Week Fourty
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Sandown Park
Thursday Night League
DMAX
Twenty-three drivers took to the circuit, showcasing a wide range of skill levels, all posting respectable lap times, with qualifying times mostly at or below 55 seconds. The familiar face of Tom Brown dominated the early stages of qualifying, with the only serious challenger being Robert Guymer, particularly toward the end. Jamie Warner secured a solid third place, while Charlie Foster claimed fourth. Moving on to the race, Tom Brown immediately surged into the lead and maintained a dominant performance throughout the race. He extended his lead, albeit not too rapidly, leaving a mere 2-second gap to Robert Guymer halfway through the race. However, navigating through traffic made things a bit tricky, with everyone from 12th place downwards being lapped. Only the top 11 remained unscathed, underscoring Tom Brown's exceptional pace. While Jamie Warner and Charlie Foster had relatively uneventful races, the top 5 saw frequent position changes, with the primary battle occurring within this group.
SODI
A massive influx of newcomers added a new dimension to the championship, making qualifying more challenging for the regular drivers due to increased yellows and slower competitors. Connor Elmore secured pole position but fell to fourth place at the race start. A group of six drivers initially contested the lead, but eventually, Jack Flint, Jack Harrison, and Luka Nik managed to break free from the pack. This trio engaged in a thrilling battle for the top three positions. Jack Harrison initially pulled ahead but was later overtaken by Jack Flint at turn 1. Despite several lead changes, Jack Flint ultimately emerged as the race victor. Meanwhile, Rafael Blanco-Bush, Connor Elmore, and Jonathan Fuchsel constantly swapped places, while a fierce contest developed between Vivek Bhalla, Cicero Hennemann, and Sienna in the top 10.
InKart
Junior B Finals
Callum Ince, who secured pole position, displayed commanding dominance, extending his lead lap after lap. Byron Hewitt initially held second place but was eventually overtaken by William Bradbery and Harry Pickles, who engaged in a closely-fought battle, exchanging positions multiple times. In the end, William Bradbery claimed second place with Harry Pickles in third. Further back, Alex Ferretti engaged in a fierce battle with Byron Hewitt, Ethan Critchley, and Jack Edger. The quartet remained in close contention for most of the race. Although Alex Ferretti received a penalty for gaining an advantage through contact, the battle for fourth, fifth, and sixth remained incredibly tight, with the drivers finishing only half a second apart.
InKart Cadets B Finals
The field appeared somewhat fragmented. Caesar Chen led from the front, initially dueling with Alexandru Ibanescu. However, Caesar Chen eventually pulled away from Alexandru Ibanescu, and the two distanced themselves from Frankie Matwiejczuk and Sarah Telford, who occupied third and fourth places. Caesar Chen maintained a roughly five-second lead over Alexandru, though this margin fluctuated as they navigated through traffic. Leo Ingarfield received a penalty but continued racing without significant impact on his position. Seb Newman initially finished on the circuit in third place but was penalized for racing under yellow flags, marking the third such penalty during the event. His demotion to fifth was due to inexperience rather than any malicious intent.
InKart Junior A Finals
The race was highly competitive from the start, with Jamie Warner initially leading the pack, closely followed by Nicolai Eidsgaard and Leo Edger. Charlie Bradburn also joined the fray, resulting in an intense battle between these five drivers, with positions constantly changing. Eventually, James Finley managed to overtake Jamie Warner, creating a gap at the front during the middle of the race. The race remained fiercely contested among Leo, Charlie, Jamie, and Nicolai. Leo started closing the gap on James Finley but ran out of time to make a pass. The battle for third place saw less than half a second separating Charlie Bradburn, Jamie Warner, and Nicolai. Another group of karts, consisting of Ollie Peters, Leon Ptasznik, Ellis McKenzie, and Elijah Dusch, also engaged in close racing, resulting in frequent position swaps. Two main packs of four or five karts were in constant competition throughout the race.
InKart Cadet A Finals
In the cadet category, the competition was less closely contested. Fabian Gandhok led from start to finish, building a substantial lead at one point, although it was reduced during encounters with traffic. He eventually finished seven seconds ahead of Sebastian Mejer and Leger Dimitriou, who engaged in a tight battle for the majority of the race, consistently swapping positions. After initially overtaking Felix Sheldon-Heywood early in the race, they maintained a back-and-forth race, with Sebastian eventually finishing on track in second place. However, a single-place penalty demoted him to third, behind Leger.
Milton Keynes
Thursday Night League
SODI
Very busy race this evening with 32 karts on the grid, not many drivers had taken part in a sprint race before which led to a lot of drivers learning the best way round on a damp track. Ben Deening took pole for the race with Sam Bennett in second and Joe Kennedy in third.
Onto the race and the track was very busy with a long snake of karts in the first few laps. Kart 7 (Ben Deening) took a lead in the first 3 laps by 3 seconds and was driving a good start to his race, second and third battling away too in the early stages. It was Mark Cluley who gained positions and made his way into second place. Norbert Orsos and Joe Kennedy had a good battle developing for third place around halfway through. By the end of the race, it was Ben Deening who took the win with Mark Cluley in second and Norbert Orsos in third.
The Fastest Lap also went to Ben Deening with a 1:21:649.
Championship leader Jimi Holder was in attendance this round but only managed to finish in 22nd place.
DMAX
9 drivers in round 4 this week. Barry Morris took pole from Jack Stewart with Lee Schnitzler in third. Barry managed to keep it on the track this week making it around turn 9 more successfully than in the previous round to make sure he would be on pole for the race start.
Barry led everyone round into turn 1 with Jack Stewart tucking in behind him, at the end of lap one James King had overtaken Lee Schnitzler into turn 10 to take third place, Paul Studd was down in 5th place. Barry and Jack started to build a lead after 3 laps with James Lee and Paul all battling away for third place. After 6 laps the gap between the front 2 was just 0.243 of a second, James King holding onto third with Lee Schnitzler just behind him. With just 6 minutes to go, it was still Barry leading Jack with James and Lee battling for third still. The gap between the front two grew to half a second after lap 13.
The final order was Jack Stewart in first, Barry Morris in second, James King in third, Lee Schnitzler in forth, Paul Studd in fifth, Charlie Newman in sixth, Adam Stainton in seventh, Robbie Newton in eighth and Gary Malkin in ninth.
The Gap between the front two was 0:008 seconds as they raced to the line for the closest of finishes we have seen in Thursday Night League.
Fastest lap time went to Barry Morris with a 1:09:655.
InKart
A sunny morning on Sunday the 8th of October brought us the third instalment of the third season of our iconic InKart Championship, thirty drivers were present today for the round, with action throughout what was a great morning of racing! All our championship contenders were present in the form of Charlie and Jacob Csepreghi, Blake Southan, Luca Dunford, and Louis Bishop in the Junior category, with Rayaan Malik, Jacob Kent and Gillen Townshend here for the Cadets.
In the heats phase of the day, Jacob Csepreghi, Jacob Kent, Charlie Csepreghi, Gillen Townshend, Louis Bishop and Alexander Karadzhov were all race winners, and continued their good run of form in the championship so far. A few penalties meant that some were out of position heading into our ‘B’ and ‘A’ Final races.
In the ‘B’ Final race, Lewis Bowey dominated and won by a comfortable 13.142 seconds over Etah Windsor in second, and Tudor Geanta in third, both of whom are improving rapidly and will quickly be knocking on the door of the ‘A’ finalists. Lewis was unlucky to miss out on the ‘A’ Final but drove brilliantly in the ‘B’ Final and took a convincing victory. In the Cadet category, Kimi Densham, Dexter Hazeldine and Harry Ward were engrossed into a race long battle, but Kimi took victory by 0.8 of a second over Dexter, who was just over a second up the road from Harry.
In the ‘A’ Final, it seemed as though all the drama had been saved for this session. In the Juniors, Blake Southan started in fifth position, but came through to third by the end of lap one, and first by the end of lap three! Some exceptional race craft saw him triumph over the pack, taking victory by one second over Charlie Csepreghi in second, and Louis Bishop in third. The Cadet category demonstrated some of the best racing seen all season. Rayaan Malik, Gilen Townshend, and Caelen Keith all fought brilliantly, until it came down to turn ten on the final lap, Gillen lunged up the inside of Rayaan, which forced him off the track and therefore led to a three-position penalty being applied. Caelen Keith would therefore be victorious, with Rayaan in second and Zayn Perry promoted into third place!
Junior Sprint League
A bright and sunny autumn morning in Milton Keynes hosted the third round of Junior Super Champs and we welcomed back sixteen talented drivers back to the venue. Today’s track layout was ‘international’ which is the standard layout at Daytona Milton Keynes, composed of eleven corners that create our iconic ‘international’ layout. The grid boasted all the title contenders, in fact all the top six were present for the round, our contenders come in the shape of Blake Southan, Charlie & Jacob Csepreghi, Callum Franklin, Louis Bishop, and Freddie Hill. In an extremely close qualifying session, those above made up six of the top seven, with Solomon Adeniji getting into the mix, qualifying in fifth place. It was Blake Southan who took pole position, with a 1:15.734, two tenths clear of Jacob Csepreghi. With his brother Charlie in third!
In the race session, the Csepreghi boys and Blake Southan quickly bridged a small gap to the chasing pack, but an incident at the bottom of the circuit meant that on lap two, Blake had gone from first to fourth! He would have to fight his way back through and fight he did! In a brilliant display, he came through from fourth back to first in five laps! Blake went on to take victory by 3.804 seconds over Charlie Csepreghi, and Jacob Csepreghi completed the podium in third place. Solomon Adeniji was able to hold on to fourth place, after a fantastic display, finishing just ahead of Louis Bishop in fifth and Archie Davies in sixth!
Tamworth
SuperChamps
N35-ST
The N35-ST season started with Jacob Holley very narrowly taking victory in the first heat, by just two hundredths of a second ahead of Oliver Pikula in second, potentially setting the tone for how the lightweight championship battle may develop. Keaton Longstaff finished very highly in third, a couple of seconds back from the leading battle - but only one tenth ahead of the fourth placed runner. Maxwell Boulton took victory in the heavyweights, ahead of OVERDRIVE’s Scott Mansell and Hamish Easener.
Oliver’s fortunes improved heading into the second heat, taking victory by a dominant seven seconds ahead of high-flying Baxter Rawlings. On track, Alessio La Malfa finished in third position but Austin Lawrence-Fielden took the points due to Alessio being forced to run underweight. In the heavyweights, Scott Mansell took victory in dominant style ahead of Hamish Easener, with Maxwell Boulton finishing in third.
Alessio La Malfa took the on-track victory in the final by around six-seconds to Jacob Holley. Jacob was classified as the lightweight winner, finishing twelve seconds or so ahead of Keaton Longstaff, who himself edged out Oliver Pikula by eight tenths of a second. Pikula had enough to finish the day on top of the points, however, by 4 points to Jacob Holley. Scott Mansell won the heavyweights, ahead of Hamish Easener and Maxwell Boulton.
DMAX
The DMAX round got underway with a very strong victory by Ben Sanders, finishing nearly three seconds ahead of former race-leader Jake Renshaw. Max Housley put in a performance of his own to finish in third, a couple of seconds back from the leaders. Justin Elliot got in amongst the lightweights, finishing in fifth overall but in a comfortable winning position for his class. Greg Chapman finished in second, just two seconds ahead of Stuart Corr in third.
Into the second heat, Ben Sanders carried through his form, carving through the field on this occasion, despite Ben Smiles’ stern resistance. Max Housley continued his consistent form with his second consecutive third of the day. Stuart Corr took victory in the heavyweights, with Steven Humpage a few places overall behind him in second. Brands Hatch Indy lap record holder Scott Mansell finished only slightly behind Steven in third.
Despite 2.6 seconds covering first and second in the final, it was only a further 4 tenths separating the rest of the top 4. Ben Sanders headed a Sanders-family 1-2 with Sodi World Series champion Abi Sanders in second after making an overtake on Jake Renshaw in the closing laps. Jake only finished ahead of fourth-placed Ben Smiles by a couple of tenths, a testament to how close the battle for the podium was. It was not quite the same story in the heavyweights, where Justion Elliot dominated ahead of Stuart Corr. Steven Humpage got the better of Scott Mansell to make up the rest of the heavyweight podium.
InKart
Sporting a new double-header format with Superchamps on the same day, Inkart made its return. Split into two grids and two classes once again, round one of the championship saw plenty of interesting battles throughout the field. This started in the first heat of the day, where Samuel Chilton caught and eventually passed Theo Laverty for the junior and overall race victory, a winning margin of just one-tenth of a second. Tom Archer was the third placed finisher in the class, losing touch slightly with the battling pair throughout the ten minutes. Harry Fitch made a late switch from Junior to Cadet, and soon won the latter but only by six-tenths of a second. Harvey Preen and Ethan Guest made up the rest of the top 3, all drivers being within nine tenths of each other.
An all-cadet second grid was next, and it was Zachary Smith who put in a fantastic performance to win by two seconds ahead of reigning champion Noah Hobson. Joseph Smith finished in third, three seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Bradley Sutton. Bradley himself had a very interesting battle with Henry Gordon, the two of them drag-racing to the line.
Tom Archer was victorious in the second of grid 1’s heats, the winning margin here also being just one-tenth of a second from Samuel Chilton. This time it was Theo Laverty’s turn to lose touch with the leading pair, finishing down in third. However, automatic qualification to the A-Final for the junior grid meant that difficult heat races could be made up for quite easily. This was not quite as simple for the cadets, who had to battle for their qualification into the higher of the two finals. Harry Toon was not quite able to secure qualification, but was able to win the second heat, by a couple of seconds to Ethan Guest in second. Thomas Baxter finished in third after a very exciting three-way battle between himself, Guest and fourth-placed Patrick Goodwin.
The second of grid 2’s heats saw the previous season’s champion, Noah Hobson, take a marginal victory over Zachary Smith, the two of them showing absolutely fantastic pace to gain seven seconds on Henry Gordon, who was the third placed finisher. This result was enough to qualify all three drivers into the A-Final.
After a short break, the drivers were back out for the finals. First was the B final and an all-cadet grid. Micah Hunter-Nelson took victory in fine style ahead of Jack Charles-Bailey, a fantastic performance on his debut in the championship. Jack himself was able to hold off Harry Toon at the end of the race, despite Harry having a personal-best tenths better than that of the third placed finisher.
The A-Final was the last race of the day, and saw some of the most entertaining racing of the entire round. It was a three-way fight for the lead in the juniors at one point, but eventually Theo Laverty took the victory, only narrowly ahead of Samuel Chilton in second. Samuel and Theo spent much of the race side-by-side, setting up an interesting prospect for their battles throughout the rest of the season. Tom Archer kept them in check for much of the race, but ended up finishing just behind in third. In the cadet class, another fantastic battle developed between Zachary Smith and Noah Hobson. Despite Noah’s best efforts, Zachary Smith took victory. Ethan Guest finished in third, not quite being able to get himself ahead of the leading two, though it was still a pretty impressive result all things considered.
Thursday Night League
N35-ST
Charlie Walmsley-Ryde was in fine form in qualifying for Thursday Night League round 10, putting it on pole by 1.2 seconds to James Holliday in second. Charlie was not too far away from lap record pace, proving his incredible pace in the 4-stroke karts. James was not without competition in second, though. Josh Gora went within four-hundredths of his time, but eventually found himself sitting in third with his 1:03.109. Stephen Allsopp was the driver on pole in the heavyweights - he would start with a few lightweights in between himself and the other heavyweight drivers, putting him in a fine position for the sprint.
Moving into the race, it was perhaps no surprise that Charlie continued his dominance in a grand-slam victory of almost fifteen seconds. Closer racing was to be found directly behind him, with James Holliday and Josh Gora battling throughout the entirety of the twenty minutes. Despite his best efforts, Josh was not able to find a way past James, finishing two tenths behind. Similar dominance showed itself in the heavyweights, though Stephen Allsopp was unlikely to feel as such, having a very difficult time keeping lightweight Jude Beaven behind (something he was eventually able to do). His victory was ahead of Tim Avery in second, the margin being over ten seconds. Rhys-Lee finished in third, a consistent drive to secure a podium spot.
DMAX
The DMAX qualifying was as close as ever with a four-hundredth of a second gap between James Cook and Max Housley. It was James who was marginally faster, his 55.557 being enough to snatch pole position. Dillon Davis started strongly in third, only two tenths back, though the gap throughout the top five was only six tenths meaning that the race was going to be very interesting. Mark Rollinson was on pole in the heavyweights, with a multiple kart-gap back to his nearest heavyweight competitors.
The race turned out to be smooth sailing for Dillon Davis, who carved through from third in the opening laps to an eventual winning margin of 4.2 seconds. Bertie Bream spent a lot of time behind James Cook throughout the course of the race, but eventually made a penultimate-lap overtake to finish in second position. Max Housley followed him through on James Cook to finish in third and to continue his fantastic form after a strong Superchamps round on Sunday. Mark Rollinson was victorious in the heavyweights, finishing five seconds ahead of Darren Holliday. Alfie Smithurst was able to finish in tenth overall and round out the heavyweight podium.
Photos:
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