Complete Race - 2 Hours of Berghem 30 May 2018

Circuit Park Berghem Karting - On May 30th 2018 Advanced Racing Project drivers Justin Rotte and Berend Stofferis finished second in the ‘2 Hours of Berghem’ endurance race held at Circuit Park Berghem. This video shows the complete race footage. The race took place on the Monaco layout, and the team used kart #51 (type: eco).

Race Report:

After team ARP got assigned kart #51, Justin took up qualifying and managed to secure the third grid position. Immediately after the lights went out, Justin jumped the two teams in front to take the lead. His time at the front was short lived, as three other participants (VilderRacing, GTM Racing and Team Griffel) were in contention for the lead, causing constant position changes. By lap 20, VilderRacing succeeded in creating a small gap, driving away from their immediate competitors. The fight over second position seemed to be settled in favour of team ARP when GTM Racing and Team Griffel collided in lap 30, however, a spin on the part of Justin in lap 34 nullified any build up time advantage. From there on pit strategies interfered with the on track battle. Justin stopped by lap 42, handing the kart over to Berend, who got past by GTM Racing at the start of his outlap. Griffel Racing followed roughly 10 seconds behind. While Berend needed a couple of laps to get used to the material, GTM Racing opened up a gap of a few seconds. Halfway through the race, the time difference was brought back to naught. GTM Racing and team ARP swapped positions a few times, until Berend entered the pits for a free stop in lap 74. Justin took over for a short stint, and soon got lapped by the leading team VilderRacing, who were still due a pitstop. He managed to stay on their tail until lap 89, when he entered the pitlane for the final tankstop. Due to the time in the pits, team ARP dropped back to position 8. As other teams stopped in the laps immediately thereafter, these positions where won back one by one. Meanwhile Team Griffel, up to this moment still in the fight for second, got mechanical problems and parked the kart at the exit of the second hairpin around lap 92. When the time window for tanking closed, roughly around lap 100, team ARP was in third place, but the two teams in front still needed to come in for their respective free stop. During lap 114, Berend overtook GTM Racing, when the latter team just exited the pits. The narrow gap of about four seconds between both teams was kept constant until the finish line. VilderRacing on the other hand ultimately edged out team ARP by about 10 seconds.
The official results erroneously state team ARP finished third instead of second; after the race finished, ARP stayed out on track for two cooldown laps instead of just one like the other teams. In the timing system, this put ARP in the lead, because 129 laps were registered. Rightly so, the race organization adjusted this by erasing one lap manually, but this was done without regard of the actual finishing positions of the three teams which drove 128 laps in total. Instead, team ARP was listed as the last team among those who covered 128 laps, even though timing data and video footage prove this is misguided.

Highlights:

00:00:27 Snatched First Position
00:27:13 Crash GTM Racing and Team Griffel
00:31:04 Spin
00:39:02 First Pitstop – Driver Change
01:00:01 Start Fastest Lap B. Stofferis
01:10:01 Second Pitstop – Driver Change
01:15:10 Start Fastest Lap J. Rotte
01:25:04 Third Pitstop – Driver Change
01:28:07 Team Griffel Mechanical Problems
01:33:20 Secured 3rd Position
01:48:48 Secured 2nd Position

Filming Equipment:

The footage of the stints driven by Justin Rotte are filmed with a GoPro Hero5 Black Edition. The remaining parts driven by Berend Stofferis have been recorded using a GoPro Hero3+ Silver Edition.