Week Fourty One
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Sandown Park
Superchamps
This weekend at Sandown Park saw a SuperChamps Round 3 full of drama on the Alternate layout in its Heats format.
In the DMAX Lightweights, Tom Brown had a very clean start to the final race after a fantastic showing in the two heats, just fending off Archie Bullard by a couple of points qualifying in pole position. The battle between these two for 1st and 2nd place was extremely tense for three quarters of the race. The close battling between them allowed Frederic Navarro, Daniel Tredwell, Zakaria Syed, Marcus Allen and Karlis Elmanis back into the contest (despite misfortune from Karlis in the first lap). There was drama towards the climax of the race, as Brown and Bullard make contact with one another, causing Brown to spin out and retire from the race, alongside Ollie Arminger. Bullard went on to win the race, despite a valiant effort from Frederic Navarro who finished in second, ahead of Daniel Tredwell in third.
Meanwhile, in the Heavies, Bobby Trundley put in another masterclass, despite getting quite wrapped up amongst the Lightweights, and delivered a best lap time of 46.4 seconds. He finished above Jamie Welsh in second place and Justin Hammond in third. Hammond is still ahead of Welsh in the Heavyweight table as it stands.
In the SODI Lightweights, Jack Harrison started the final on pole after putting on a flawless performance in the heats. Harrison had a phenomenal race, leading head-to-tail with Luka Nik, who tried everything he could to surpass the leader. Nik finished the final in second, ahead of Jack Redfern in third, followed by Archie Cole who had a solid race to beat Steve Hannon across the line. The final standings for the day put Harrison in P1, Redfern in P2 and Hannon in P3.
There were a number of last minute drop outs in the Heavyweight SODI class, leaving Kireth Kalirai to extend his lead at the top of the Championship table.
Thursday Night League
In the SODI race, Steve Hannon began from pole position, with Luka Nik and Blake Anslen following closely behind. As the race progressed, Blake showcased exceptional performance, advancing to second place and consistently setting very fast lap times. He managed to narrow the gap to Steve, the leader, down to just 0.800 seconds.
Unfortunately, Blake's fortunes took a turn for the worse due to the wet weather conditions. He spun out, which resulted in him dropping to the third position, allowing Daytona regular Luka Nik to seize second place. Antonio Sholin also seized the opportunity to overtake Blake, pushing him down to fourth place. Jack Harrison, winner of the last three outtings, also managed to catch up and overtake Blake towards the end of the race.
In the end, Steve Hannon emerged as the winner of the race, with Luka Nik securing second place, Antonio Sholin finishing third, and Jack Harrison coming in fourth. Blake Anslen was disqualified after the race for failing to meet the minimum weight criteria.
Tom maintained a five-second lead over Archie, but as the race progressed, Archie began to close the gap between them, putting pressure on the race leader. Meanwhile, Kevin Warner, a newcomer to the Thursday Night League Season 3, started to gain ground and approach Logan in fourth place.
However, Logan made a remarkable move, overtaking Archie to claim second place and then started to pull away. Tom extended his lead even further, establishing a 10-second advantage over the competition.
In the end, Tom finished in first place, securing the victory in the DMAX race, while Logan took second place, and Archie settled for third place.
Milton Keynes
SuperChamps
On Saturday, 14th October we welcomed back our SuperChamps drivers to the fourth instalment of the season, we were back on our ‘Heats’ format this round, and the stage was set for the action-packed round that followed.
All current championship leaders were present to try and preserve their lead. Jamie Tiley-Gooden in the DMAX Lightweights, Carl Stephens in the DMAX Heavyweights, Harry Asher in the SODI Lightweights, and Tom Illingworth in the SODI Heavyweights.
The random grids brought the action throughout the course of the ‘Heats’-based phase of the morning, however it was championship challenger Iain Riley who earn pole position for the final race, after two podium finishes in the heats. Harry Asher brought his A-game back as well and rocked up in pole position in the SODI category!
The final races demonstrated the standard of driving in the championships, the DMAX category delivered an exceptional final race, with Jamie Tiley-Gooden taking victory in the DMAX Lightweights and taking the overall round win as well, his fourth of the season! Dom Balasaitis drove very consistently and managed to collect a second place overall, with newcomer Nathan Boyle coming through in third place.
In the DMAX Heavyweight category, Iain Riley was the highest point scorer of the day, scoring 57 out of an available 61 points. This of course earnt him first position, followed by Harry Thrower, who had a much better outing than in Round 3. Sebastian Musicka completed the podium in what is a personal best season for the young driver so far.
The SODI Lightweight category was dominated by the current championship leader Harry Asher, but Adam Green put up a great fight and managed to take the fastest lap in the SODI category on the day. Harry won the round, followed very closely by Adam Green in second, and George Benson, who took his first overall podium finish of the season.
In the SODI Heavyweight category, Scott Woosey showed his class and dominated his class, and won the round comfortably, followed by Charlie Fenton in second place, and Tom Illingworth in third, who has managed to keep hold of the championship lead as well.
InKart
On the coldest morning of the year so far, we welcomed back thirty-two of our brightest and best Junior and Cadet drivers for round 4 of the third season of InKart this year! The sun was out, luckily, which meant that the iconic national layout of the circuit would dry and speed up throughout the course of the morning, but overtaking would prove to be difficult, as the rain the day before washed away any rubber that was potentially off the racing line! Both leaders of the championships were back to try and retain their lead, in what was a truly brilliant morning of racing.
