Hot on the heels of its supplier award from GROUPAUTO, the First Line team has now gone one better with a win in the inaugural CAT aftermarket karting competition.

The three-man team was made up of product manager Craig Saunders, senior product manager Tom Harrison and marketing co-ordinator Jamie Hall. All were consistently quick, with a race average lap time of 58.719 seconds, which translated to a 19.447 second win over the course of the 90 minute race. However, the bragging rights for the fastest lap went to Jamie with a lap of 51.774 seconds.

The event, which the magazine hopes will become a regular fixture on the aftermarket calendar, took place at Daytona Sandown Park and was chosen because it coincided with the MechanEx trade show held at the race course and organised by rival publishing company Hamerville. The event draws a large number of aftermarket businesses and personnel, so was well supported by the trade and resulted in 16 teams lining up on the starting grid.

The evening event was run under floodlights and consisted of four five-minute practice sessions followed by an hour and a half long endurance race, during which each of the teams had to pit at least three times. The First Line team qualified in pole position and lead all the way until lap 63 when a spin dropped them to second. Undaunted, they quickly set about catching the leader and retook the lead with ten minutes of the race to run.

Commenting on the win Jamie said: "We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and although it was just a fun event, karting always seems to bring out the competitive spirit and once behind the wheel, everyone wants to win it."

Perhaps this win demonstrates quite why First Line products are so quick to market and readily available!