Last Updated on 24 March, 2024 by gokartprix
For the first time in GoKart PRIX history we had a race where there was a guest driver on the grid. A guest driver is the one who is not eligible to collect points in our Championship but can participate in all sessions. This time there were 2 such drivers. Both of them were perfect on this track so our regular drivers had to push extra hard to compete with them. More to that – 2 new drivers joined us who also were locals and perfect on this indoor track in Nyköping. GoKart PRIX gathered their best regular drivers so this race was expected to be epic.
In Q1 group 1, as expected, the locals occupied all the top spots. They were followed by Kristoffer, Igor K and a Championship rookie Noah. In group 2 the fastest was Mattias. Right behind him was Berke. They both showed quite decent times that were faster than one of the guest driver’s. Igor S and Nicolas managed to be faster than Kristoffer from group 1. Norrtälje winner Tommie barely made it in 24 seconds. Leo and Joel closed the list.
The best laps of Q1 went to official protocol and could not be improved, because Q2 everybody drove in the opposite direction! Norton showed the best time in group 1. Guest drivers landed in P2 and P5. In group 2 Igor S showed the best lap time. He was followed by Berke, Nicolas and Tommie. But in the total Qualification standing where best lap times from Q1 and Q2 were combined the top 4 still belonged to the locals – Norton, Robin and 2 guest drivers. The best of GoKart PRIX regulars was Berke, followed by Igor S and Nicolas. Those drivers moved to Final A. And the rest of the field including Mattias, Kristoffer and Tommie had to race in Final B for a ticket to join the main event.
Mattias started nicely from pole in Final B and created a decent gap to Kristoffer already by the end of lap 1. Kristoffer himself started to defend from Tommie’s attacks. We all know how Kristoffer can be good at defending. But here he just had to hold for 19 more laps. And boy he did! Tommie was trying to search for any gap, for any opportunity to overtake, but it just felt like Kristoffer’s car was wider than any place on the track. No success for Tommie and mild success for Kristoffer. Better success for Mattias who finished 1st and jumped into the 8th kart of Final A. Igor K finished 4th in front of Leo, Joel and Noah.
With Kristoffer staying in Final B Igor S had a perfect chance to score many points and get the Swede in the standings. In Final A Norton having TQ started with pushing Robin very close to the wall on the main straight, but Robin didn’t give up and got a better exit from turn 1. Norton lost some pace and wanted to recover by taking the racing line into turn 2. However, there already was Elvis, a guest driver, who didn’t have anything left but to spin Norton. No penalty here was issued and the race moved on. This spin created a bit of a mess where everybody gained one place from Norton, but Igor S at the same time lost one place to Nicolas. After about a half of the race Norton caught and overtook not only Mattias, but also Igor S. A bit later Robin started to lap both of them. Igor S and Mattias were losing their pace. At the front everything was pretty much without any changes. Both guest drivers were showing a good pace. Berke was having fun running behind them, and Nicolas had no threat from Igor S but also had no speed to take on Berke. In fact, he was passed by Norton as well. Soon the checkered flag waved and Robin crossed the finish line first. Behind him finished guest drivers Adam and Elvis. They had to skip the podium so the 2nd place proudly took Berke with Norton ended up 3rd.
Nicolas finished 4th and Igor S 5th. Latvian took away 4 points from Kristoffer and now it’s only 2 points left between them before the final race of the season! The fate of the vice-champion title will be decided in Kista! Thank you very much to Caroli Kart Center Nyköpingstaff and to all participants! This event was really interesting!
Race documentation is here.