DIMANCHE OPEN KART RELAIS · ENDURANCE Race

Twenty teams lined up for the endurance race held on 18 October 2026 at Karting Circuit Paul Ricard (964 m), one of the most iconic karting venues in the south of France. With karts ranging from three to five drivers, the grid offered a wide variety of strategies and pace profiles across the full race distance.

La Bonneaude (5) took the overall victory on kart #11, completing 40 laps and crossing the finish line a full lap ahead of second place. Their winning margin of one lap over Les Pimpims (4) — who also completed 40 laps — reflects a crucial timing advantage accumulated throughout the race. La Bonneaude also set the fastest lap of the entire race: 1:03.261, and posted the best median pace (1:04.172), ranking first in pure race rhythm. Their single relayed stint showed a degradation of 0.54 s/lap towards the end, which remained well managed across their 5 pit stops.

Les Pimpims (4) were the closest challengers, matching the 40-lap tally and finishing just one lap adrift. With a median pace of 1:04.936 — second best in the field — and a remarkable consistency of ±1.22 s, they were arguably the most disciplined team on track. Notably, their sole analysed stint showed an improving tendency of 0.43 s/lap, suggesting strong driver management over their 4 pit stops.

Positions 3 through 6 all finished on 38 laps, making the gaps within this group particularly tight. LM77 (5) claimed third, two laps down on the leader, despite ranking only 7th in pure pace — a strong strategic result. Arthur dans le Rétro (5) finished fourth with the second-fastest lap of the race (1:03.354) and the 3rd-best median pace (1:05.083), yet couldn't convert that speed into a higher position. PDF Strada (5), sixth overall, stood out as the most consistent team of the race with a standard deviation of just 0.99 s and the 4th-best median pace (1:05.553), improving by 0.24 s/lap through their stint.

A noteworthy performance came from Les Bosses (3), who finished 13th overall despite holding the 5th-best pure pace in the field — the largest gap between rhythm ranking and final classification. On the opposite end, Les Kartoucheurs (5) finished 7th while ranking only 15th in pace, illustrating how strategy and pit stop management can compensate for a lack of raw speed at Karting Paul Ricard.

FLA Racing Team (3) and Team 6 (4) had difficult races, completing only 10 and 7 laps respectively. Team BB (4) recorded the steepest pace degradation of the field, losing 1.82 s/lap within their first stint. Scuderia Panzani (5) made the most pit stops of any team (6 passages), finishing 15th on 34 laps.

Key takeaways for teams: La Bonneaude demonstrated that combining the best raw pace with effective pit stop management (5 stops) is the winning formula at Paul Ricard. PDF Strada showed that outstanding consistency (±0.99 s) can compensate for minor pace deficits. Teams with strong pace like Arthur dans le Rétro and Les Bosses left points on the table, suggesting that managing pit stop timing and stint length may have been decisive factors on this 964 m circuit.