endurance 4h · Finale Race⏱ 28 min

The 28-minute Endurance Final at Saintes Karting (700 m circuit) took place on 25 August 2026, bringing together four teams for a tight and demanding race. From start to finish, the battle at the front proved relentlessly close, while the gap to the back of the field grew lap by lap.

TRACK (kart #1) claimed victory by leading the overall standings after 21 laps completed, finishing ahead of JOKER (kart #4) by just 0.267 seconds. It was a photo-finish result that kept the outcome open right to the chequered flag. Both teams completed 21 laps and each made 4 pit stops throughout the race. PF (kart #5) finished third, three laps down, having made 5 pit stops, while SAINTES (kart #3) rounded out the field in fourth, four laps behind the leaders, also on 5 pit stops.

On the lap time side, TRACK posted a best lap of 50.301 s, fractionally slower than JOKER's best of 50.299 s — a difference of just two thousandths. The fastest lap of the entire race was recorded by SAINTES (kart #3) with a time of 13.803 s, a notably different figure that reflects a specific moment in that team's race.

The analysis reveals how closely matched the front two truly were. TRACK led on pure pace with a median race rhythm of 50.493 s, edging JOKER's 50.494 s — a margin of just one thousandth of a second per lap. Consistency was equally matched: both teams recorded an identical lap time standard deviation of 1.47 s, confirming that regularity was not a differentiating factor between first and second place.

Looking at the sole analysed stint (stint 1), both TRACK and JOKER ran 7 laps at an identical median pace of 50.466 s, with the same consistency score of 0.6 s standard deviation. Both teams also experienced the same drop-off in pace, losing 0.19 s per lap as the stint progressed — a natural tyre degradation pattern that was perfectly mirrored across the two leading karts.

With the race so evenly contested on all performance metrics, the 0.267-second final margin in favour of TRACK stands as the only meaningful separator between the top two. Neither pure speed, nor consistency, nor degradation made the difference — making this one of the closest finishes the Saintes Karting circuit has seen.

Key takeaways for teams: The TRACK vs JOKER battle demonstrates that when pace and regularity are virtually identical, every detail counts — track position, pit stop execution, and in-lap management can each account for a fraction of a second that, over 28 minutes, decides a race. Teams targeting a podium at Saintes Karting should also note that pit stop count (4 vs 5) proved a clear differentiator between the top two and the rest of the field.