“Max is gonna rip my head off. Someone with a kart, please help me.”
– Pol Tarrés

Pol Tarrés figured he and his 99 comrades would get stomped in Wednesday’s Max vs. 100 challenge. That was exactly what happened, but he actually held his own for much of the day. By the time he was eliminated, he had survived nine of 14 laps and finished fifth.

The race was much different from his usual forays on a Yamaha Ténéré. He is mainly used to traversing the desert in rally raids like the Africa Eco Race and hard enduros such as Erzbergrodeo and Romaniacs, all of which require significantly different skillsets from driving around Silverstone in a go-kart. That’s not to say he isn’t familiar with four-wheeled racing as he’s also been dabbling in the Catalan rally championship since 2023.

Still, he felt like a fish out of water as he strapped into the kart. Of particular concern to Tarrés was that he’s much larger and heavier than everyone else since enduro and rally both require vastly different physical fitness from pavement circuit racers, weighing in at 93 kilograms (205.03 pounds). By comparison, Max Verstappen is one of the heaviest drivers on the F1 grid but is only 74 kg (163.14 lb).

That’s why he was surprised when he ended up qualifying second for the race. Jacky Martens, a Dutch journalist, started on pole.

The challenge was straightforward enough. Verstappen had 30 laps to pass all 100 karts in front of him, and the latter were allowed to take a joker lap—a Chucky Lap, as it’s called here—in which they could cut a corner and save time. The F1 champ could also do the same once Lap 16 began. Anyone he overtook was immediately removed from the race.

Even with 98 cars between him and Verstappen, Tarrés couldn’t afford to take it easy since everyone else wanted to avoid elimination. This became apparent when much of the field stacked up in the first turn and Verstappen casually weaved through, gaining 20 spots almost immediately before the caution flag was flown.

Tarrés was shuffled back on the restart down to eighth, but stayed in the top ten.

“They threw out a yellow flag that didn’t help because we were up front, and from then on I got hit a few times,” he explained. “I was pushed off the track a bit. For a big guy like me weighing 90 kilos, it was hard to make up ground.”

Verstappen cracked the top 15 by Lap 5, while Tarrés was able to get back up to fourth. As Lap 7 began, Verstappen was already knocking on the top five. A rightly terrified Paky TWC fruitlessly begged Verstappen to not pass him for fifth, after which he set his sights on Tarrés.

Race Control gave the top four another joker as extra help, but it came too late to save Tarrés. Verstappen caught up to him at the end of Lap 8 before making his move on the inside in Turn 1. Tarrés tried to respond by ducking inside himself but Verstappen had already cleared him for the spot, eliminating him after nine laps.

Martens, content creator Zac Alsop (himself no stranger to extreme motorcycling as he’s done the Impossible Hill Climb in Belgium), and Red Bull Powertrains engineer Lewis Osler were the last ones standing, driving together in a pack as they tried to mitigate the rapidly decreasing margin between themselves and Verstappen. The joker laps assuaged the situation somewhat, but Verstappen reached them by Lap 14.

Verstappen got by Martens and Alsop in one go before sniping Osler in a three-wide pass. Martens tried a last-ditch move on the inside that failed, but it was enough to get him the runner-up spot in the final order ahead of Alsop, Osler, and Tarrés.

“We battled it out a bit with Max, which was actually really cool, and we had an amazing experience,” Tarrés commented. “Let’s see if they organize a Max vs. 1000 race and we’ll be back.”

Unfortunately, Verstappen has zero interest in raids like the Dakar Rally so Tarrés won’t get a chance to beat him in his main domain.

Featured image credit: ESPN App / Disney+