Uçanzii Fly Away at Autodrom

Round 2 of the Istanbul Sportif Karting Endurance Championship (Prokart) was held on Sunday 20 August at the Istanbul Autodrom circuit.

Organised by the Istanbul Karting and Automobile Club, abbreviated as İKOK, the event was run as two stages per round, with no refuelling between stages. With each stage lasting 150 minutes non-stop and a single 60-second pit stop rule in force, team strategy took on added importance. For the second stage, the teams lined up in reverse order of the standings. Having struggled for lap times in practice, the Deniz Yıldızı team chose to finish last in qualifying so they could start from the first pocket in Stage 2.
After qualifying, the grid order was Uçanzii? , Efsaneler, Chronos Racing, TKŞ Power, ALFA, Çoban Yıldızı, Deniz Yıldızı, while the Borakart and Gama teams did not start this race.
The circuit was run in the opposite direction to the previous race. The first corner is a 90-degree turn, and the karts bouncing on the surface at the braking point added to the excitement of the start. When the race got under way, Uçanzii driver Orçun, starting from the first pocket, held the lead and finished the first lap and every lap after it in front. With a lap time of 41.755 seconds, Orçun took the Best Time point and the winner's point for the team. By the end of the first hour, before the pit stops, the team was lapping second-placed Efsaneler. With the winner seemingly decided after the first hour, the other teams turned their attention to second place and shaped their strategies accordingly. TKŞ Power ran second, Chronos third and Deniz Yıldızı fourth, until TKŞ Power driver Mehmet Yaman made a mistake, spun and lost the position. As the final pit stops approached, Chronos was second and Deniz Yıldızı third, 14 seconds apart. With its final pit stop strategy, Deniz Yıldızı gained 17 seconds and rejoined the track ahead of Chronos. With the other teams' positions settled, all eyes turned to the fight between these two. Entering the final five minutes, Deniz Yıldızı was still ahead with Chronos right behind. Before the last corner, Chronos attacked and pulled alongside Deniz Yıldızı. At that moment, Chronos saw the kart ahead spin and managed to avoid it, but that kart ended up right in front of Deniz Yıldızı. After the contact, Deniz Yıldızı retired with axle damage and finished the stage last.
For Stage 2, the teams took their places in reverse order of the standings. Deniz Yıldızı wanted to use the advantage of starting from the first pocket to make up for its loss in the first stage. Deniz Yıldızı made a very good start and held the lead through the first three corners, but a braking problem dropped the team to last. Since pitting would have cost too much time, they decided to continue the entire race in that condition. With a steady climb, they had risen to second by the time the first pit stops began. Uçanzii were again unstoppable, flying with a lap time of 41.406 seconds and pulling 1.059 seconds clear of their nearest rival. In the second half of the race, problems for several teams kept the order constantly changing. There was a fierce battle among the teams behind the leader.

Deniz Yıldızı were aiming for the win and TKŞ Power for second. Chronos ran right behind them, but were wary of ALFA immediately behind. Çoban Yıldızı fell away from the race with problems, and Efsaneler with a wrong strategy. Deniz Yıldızı finished the race second, TKŞ Power third, Chronos fourth, ALFA fifth, Çoban Yıldızı sixth and Efsaneler seventh. However, after the penalties handed to the teams, Deniz Yıldızı ended up finishing Stage 2 in first place.

Prokart BPC Round 2 Results
1. UÇANZİİ?
2. CHORONOS RACING
3. DENİZ YILDIZI
4. TKŞ POWER
5. EFSANELER
6. ÇOBAN YILDIZI
7. ALFA EEKT