lost all places and Berke suddenly used this incident to get behind Igor. Karma hit Audrius back when he spun and got himself on the grass losing not only all spots but also a lap. Mio wanted to get back to the front so hard that he made a bad call and hit Björn who spun. Mio got a yellow card for this move, but he was already hoping for the segment 3 restart.
At the restart Audrius who by this time was already 2 laps behind went inside to overtake Igor to get at least one lap back. And he could hold this position for a while, but Igor just was faster and took back the opportunity to have fresh air in front of him. The 2nd spot had Saketh who was followed by Mio. By the end of the lap Mio was back on P2. They were fighting with each other and with lapped Audrius in front of them until Saketh spun and Audrius went wide letting Mio pursue Igor who was already far away. On the one to last lap Björn was unsuccessfully trying to overtake Audrius and spun. Berke who was driving right behind them got unlucky again and with nowhere to go drove into the tire wall. Igor won Final B but couldn’t advance to Final A due to the rules of this racing format.
Mattias was happy to start from pole-position in Final A, but after turn 2 he was already passed by Fredrik (started 3rd), Ernestas (4th), Andreas (2nd) and Slawomir (5th). By the end of the 1st lap he even let Kristoffer go by. Not the beginning that the reigning track winner was hoping for. In fact his gokart was visibly slower compared to others. His main championship’s rival Andreas was fighting for the lead with Fredrik and Slawomir and eventually pulled himself into the front. Fredrik then let Slawek and Ernestas (not without the fault and the yellow card) through. The Polish racer had the perfect setups on his gokart and he easily got to the leading Andreas. But the race in Uppsala showed that it’s not that easy to overtake the 2-time champion. One of the attacks ended up with the spin of Slawomir. Ernestas was right behind him and he had nowhere to go but off the track into the tires, just like Berke. Both of them rejoined the race but lost many positions. Slawek became dead last.
Andreas was in his happy place leading the race with a big margin when segment 1 ended. He was then defending hard his position from the attacks of Slawek and Ernestas on the restart. They both had the best gokarts and continued their fight in the front of the pack. Ernestas finally was the one who managed to take the lead from Andreas. Then Slawomir became 2nd while Fredrik, Petras and Kristoffer were fighting each other in the back. In 2 laps Slawek finally reached Ernestas and took the lead of the race. But Lithuanian was sitting tight on his tail and used every tiny mistake and every possibility for a slipstream to get as close as possible and take back P1. But so did Slawek. However he didn’t have time to pass because it was the end of segment 2.
Mattias was bored driving in the tail of the pack so he hoped for the better outcome in the final segment. Restart! The main battle continued between the racer in the white suit and helmet (Ernestas) and the racer in the black suit and helmet (Slawomir). After turn 3 the dark force had the better exit and were about to ride along the bright side when a white jedi switched the line ignoring the black ninja’s presence there. As a result – the light warrior fell (touched the other gokart and spun) losing all possible achievements. That was good news for Mattias, the blue knight in the outcast. Not for long though – Ernestas was rapidly closing the gap and gaining his positions back. Once he even managed to gain 2 spots at once. But that was quite a dirty move and he was “awarded” with a second yellow card. He should be careful now, because one more yellow card and he will be heavily penalized! Mattias, however, found some speed and overtook Petras and Kristoffer until the checkered flag waved. Ernestas managed to get to P4. Fredrik kept 3rd position and earned his 1st podium! Andreas didn’t reach P1 but despite some problems with his braking pedal most importantly received more points than Mattias. But the second victory this season and in his career claimed Slawomir who also showed his first fastest lap!
In the championship standings Andreas gets further from Mattias and now he only needs 20 more points to clinch the title! Which, let’s be honest, is easier for him to do than tie a shoe. Mattias needs to score 79 points in 3 upcoming races to be the champion in case Andreas will not show up in all of those. However, he got further from Igor and now has the most chances for 2nd place. Igor, ofcourse, will try to fight, but it will be hard for him to outscore Mattias. He should now think of 3rd place. Jani didn’t race in Enköping and let Igor drive away a bit. But 3 good results from Jani and he might catch P3 in the end. Great performances from Slawomir and Fredrik put them both in a fight for P5 and maybe even P4!
Enormous thanks to Enköping Hyrkart staff for helping us with this race setup! Also big thanks to all participants! Race documentation here.
We have only 3 races left this season and let’s make them great!