Two promising young Spanish ladies karters shone in the first edition of the 6 CKS Hours as members of the 100% KART team.
For the first time ever, the karting track of Saludes de Castroponce, Spain, hosted a National Endurance karting race, the 6 CKS Hours.
Some of the best endurance karting teams in Spain gathered to the small town in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, to put on a show with their young emerging talents in this challenging race.
One of the drivers lined-up to represent the 100% KART team was young lady Maria De Pablos. Born in 2003 in Madrid, Maria de Pablos is among the most interesting upcoming profiles of the Spanish karting scene.
Before joining the 100x100 KART team, Maria was crowned in 2016 Junior Karting Champion of Cantabria, at the very young age of thirteen.
She grew up with the dream of following in the footsteps of his biggest idol, legendary six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton. The two gold stars on her blue and pink helmet are in fact a tribute to the British driver.
Maria has already collected many experiences in her young karting career and the 6 hours Endurance race of Castroponce wasn't her first long race either: earlier this year she entered the 30 hours of Campillos, the 24H of Sevilla, the 24H of AS Pontes, and the 12 hours of Kartpetania, which ended with a second place finish.
During 2019, she mainly competed in her first CMYCMK, the " Campeonato Madrileno y Castellano De Karting", which Maria completed with an impressive third position in the final championship standings.
The 100% Kart arrived to the Castroponce Karting track with two teams of four drivers.
The weekend started in the best possible way for the squad, as the team ended the Friday free practice sessions with the best category laptimes, plus winning the Facebook likes contest.
As for free practice, also the qualifying session marked another dominant performance by the 100% Kart team, which claimed P1 and P2.
"We are very happy about the result and ready to start the race of 6 hours endurance!"- said Maria De Pablos.
The teams went into the opening two hours with great race rhythm, settling in first and second position until misfortunes hit the crew in a couple of circumstances.
"Unluckily, the chain of our kart broke after I was going into my stint, so we lost any chance of winning, finding us 17 laps below" - said Maria.
Despite the difficulties encountered, the Spanish lady completed some very consistent personal stint.
"My stint was a bit hard as the kart had problems, but I had great fun with it"- she commented afterwards.
But De Pablos wasn't the only female member of the 100% KART team in Castroponce: one more talented Spanish lady took part in the 6 hours endurance race and her name is Ana Barreras Barbero.
Born with motorsport in her blood, Ana's father was Spanish rally champion in 1985. She immediately proved to have the potential to continue her family's tradition when she was able to conquer a podium spot on the Endurance Spanish championship.
Ana Barreras Barbero competed in the Copa Kobe throughout 2018 and 2019 seasons, racing the small yet challenging touring cars. This year, she also joined the 100% KART team to compete in the 24 hours of As Pontes, the 12H of Kartpetania and the 24 hours Hispalenses.
"I'm back with the team to race in this 6 hours of Castroponce, a track that involves having a good driving flow to be fast and to be constistent to result in good laps"- said Ana Barreras Barbero.
Ana got behind the wheel for the last race stint and crossed the finish line bringing home a positive result for her team, as she was coplimented by friend and teammate Maria:
"Ana Barresas also did an amazing race, even despite the problems we had. Finally, before a long time of hard work, my other team mates finalized P2 and our team P6."
"We had an amazing time during the race and thanks to that great organization of karting Castroponce."
"My team Rivas-100% KART finalized again on a podium." - were Maria's words after the last race of the 2019 season.
Ana Barreras was author of a very solid performance and was aware of the crucial role she had in the final stages: "I was the last one of the team to get into the kart, which made me have a great responsibility with my team, after all the problems. I was on track doing great lap times, I didn't even notice my arms but I had a strong mentality until the end of it."
"Being in a team like 100% KART makes you progress not only as a driver, also as a person."
Even though this 6 hours karting endurance race brings to a closure the 2019 season, we are already looking forward to follow the progresses of two of the potential upcoming stars of Spanish motor racing.
