N-35 ST

Our first race of the day saw Jacob Conellan take overall victory by a second and a half, despite him being a heavyweight. His only competition in class for this round was Xiaofeng Yang, who was not quite able to match the pace of Jacob, finishing quite a few overall positions down. As for the lightweights, Baxter Rawlings took victory in second overall, finishing a second ahead of Ned Morris in second. Some entertaining racing for third ended in disaster for Tom Duffy and Neil Hampson, both of whom spun due to a racing incident at turn 10. Still, Tom was able to secure third.

Ned Morris and Baxter Rawlings met again in the second heat, though this time Ned was able to get the better of Baxter on this occasion, finishing a second and a half ahead of Baxter. It was quite an entertaining race, and Neil Hampson had reason to be happy as well as he was able to climb up to third position. His promising pace in the first race obviously was not able to pay off, but that did not deter him heading into the second. Jacob Conellan won the heavyweight class once again in fourth overall, with Xiaofeng Yang managing to close the gap slightly, a couple of positions behind.

The N-35 final saw dominance from Neil Hampson, who consolidated his promising pace from the rest of the round to take a surprise victory. The lightweight runner-up was Baxter Rawlings, though he was kept busy by third placed Toby Mawdsely throughout the race. However, they were split from Neil by a very high-flying heavyweight winner in Jacob Connellan, who finished in second overall. His runner-up in the heavyweights, Xiaofeng Yang, was constantly improving his pace throughout the day behind.

DMAX-GT

As ever, the DMAX-GT race was hotly contested. This time their first heat was between Ben Smiles and Josh Gora, an entertaining battle that ended up with Ben Smiles winning by just five tenths of a second. There was also a battle for third, overall, where Jacob Holley just about got the better of Stuart Corr by about three tenths of a second. Speaking of, it was Stuart who won in the heavyweights, a few overall places ahead of Richard Lavender in second. Greg Chapman was the third-placed heavyweight driver.

Into the second race of the day, Ben Smiles dominated to make it two from two, eight seconds or so ahead of Ben Tomkinson Gray. Ben was embroiled in a battle throughout the race with a very promising Josh Gora, who would’ve been very happy to make it two consecutive top three finishes in the round. Richard Lavender took the heavyweight victory in the third overall, only about a second and a half ahead of Greg Chapman. Chris Swannell finished in third, having a good battle with the midfield.

Heading into the final, Ben Tomkinson-Gray managed to finally get the better of Ben Smiles, though in Smiles’ defence he was hit with a problem that was out of his control, stopping any potential counter attack after Tomkinson-Gray took the lead. In second was Jason Hately, a fantastic drive for the N-35 graduate finishing only two seconds behind. Josh Gora rounded out a really strong round performance in third. As for the heavyweights, Greg Chapman took charge in an entertaining battle with Richard Lavender, who himself would have been very happy with second (taking the most points from the round). Stuart Corr was able to finish in third, another excellent drive from his perspective.

InKart

Round 2 of InKart at Daytona Tamworth would take place on a mild Sunday morning, with the track in perfect condition for some early season racing. Once again, we had a healthy attendance with both grids being made up of both juniors and cadets.

The first heat of the day was won by Zayn Perry, though only after an ‘advantage by contact’ penalty on Tom Justice from turn seven was overturned on appeal, with both drivers involved admitting that there was no call to be made. Justice was able to recover to second, finishing five seconds off the leader. Harvey Preen drove a very tidy race, finishing third. As for the cadets, there was an entertaining battle between Ethan Guest, Zachary Smith and Micah Hunte-Nelson, which saw Ethan take victory by just three tenths of a second to Zachary Smith, with Zachary only being two tenths of a second ahead of Micah.

Next, group two went out for their first heat, and Olivier Guintoli took a very dominant victory ahead of Rhys Kings. Rhys was not particularly slow, lapping in the low 1:06’s, but it was not enough to stop the fifteen second margin that Olivier was able to build. In third was Alex Zajdowicz, only just getting the better of Kodi Francis-Brown by around two tenths of a second. In the cadets, Harry Fitch was able to get the better of second-placed Ted Hitchman. Whilst the gap was about three seconds, this does not do justice to the battle that the two drivers had throughout the race. They were joined in the top three by another driver within contention for the win at one point, Jack Charles-Bailey, who ended up finishing third despite definitely having the pace to take victory.

Zayn Perry was to make it two from two in the third heat of the day, this time winning by nine seconds to Harvey Preen. Harvey was not exactly having a lonely time in second, where he was forced to defend quite hard from Tom Justice at stages in the race. As it happened, Tom never quite felt he had that extra bit of pace to get past Harvey and so had to settle for third in the heat, narrowly missing out on the A Final. For the cadets, Ethan Guest took his second win of the day also, though was once again forced to defend hard from Zachary Smith. This time the winning margin was only one tenth of a second. Micah Hunte-Nelson would have finished third, but he was given a one place penalty due to an aggressive block at turn 2 against Joseph Smith, who inherited that position.

The final heat race of the day saw Olivier Guintoli become the third driver to make it two wins from two heats, this time by three seconds. His runner-up was a much improved driver from the first heat, Alex Zajdowicz, who showed very impressive pace this time around to finish second. Rhys Kings wasn’t too far behind in third, just about nine tenths of a second off of the runner-up. Harry Fitch was another driver who was able to make an impressive double, winning by nine seconds. Clark Naylor finished in a very lofty second place, something that would do a lot to help him qualify for the A final (though he’d have to wait to find out if he could sneak through). Ted Hitchman was assured of his qualification though, finishing strongly in third.

Heading into the finals, Tom Justice was probably quite frustrated with not being able to sneak himself into the A final. However, he would make up for it by taking an emphatic victory of over two seconds ahead of Harvey Preen in the B final. Harvey was never really able to challenge Tom, who’s gap was even larger before a spin (that he had no problem recovering from). Preen’s main challenger was Alex Zajdowicz, who was himself ahead of fourth by a massive fifteen seconds. In the cadet class, Thomas Baxter took a hard-fought victory ahead of Henry Gordon, but only by five tenths of a second. Jack Charles-Bailey continued an impressive run of B final victories in third.

The final race of the day was the A final, and it proved to be a very interesting contest. Zayn Perry took victory on track, but was hit with a 3-place position penalty due to an ‘advantage by contact’ at the hairpin, whilst he was battling to keep the lead through back marker traffic. This demoted him into third, and promoted Olivier Guintoli into victory lane - only actually being denied a sweep by a fastest lap point which went the way of Zayn. Rhys Kings drove very solidly to make up the rest of the podium. As for the cadets, Ethan Guest and Ted Hitchman were practically inseparable throughout - though it was Ethan who just about stole victory in the closing stages. Harry Fitch completed his fantastic round in third, making it a very healthy haul of points which would see him shoot up the championship order in this early stage.

Round 2 provided some very entertaining racing, and the drivers only have to wait another week to do it all again, round 3 being on the 4th February.