ETD Racing emerges Champions of 1st-ever Speed Drome Endurance Karting Championship 2013
Tuesday, 10 September 2013 00:00
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The first-ever Endurance Karting Championship, organised by Speed Drome, ended with round 3 last Saturday 7 September at Speed Drome Go kart track, Battarmulla with ETD racing taking the championship.
The concept of endurance racing was introduced to Sri Lanka and implemented successfully by Speed Drome for the 1st time last year with couple of test races which resulted in starting a Championship event with three rounds in 2013. Interestingly all three rounds were won by three different teams, showing the importance of team strategies and competitiveness. Round 1 was won by AA racing while round 2 after a very close battle won by ETD racing and last round was won comfortably by Raptor racing.
The event was a Formula 1 style Endurance Karting Championship where each team had three drivers and two pit crew members. The Endurance format drew close reference to Formula One, where teams had mandatory pit stops which the pit crew would work on the karts while three drivers took on the three hour challenge with driving sessions depending on the team’s strategies. The winning team was decided by the total amount of laps achieved in the three-hour period.
All teams participated included a mix of senior racing drivers; Ashan Silva, Nadeera Jinasena, Emdad Hussain, Thiwanka Wijesekara and Taffi Alahakoon as well as the upcoming young Formula McLarens 1300 drivers, Devin Serasingha, Lasitha Naotunna, Kyle Crosland and Bryan Perera.
The event was held as a day and night race starting at 4:30 p.m. giving the drivers a challenge and a great picture for the spectators.
After a very close battle at the beginning half of the race Raptor racing team flew away to victory with couple of lap’s difference between themselves and the 2nd team Gunners. Similar to the previous two rounds, the last round also experienced a record breaking 367 laps while 2nd place winners Gunners end up at 365 laps.
While the 2 teams who were not in contention for the Championship took the 1st two places of round 3, the Championship title battle was on for 3rd, 4th and 5th places between ETD racing, AA racing and Intek Racing. However unfortunately due to a chain breakage AA racing team was pushed out of the championship hopes while team captain Dhulmith Mendis and Emdad Hussain’s brilliant drive ensured that team ETD racing finished on top of Intek Racing to take the Championship title.
The overall runners up place was awarded to Intek Racing Team as they finished right behind ETD racing at the end with a two points difference.
The round 3 winners were Raptor racing team consisting of former rally driver captain Taffy Alahkoon, last year formula McLarens 1300 driver Tharindu Gamage and a pro Karter Charith Gunawardana while 2nd and 3rd places were won by senior racing driver Ashan Silva’s Team Gunners and Championship winning team ETD racing respectively.
Speed Drome announced that Endurance Championship will be back in 2014 with another exiting and mind blowing event.
Final Points Table
(01). ETD Racing - 61 Points
(02). Intek Racing - 59 Points
(03). AA Racing - 55 Points
(04). Gunners - 49 Points
(04). Raptor Racing - 49 Points
(06). BKMS Racing - 15 Points
(07). Pilots - 12 Points
(07). CBR Racing - 12 Points
(08). BSC Racing - 09 Points
