ENDURO KA RACING
What it's like to race in the Enduro Ka Championship.
Back when I was a child, my nan used to have a Ford Ka, and she absolutely loved it. I had a pretty creative imagination as a kid, but I don’t think I ever dreamed a car like that would ever be used as a race car.
Fast forward 20 years and I found myself at Oulton Park in a Ka, surrounded by 30 other Kas, for a five-hour endurance race.
EnduroKa was set up in 2019 by MSV Trackdays. The goal was to create an affordable and accessible form of endurance racing, which in its first year saw a wide variety of drivers – from complete novices to Le Mans winners and BTCC champions – do battle over five-to-12 hour races in Mk1 Kas (built between 2002 and 2008). The cars are mostly standard aside from safety upgrades (roll cage, racing seats and harnesses etc) and a few control parts such as the suspension and brakes, which helps to keep costs down and performance equal.
To keep driving standards high, the regulations require the cars to be in a racing livery so that everyone is motivated to look after their pride and joy out on track. The best-presented Ka (as voted for by the marshals track-side) is then awarded ‘the Dagenham dustbin’ – literally a small golden dustbin – at the end of the meeting.
Race-ready cars go for as little as £6000 and the entry fee for a five-hour race is around £900, which when you split it between a couple of your mates is very reasonable. The series offers a great amount of value for money in terms of the seat time you get, as well as a friendly and fun paddock to be a part of.
Our main reason for taking part was practice. I also race in the MINI CHALLENGE, and our season opener was at Oulton Park just a couple of weeks after the EnduroKa round. As the Graves Motorsport team (which runs our MINI) also competes in the Ka series, it was a great chance to get some seat time and knock off any racing rust we had following lockdown.
I was joined for the race by my MINI teammate Bradley Gravett (son of Robb Gravett, who you Ford fans won’t need reminding won the 1990 BTCC in an RS500.
Robb was also competing in one of the team’s other cars) and GT racer Michael Lyons.
Michael was able to qualify the car third out of 34 entrants, so we were quite optimistic going into the race. Bradley started for us but we made a strategic call to pit just five minutes into the race under the safety car, at which point I hopped in. The plan was for us to each do around an hour-and-a-half, which given the temperature on the day (around 30C) was easier said than done.
The stint itself was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a racetrack. It took me a couple of laps to get into it but once I did, I loved it. With the cars having only 69bhp it’s very difficult to pull away from anyone, so you often find yourself in a big train of cars squabbling for track position. But the racing was still very clean and respectful.
The key is to find a fast car and work with it instead of against it. The lack of power means a slipstream will knock seconds off your lap times, so if you can tow each other around instead of fighting constantly for position it’ll make a big difference by the end of your stint.
This does mean you’ll spend most of your laps inches from the bumper of the car in front, which is a big challenge in its own right. Combine that with the fact that you don’t really need to slow down for corners (the brake is used more for weight transfer to get the nose into the corner instead of slowing down) and you find yourself with racing that is extremely fun and incredibly challenging. And not for the faint of heart.
We fought for the lead early in the race; we were second when I pitted at the end of my stint and Michael managed to lead for a while. But we also abused track limits a bit too much and were therefore penalised by race control. Multiple stop-go penalties pushed us back down the order to 18th, which was a shame but we still had a lot of fun. I also managed the fastest lap for our car in the race, so I at least kept some bragging rights there.
It definitely feels like unfinished business, so hopefully I’ll get the chance to do it again – though the team have suggested using colouring books to practice staying between the lines first!