25h of Slovakia · Final Race⏱ 20 min

The Final endurance race at Slovak Karting Center in Orechová Potôň, held on 26 September 2026 over 20 minutes on the 1,172-metre V1 layout, brought together no fewer than 70 drivers for a fiercely contested sprint-endurance showdown. When the chequered flag fell, it was Kuba Piechulski (kart #10) who took the victory with 164 laps completed, edging out Denys Tantsiura (kart #24) by 14.102 seconds after an identical lap count. Ian Lepelaar (kart #16) completed the podium, one lap behind the top two, at 21.124 seconds.

The top nine finishers all made 2 pit stops, reflecting a broadly uniform pit strategy at the front of the field. Joey Lühring (4th) and Konstantin Kirchev (5th) rounded out the top five, with a tight cluster of Kristof Kokai (6th), Szymon Węgrzyn (7th), Carlo Arceci (8th) and Maxim Geronimus (9th) all finishing within two seconds of one another on 163 laps.

The fastest lap of the race was set by Kuba Piechulski with a time of 1:09.544, adding an individual benchmark to his overall victory. The top performers in terms of outright single-lap pace were closely matched: Tantsiura posted 1:09.600, Lepelaar 1:09.681, and Lühring 1:09.618, underlining just how tight the field was across one flying lap.

The pace analysis reveals some compelling contrasts between on-track speed and final classification. Nicolo Soffiati (kart #2, 15th overall) recorded the best pure race rhythm of any driver in the field, with a median lap time of 1:10.012 — yet finished outside the top 14. His three pit stops compared to two for most rivals at the front proved costly in terms of track position. Tymofii Kushniruk (kart #8, 36th overall) was equally eye-catching: ranked 5th by pure pace, he crossed the line well outside the top 35, illustrating how pit-stop timing can override raw speed in this format.

On the flip side, Maxim Geronimus (kart #20) is the race's clearest strategic beneficiary: ranked only 40th by pure rhythm, he converted that modest pace into a 9th-place finish, making his two pit stops count where it mattered most.

In terms of consistency, Ian Lepelaar stood out with the lowest standard deviation of the analysed front-runners at 0.13 seconds, making him the most metronomic driver of the race. Szymon Węgrzyn, by contrast, showed a standard deviation of 0.40 seconds — the highest among the top nine — suggesting a less regular stint despite a solid 7th-place result. No significant late-stint pace degradation was identified across the field.

Key takeaways for teams: On a 20-minute race at Slovak Karting Center, the two-stop strategy proved dominant at the front — all top nine finishers adopted it. However, pure pace is far from the only differentiator: Soffiati and Kushniruk demonstrated that an extra pit stop, however brief, can cost a driver many positions regardless of lap time. Consistency lap-to-lap was the common thread among the podium finishers, with Lepelaar's 0.13 s standard deviation setting the benchmark. Teams aiming to convert speed into results must balance pit-stop count and track position with the same rigour as raw pace.