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Milton Keynes
SuperChamps
In Round 6 of Daytona Milton Keynes' SuperChamps, rain-soaked conditions heightened the intensity of the competition, which took place in its' Grand Prix format. Despite a weight disadvantage, Justin Elliott dominated the SODI qualifying, securing pole position with a one-second lead over Daniel Varlan, while Harry Asher claimed third on the grid.
Elliott continued his strong performance in the Sprint race, narrowly clinching victory over Asher, with Varlan securing third place.
Elliott continued his impressive performance in the Sprint Race, narrowly winning over Asher, with Varlan in third. However, the final race brought even more excitement as Asher, starting from pole, held off Elliott's determined pursuit to win by a mere two tenths of a second. Despite this, Elliott still secured victory in the Heavyweights class. Benjamin Dehavillande finished third in the Lightweight category, taking his first podium in SuperChamps.
DMAX Lightweight
Sandown SuperChamps Champion Karlis Elmanis showcased his wet weather expertise in qualifying, securing pole position with an impressive lead of 1.2 seconds over Daytona regulars James King and Lee Schnitzler.
In the Sprint race, Lee Schnitzler asserted his dominance, streaking to victory with an impressive six-second lead over James King and Jenson Jowett. Despite his qualifying success, Karlis Elmanis faced setbacks, finishing fourth after a couple of spins.
With the final race underway, Karlis Elmanis started from pole position, fueled by his determination to redeem himself after the challenges of the sprint race. However, his aspirations took a hit as he spun out, relinquishing the lead in a chaotic race marked by numerous incidents. Ethan Pritchard briefly seized the lead but was later black flagged, along with James King, for multiple track limit infringements. This turn of events gifted the win back to Elmanis, with Jenson Jowett securing second place and championship leader James Bettison making a remarkable recovery to claim third.
DMAX Heavyweight
Ashley Mayston-King asserted his dominance in qualifying, claiming pole position with an impressive lead of six tenths over Myles Bate and Scott Woosey. Meanwhile, championship leader Justin Elliott faced a setback, starting down in 11th position after a challenging qualifying session.
Mayston-King continued his strong performance in the sprint race, driving away from the pack to build a substantial lead of over seven seconds. However, a late spin in the race's final stages left him under intense pressure from Scott Woosey. Despite the challenge, Mayston-King held his nerve, crossing the finish line just ahead of Woosey, with Lee Witney securing a respectable third place.
As the track continued to dry, the lap times tumbled, presenting a whole new challenge for the drivers in the final race. Lee Witney emerged as the master of the conditions, claiming victory with an impressive lead of eight seconds. Mayston-King secured his best-ever result with a second-place finish however a bittersweet moment due to the pace shown in the earlier race. Justin Elliott staged a remarkable comeback, finishing third after his disappointing start in qualifying, limiting the damage to his championship lead.
SuperChamps DUOs
The second round of Superchamps Duos brought together 12 teams for a thrilling battle on the track.
As the track gradually dried during qualifying, the competition intensified with ever-changing conditions. Karlis Elmanis of Open Throttle seized pole position, edging out James King and Lee Schnitzler of K.B.R. 7, as well as Lee Witney of CI Group.
At the start of the race, K.B.R. 7 surged into the lead with CI Group close behind. However, an early full-course caution prompted many teams to execute their mandatory driver swaps in a strategic bid to gain precious time.
During the pitstop phase, Open Throttle performed a flawless stop, propelling them into the lead. Round 1 winner Sebastian Musicka of K.B.R. 1 also capitalised on the pitstops to gain ground, setting the stage for a thrilling battle in the latter stages of the race.
As the race unfolded, CI Group encountered late drama as Lee Witney was forced to retire due to a kart issue, relinquishing third place. Sebastian Musicka made the most of on the opportunity, securing the final podium position for K.B.R. 1.
In a display of skill and strategy, Open Throttle maintained their lead to clinch the race win, crossing the finish line ahead of a determined K.B.R. 7 in second place. Despite the late drama, K.B.R. 1 managed to secure a podium finish, adding to the excitement of the event.
Tamworth
SuperChamps
Round 6 of Superchamps at Daytona Tamworth took place on one of the more pleasant spring afternoons, though as has been a running theme in the season threats of rain later in the day promised to make it quite tricky for the drivers.
N-35 ST
The track was in absolutely optimal condition heading into the first race of the day for the N-35 ST fleet, and we possibly saw the fastest race on lap times ever in N-35 SuperChamps since the fleet was introduced to Tamworth last summer. The entire top five lapped within the 1:02 mark - with eventual winner Neil Hampson getting within about half a second of the open session lap record with his best lap in the race, and still did not get the fastest lap of the race. Surprisingly, his pace was only able to see him win by about a tenth of a second, ahead of Baxter Rawlings. Baxter was frustrated in the race as despite looking very good to make a move on Neil, he had a lot of pressure from Nikodem Benonski behind and so couldn’t finally commit to a move. Regarding the heavyweight class, there was another dominant performance from Jacob Connellan who went fourth overall in his winning run, right on pace with the top three.
Such impressive pace would continue into the second heat, where winner Ned Morris managed to sneak into the 1:01s - within literal tenths of the lap record. He was three tenths of a second ahead of Baxter Rawlings, who was having an excellent round up to this point and went even faster than Ned with a 1:01.5. They were joined in the overall top three by heavyweight driver Jacob Connellan, who was a bit of a way back on the track but very competitive on pace. Neil Hampson managed to stay ahead of Nikodem Benonski to finish in third for the lightweight class.
A threat of rain from earlier in the day turned into reality heading into the final, which would take place under the floodlights. Proving yet again that he is excellent in the rain, Jacob Connellan took a dominant victory of about six seconds in both the overall and, of course, the heavyweights as well. Ned Morris finished in second, though really struggled to keep Nikodem Benonski behind, who had been really fast all day. Eventually Ned was able to hold firm though, and took a really well-earned victory. Baxter Rawlings topped off his impressive round by finishing in third, showing character to recover after spinning out in the early stages.
DMAX-GT
Another very healthy grid took to the track in the DMAX-GT class, and their first race saw another really good performance from Ben Smiles - who won by two and a half seconds despite not starting on the front row of the grid. Jacob Holley was the runner-up, finding himself in a battle with Josh Gora and Benjamin Tomkinson-Gray. The three of them were battling for much of the latter stages of the race, changing positions regularly. Jacob seized on an opportunity when he was fourth to squeeze into second, with Josh Gora managing to narrowly hold onto third. In the heavyweight class, Stuart Corr took a relatively easy victory of about two seconds, but was certainly aided by the fact that he got a kart (Tom Duffy) in between himself and runner-up Richard Lavender. Richard had some mighty pace in the race, getting a modest but important gap to third-placed Greg Chapman - the three drivers all battling for the championship in the late stages of the season.
Ben Smiles was not quite able to continue his winning ways into the second heat race of the day, thanks to an unbelievable defensive display from Josh Gora. Ben did what he could throughout the race, but was simply not able to get ahead of the impressive young driver, who is still relatively new to DMAX karts. Jack Middleton impressed in this particular heat, managing to find his way up into third - forcing his way through on a strong Richard Lavender. Richard was the victor in the heavyweight class, with a fourth overall. Stuart Corr and Greg Chapman were second and third in the heavyweights, the two of them quite a few overall positions behind their championship rival - a testament to how much pace Richard had in this heat.
Our last DMAX race of the day saw a return to the top for Ben Smiles, who would extend his championship lead with a victory by almost ten seconds to Josh Gora. Josh could be pretty proud of his work in the round though, getting two top-threes and a win throughout the course of the day - a pretty decent haul of championship points in his effort to consolidate a championship podium spot at the end of the season. Jack Middleton continued his run in third, though he did not find it easy to stay ahead of a very quick Tom Duffy. As for the heavyweights, Richard Lavender found himself winning in fine style, building a crucial gap to Stuart Corr in second. They were joined on the podium, as they often have been this season, by Greg Chapman.
Thursday Night League (14.03.2024)
It was a pretty mild Thursday night at Tamworth ahead of the latest round of Thursday Night League, where two very competitive grids got ready to do battle over the course of a twenty minute race.
N-35 ST
In qualifying, there was an interesting battle for pole position in the wet between two proven drivers around Tamworth. Blake Southan’s 1:22.464 was enough to get him pole by just five tenths of a second to Jacob Conellan in second. They would be joined in the top three by Thomas Fox, though Thomas only got into his position on row two by one thousandth of a second, Maxwell Williams being the driver that close behind in fourth.
It was a very interesting race in challenging conditions for all of the drivers, with Thomas Fox possibly being the surprise package of the lot. This was the first time he’s raced this season, and he put on a very good showing by getting past Jacob Connellan and challenging for the lead. Jacob was settled in third, knowing that it was a valuable fifteen points for his championship chances. Thomas was really strong throughout the race, but came nine tenths of a second short against eventual race winner Blake Southan, who showed good character to win under that kind of pressure.
DMAX-GT
It’s not easy to jump straight into a DMAX after spending half an hour battling for the win in an N-35, but Thomas Fox had no issue with adjusting - taking pole in qualifying for the DMAX race straight after he’d finished his N35 round. He was very far in front as well, a second faster than Max Housley - who joined him on row one. The next four or so runners were very close together, with Mark Whitbread one tenth of a second down on Max in third, but only a tenth of a second ahead of fourth-placed Tom Duffy.
With pace like that shown in qualifying, it is not surprising that Thomas Fox managed to get nearly thirty seconds on the entire field in a grand-slam victory (his fastest lap two seconds faster than anyone else) on series debut. His runner-up was Richard Lavender, who had an entertaining race in his own right to climb all the way up into second. He had to show pretty good resolve to keep himself ahead of Tom Duffy, who’s name has continually popped up in this week’s writeups - a driver clearly in very good form.
Sandown Park
Junior Sprint League
For Junior Sprint League this round we had Ellis McKenzie lining up in pole position. During the race, he took no mercy either. leading every single lap. On average, McKenzie was lapping 1.4 seconds ahead of the battle for second place between between Nicolai Eidsgaard and Ollie Peters. These 2 drivers had a very good battle for the duratin of the race. Costantly swapping positions, Eidsgaard and Peters were right on each other's heels before crossing the line 33.6 seconds after Ellis McKenzie. Ultimately it was Nicolai Eidsgaard that won the battle for second place, leaving Ollie Peters in third.
Harry Pickles had a good race, despite starting sixth place on the grid, he managed to weave his way through the field and finished in a strong fourth position. Fifth place went to Solomon Adeniji who managed to get up to fourth place for periods of the race, yet eventualy lost the position to Harry in a great battle.
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