The battle for the bragging rights in the CIK Stars of Karting Series presented by Castrol EDGE has heated up following the penultimate round held in Newcastle recently.
Benefiting from Kel Treseder's lead in the Pro Gearbox (KZ2) championship and having young gun Pierce Lehane on top in the Pro Junior (KF3) ranks, the Chris Dell-led CRG team is currently leading the way in the Trans-West Manufacturer's Challenge.
While Dell has been pleased with the team's results so far this year, he is very aware that there is still one round to go and the Remo Luciani-led Kosmic team is only 11 points adrift of CRG in the standings.
“To win the manufacturers challenge would be the most prestigious award for us as a team, it's a sign that shows the effort of the whole team, not just individuals,” said Dell.
“We've got a lot of people that have been working really hard to be able to put us in this position but with one round to go it's certainly going to go down to the wire.
“Over the next few weeks we'll be doing everything possible to provide our drivers with the best possible chance at lifting the trophy aloft at the end of the series.”
Victory in all four Pro Light (KF1) rounds held so far in 2011 has helped elevate the Kosmic team to second place in the standings ahead of last year's champions, Tony Kart.
The battle for third, fourth and fifth place in the challenge will be close with the Greg Smith-led Tony Kart team narrowly ahead of Top Kart and Exprit in the standings.
Based on the top three point scoring Pro drivers from each round, the industry battle is extremely tight and will go down to wire in the final round.
Trans-West Manufacturers Challenge
Points after round 4 of 5
CRG – 781 points
Kosmic – 770
Tony Kart – 653
Top Kart – 635
Exprit – 617
DR Kart – 569
Arrow – 547
Intrepid – 530
BRM – 490
FA Kart – 365
Gillard – 336
Lenzo Kart – 269
MS Kart – 244
PCR – 91
Energy Kart – 71