The heats phase of the morning was as action-packed as always, and the track conditions proved difficult for the drivers to overtake, a lack of grip off-line meant that a few penalties were given for advantage by contact, but nevertheless, Louis Bishop was able to take two heat victories in the Junior category, with Jacob Csepreghi and Blake Southan taking the other two. A shock was that Charlie Csepreghi was caught in an uncharacteristic incident which meant he would start in the ‘A’ Final, but further down the other than he is used to! In the Cadet category, Alexander Karadzhov, Jacob Kent, Richard Marks and Harry Ward would all pick up victories heading towards the finals.
In the ‘B’ Final, Lewis Bowey produced another exquisite performance, after being unlucky with not getting into the ‘A’ Final. Lewis drove brilliantly and won the race comfortably over Finley Anderson in second place, and Tyler Rickard in third. These two also had a great battle but an unfortunate incident led to a one position penalty for Tyler, demoting him to third, and promoting Finley to second. In the Cadets, it was very close between Gillen Townshend, Zayn Perry and newcomer Alexandru Ibanescu, but Gillen took victory by 2 seconds over Zayn in second, who defended well to hold off Alexandru in third.
In the ‘A’ Final, it was Louis Bishop who started on pole position after two heat wins earlier in the morning, he locked into a tough battle with his seasoned competitors in Blake Southan and Jacob Csepreghi. Charlie Csepreghi had some work to do, starting down the field after a difficult morning in the heats. However, the battle between Louis, Jacob, and Blake was superb and some of the best racing of the season. It was Blake who took victory by 0.471 of a second over Jacob, who made an outstanding overtake on Louis at turn 10 on the final lap. Louis was frustrated that he could not convert his pole position, but all three of the drivers should be proud of the race they had, they all pushed each other right to the limit. Charlie Csepreghi recovered well to fourth position but couldn’t make inroads onto the three ahead. In the Cadet category, It was one of the tamer races of the day, however all the drivers drove consistently and executed a very good drive, it was Richard Marks who claimed victory by 0.3 of a second ahead of Jacob Kent, who couldn’t find a way past in the end, Alexander Karadzhov completed the podium and picked valuable championship points!
Junior Sprint League
On what was the coldest morning of the year so far, we welcomed sixteen drivers back to the fourth instalment of season three in Junior Sprint League. The sun was out, but the rain the day before meant that the drivers had a damp track to contend with and would need to put some rubber down in their 10-minute practice/qualifying session, to set themselves up nicely for the 20-minute race. The track layout for this round was ‘Link-Back’ which chops the traditional sixth corner of the international layout in half and adds a challenging, downhill braking zone into a tight right-hand hairpin.
In qualifying, Blake Southan set the pace and set a staggering 1:21.126 which allowed him to take pole by 0.980 of a second over Archie Davies in second place, with title contender Charlie Csepreghi qualifying in third. The usual championship challengers in Jacob Csepreghi, Callum Franklin and Louis Bishop seemed to struggle during qualifying, and this meant they all started out of position, and had some work to do in the race!
In the race session, Blake Southan produced a simply brilliant display, he pulled away from the chasing pack and claimed victory by over 13.5 seconds, he took the fastest lap as well just for good measure. Behind the dominant Blake, Charlie Csepreghi managed to climb one place into second place, and would remain there for the duration of the race, pulling away from third place driver Solomon Adeniji who scored his first podium of the season!
We’ve reached the half-way point in the season and the championship battle is very close! Changing track temperatures and the rainy season may be deciding factors as to who will be crowned the Season 3 Junior Sprint League Champion.
Thursday Night League
SODI
Thursday Night League was contested between 24 drivers on this cold wet Thursday night, qualifying got underway with drivers learning their way round in these conditions. With the session drawing to a close it was James King who took pole position with Jimi Holder (championship leader) in second with Ash Chivers in third and Michael Bowles in forth.
The race got underway with a lot of karts bunching in the first few corners, conditions stayed the same for the start of the race. Few drivers struggled in the conditions and spun at various stages in the race. James King led and brought it home to take maximum points in this round with a 30 seconds lead over second place William Fry with Richard Danby in third place to round off the podium. Jimi Holder Just missed out on the podium finishing in fourth.
DMAX
Round 5 of the Thursday Night League featured an exciting race with 14 drivers taking on the challenge in wet racing conditions.
During the qualifying session, Lee Schnitzler showcased remarkable performance, securing pole position with a best lap time that was 1.1 seconds faster than Jack Stewart, who started in P2. Yousuf Bin-Suhayl in P3 and James King in P4 were hot on their heels, all within a second of each other.
As the race got underway, Lee Schnitzler wasted no time in establishing his dominance, quickly building a 0.5-second lead after just 2 laps. However, the race took an unexpected turn when a long Full Course Yellow period kept all the drivers tightly bunched up for the first few laps.
Once the yellow flags were cleared, Barry Morris made a brilliant move to secure the 2nd position, overtaking James Brown. This change in position added an extra layer of excitement to the race.
When the checkered flag waved, it was Jack Stewart who emerged victorious, demonstrating exceptional skill in the challenging wet conditions. Barry Morris claimed the 2nd position, showcasing a strong performance being just over 2 seconds behind across the line, and James Brown rounded out the top three in this thrilling Thursday Night League race.
Photos:
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