News from the driver’s seat:

Coverage of the 2011 ABT Cup Karting event

Who will be crowned champion of ABT Cup 2011?

10 teams.  4 drivers.  1 championship.  And one champion to rule them all.  At least, until the next race.

On a balmy evening last Thursday, 24 March 2011, the competitive heat was nevertheless impossible to ignore as 40 drivers took the wheel of 10 karts to battle for the title of ABT Cup Champion 2011.  Held at the Kartright Speedway, the invitational event sponsored by ABT Asia and AutoVox in its second year running fielded the largest pack yet.  Rivalry was intense up and down the order; as lap times dropped and confidences soared, there was no shortage of excitement throughout the night’s proceedings.

Safety briefing before the practice runs; drivers all ready to race!

Practice:

Right from the first few laps of the evening, the ABT team quickly established themselves as the team to watch, with their driver Wolfgang setting the fastest pace in the first 10 minutes out of the 40 allocated for practice.  All drivers demonstrated considerable speed and skill as they traded hot laps, with the teams of ABT Asia, VIP, and Audi Singapore eventually sneaking away with the top three lap times.

Pace-setting driver from ABT Asia was the fastest during practice

Qualifying:

As with most forms of racing, the qualifying run has many strategies, but only one rule – be the fastest out there; and so in the next 10 minutes, the fastest man of every team battled for grid position.  For most of the session, the ABT team dominated the timing board, posting lap after lap of fast runs.  Even as the drivers cranked it up for their final attempts at beating the clock, it seemed that the ABT team had secured the coveted pole position.  However, in an amazing final lap blitz, team VIP literally snatched the honours from ABT, smashing their time by nearly half a second, taking top spot on the starting grid.

Team VIP's top qualifier on a hot lap

Race:

The 2011 ABT Cup was run as an endurance race, with the following rules:

-          The total race time is 40 minutes

-          Each driver in the team of 4 must drive once

-          Driver changeovers may take place between the 8 to 12 minute mark of each quarterly segment

-          The team with the most number of laps completed in the 40 minutes wins

Team strategy was a gamble between driver order and planning the timing of the driver changeover.  As the karts left the pit lane to take their places on the starting grid, it became apparent that the prevailing strategy was fastest driver first, to gain a lead in the crucial opening laps of the race.

Teams line up to leave the pit lane for the starting grid; driver strategy crucial for race win

At the drop of the green flag, team VIP made a flawless getaway, cementing their lead and gaining an enviable clear run ahead in the first segment.  As the segment progressed, the driver order had more or less remained the same, and so it was all down to pit strategy.  Team 8flo was the first to call in their driver, bringing him into an empty pit lane a little past the 8 minute mark.  Once all the teams had made their driver changes, the 10 karts were spaced all over the track and like Le Mans, it was near impossible to distinguish 1^st from 2^nd or 3^rd without scrutinizing the timing board.

Drivers in the heat of battle: game on!

By the end of segment two, team Audi Singapore had eclipsed the top qualifier in the pits and established themselves as the leader of the race, with their consistently fast laps extending their lead at every turn.  Team VIP fought hard and matched the Audi driver’s pace for pace, maintaining a steady 2^nd place throughout the segment.  But the biggest surprise came from team 8flo, rising to 3^rd place from their qualifying position of 5^th towards the close of the second segment, aided in part by sheer pace and part by an unfortunate pit lane penalty incurred by the race favourite ABT team.

Driver changeovers - always a good time to pose for pictures

In the third and fourth segments, there were relatively few changes in race positions.  ABT Asia continued their immensely dominant run, but hampered by a 1 minute disadvantage, they could only secure 4^th throughout the final half of the race, a lap down from race leader team Audi.  Elsewhere on the track, the teams of Audi, VIP and 8flo were locked in a three-way battle for top honours.

The calm before a storm - 8flo's own driver prepares for the final segment of the race

Following the last driver change, it became clear that under the current circumstances, team Audi would take home the chequered flag, having extended their lead to 40 seconds (almost a whole lap!) over team VIP.  The latter’s 2^nd place however, came under fire from 3^rd place runners 8flo, whose driver was closing in at an average of 2 seconds a lap to team VIP.  The penultimate and final laps were truly nail-biters, as VIPs teammates nervously watched their driver defend his track position.

Closing stages of battle - it's all or nothing now

Yet as the tone sounded signaling the end of 40 minutes and the race, 8flo emerged triumphant, sneaking by VIP in the final lap to take 2^nd by a margin of 2 seconds.  Team Audi was never bested.  Their last driver, who was subsequently crowned fastest man of the race, strung together an incredible 5 consecutive fastest laps to take the championship by 41 seconds.

The fastest man of the race setting a new fastest lap - because he could

The race finished with the following order:

1. 1. Team Audi Singapore
2. 2. Team 8flo
3. 3. Team VIP
4. 4. Team ABT Sportsline Asia
5. 5. Team Volkswagen Group Singapore
6. 6. Team Premium Auto
7. 7. Team AMC
8. 8. Team Torque
9. 9. Team Burn Pavement
10. 10. Team Autovox

Triumphant team Audi Singapore crowned champions of the 2011 ABT Cup; ABT Asia's Wolfgang presents the trophy

For more information on Abt and AutoVox, please visit: