Junior Sprint League: Championship Winners

SANDOWN PARK

RESULTS - SANDOWN PARK

The Largest Grid of the season marked the final round of this groundbreaking championship. Once again, the format of young drivers in adult karts delivered an exciting race on a circuit which evolved as the sun heated the tarmac throughout. With just 2 points splitting the top two drivers and three drivers sharing the same overall total going into the race, it was to be as hotly contested as the InKart Championship earlier in the day.

Qualifying was a close-run affair with Jamie Warner taking Pole Position by just 3 hundredths of a second! Second on the grid, Jack Harrison wasn’t a great deal further ahead of David Szucs Farkas in third. The Top ten drivers separated by less than a second.

Jamie controlled the race from the front, ultimately leading Jack across the race distance to take the win. Hard-fought battles between Nicolai Eidsgaard, David Szucs Farkas, Ollie Peters and Harrison Bishop raged on throughout the full 20-minute race distance.

Ultimately Jamie and Nicolai’s performances on the day proved to be crucial to their championship standings and it was Jamie Warner who took home the Championship Trophy, Nicolai securing Runner Up by just 2 points from Oliver Bush in 3^rd Overall.

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MILTON KEYNES

RESULTS - MILTON KEYNES

Blake Southan joined the Csepreghi twins in Junior Sprint League as was expected to be their main challenge for the season. However, neither of the three won round 1. The ever improving Callum Franklin stormed to victory ahead of Southan and Jacob Csepreghi. Franklin had a fantastic round 2, securing 2nd place along with the fastest lap. Unfortunately for Callum, his championship lead ended there as Blake Southan found some serious speed, winning the remaining seven rounds of the season, six of them with the fastest lap. But while Blake stormed to a Junior Sprint League championship win, the fight for second was still on between the Csepreghi twins and Callum Franklin.

Jacob Csepreghi was second in the championship, 7 points ahead of Callum, with Charlie a further 2 points behind. The situation with the drop scores was such that, even if Jacob was to DNF, Callum would have to finish 2nd, or 3rd with the fastest lap, to jump ahead in the championship. With Blake Southan looking set to win the final race of the year, Jacob just needed to finish 6th or better to hold on to 2nd place.

As expected, Blake stormed off into the distance, leaving the three others to fight for 2nd. It didn’t take long for the drama to unfold. Jacob Csepreghi was in 2nd defending from Callum in 3rd, until one lap Callum came around in 2nd and Jacob was nowhere to be seen. Everyone’s suspicions of an incident was confirmed a lap later when Callum was given a 3 place penalty, ending his chances of taking 2nd in the championship and demoting him behind Charlie Csepreghi as well. Callum’s only hope was to overtake Charlie and pray that the fast paced Alfie O’Brien would be able to overtake him as well. Sadly for Callum, he couldn’t find a way past Charlie and was eventually overtaken by Alfie as well, confirming his 4th place finish in the championship. Jacob Csepreghi took 2nd by 2 points ahead of Charlie, with Callum Franklin a further 3 points behind.

 

Junior Sprint League Driver of the Season - Blake Southan

I am aware that some consider it “boring” to select the champion as the driver of the season. However, having won 8 of the 9 rounds, Blake is fully deserving of this title. He drove brilliantly all season long in what was his first season at Daytona Milton Keynes as well. I hope we get to see more of Blake in the future, hopefully with a bit more competition so he doesn’t get too bored at the front!

 

Honourable Mentions

Callum Franklin. He has been improving at a fast rate for the last few months and much like Louis Bishop in the cadets, was not only able to take the fight to the Csepreghis, but was even able to win a round at the start of the season, which is a really impressive accomplishment. I believe it was his first ever round win as well, so a big congratulations to Callum for that!