Daytona Max News

DMAX Three Hour - 3rd May 2009 - Super Racing!

DMAX 3 Hour Open Enduro

Sunday 3^rd May – Daytona Milton Keynes

An overcast morning with a hint of rain greeted the Daytona staff early in the morning but by the time the teams arrived, the track was dry and the clouds had broken. 13 teams took to the track for 40 minutes of practice followed by 10 minutes of timed qualifying. During practice, one or two teams had to have been sandbagging; Team Autosport Mercedes put in a good time during practice, but thumped in a fantastic lap during qualifying but were ultimately pipped by the Daytona staff team Slow and Slower by just 16/100ths. DMAX regulars Team Given lined up 3^rd and experienced Enduro drivers Team Off Piste started 4^th. Just 8/10ths covered the top 4 teams meaning the race was sure to be very competitive.

The lights turned green to start the 3 hour endurance race and the karts accelerated through the fast 1^st turn and thundered into turns 2 and 3. Team Autosport Mercedes leapfrogged Slow and Slower on lap 1 with the former tumbling down to 6^th by the end of lap 2. The race leaders took an immediate stranglehold on the race and pulled out an impressive lead. Team Off Piste did their best to keep with the leaders but couldn’t quite live with the pace. Behind them, there was an almighty battle for 3^rd place raging for nearly an hour between Team Given, Southwest Karting 1 and Speed is Good. This was superb racing between these guys with no quarter being asked or given.

There was some great racing all the way down the field with fierce battles all over the Daytona Milton Keynes circuit.

After the 2 mandatory fuel stops, all the top teams had their drivers in to finish the event. Team Slow and Slower had put in a huge effort during the middle of the race to haul themselves back up into the lead and build a commanding gap between themselves and the 2^nd place team Autosport Mercedes. As the race neared it’s final stages, the racing didn’t ease up one bit. In fact if anything it got even more fierce. It became apparent that the 2^nd place team was catching the leaders at around 1.5 seconds a lap and with about 10 minutes to go, they were 12 seconds behind. The race was set to go to the wire. 2 laps remained when Team Autosport Mercedes hunted down and passed the lead kart. A truly grandstand finish to a superb race and after 3 hours of racing, the gap between 1^st and 3^rd was just 7.5 seconds.

Further down the field, Team Given took a fine 3^rd just 8 seconds behind the winner, Off Piste were 4^th and just 19 seconds behind the winner, Team Speed is Good were 5^th. Southwest Karting 1 took the honours in the personal battle between the 4 teams from Southwest Karting.

As Slow and Slower were a Daytona staff team, they were ineligible for the prizes so the final finishing positions are as follows:

1^st – Team Autosport Mecedes Benz

2^nd – Team Given

3^rd – Team Off Piste

4^th – Team Speed is Good

5^th – Team Southwest Karting 1

6^th – Team Southwest Karting 4

7^th – Team Southwest Karting 2

8^th – Team Neo Brothers

9^th – Team Gavia

10^th – Team Southwest Karting 3

11^th – Team Bafana