With Motorist’s resident racer Aiden away on prior commitments, I was quickly arranged as a step-in for Porsche’s 2.4-hour Endurance Karting Challenge 2026. While I am more wanna-be racer than competition licence holder, I wanted to race at KF1 again.
Since its opening in November 2014, KF1 Kranji has been Singapore’s first and only international-standard karting circuit, located at Singapore Turf Club (STC) in Kranji.
Its layout was done by famous F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke, who also played a major role in configuring the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the Singapore Grand Prix F1 Night Race.
The KF1 karting track remains unique for being an extremely technical and fast-paced course despite the small footprint, making it a perfect canvas for drivers young and old to train and hone their skills on home ground, and to perfect their techniques in other international circuits with similar types of corners.
While KF1 continued to be hugely popular with grassroots motorsport players and professional groups, whether for lap times or leisure time, all good things had to come to an end.
Just like cars, recreational locations in land-scarce Singapore have a lifespan.
As the land that STC occupies is considered defunct due to the permanent closure of its horse racing track in 2024, our Government will claim back the land and demolish it for new residential housing.
Bless the KF1 team for their efforts to keep the lease and the lights on for as long as possible, which they only managed to hold on until June 2026.
This year of Porsche’s endurance karting was also poetic for the brand – being the 10th instalment of the 2.4-hours series since 2016, and also Porsche Motorsport’s 75th anniversary.
The curtain-closing event had similar regulations as before, such as Pro and Pro Amateur driver classes, but changed to a counterclockwise circuit direction, so the 2026 race would be a whole new ball game.
Team number seven in Roule Bebe livery with the Motorist driver would compete in the Pro Amateur class, and would ignite the fighting spirit with a pole-position lap time for the class during qualifying.
All three drivers in the team experienced pace-related issues that would dictate the outcome of the match, but with a final stint in the last 25 minutes of the 144-minute race, the team managed to reduce the four-lap deficit from the next team.
Team number seven would still finish last, but in our rush to claw back a position, we earned the pole position award in the Pro Amateur class and also the Most Valuable Player (MVD for “Driver” would seem awkward) for Motorist’s step-in pseudo-racer.
As the awards were given and photos taken, I recounted a single sentence that lingered in my mind when I was taking the last corner for the last time – “I wish I could drive this circuit again”.
But I couldn’t. So goodbye then, KF1 Kranji. Thank you for the motoring memories that we got to enjoy in this grand little circuit.
As for Porsche Singapore, I look forward to their future Singapore-style endurance races. Thanks for keeping the local motorsport flame burning.
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This article was first published in Motorist.
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