Week Fourty Two
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Tamworth
Superchamps
N-35 ST
For the first time at Tamworth, Superchamps ran on the new “Grand Prix'' format, making for some very interesting racing - especially inside of the N-35 category. In qualifying, Benjamin Tomkinson-Gray put himself in pole position, ahead of championship leader Olivier Pikula by six tenths of a second. Reigning champion Charlie Edge was in third, but it is important to note that he was forced to run underweight and so would be racing for fun only, and not be classified in the final results. Hamish Easener was on pole in the heavyweights, ahead of Lewis Merrick and Mark Beaver.
The sprint race was straight after qualifying, with Benjamin Tomkinson-Gray winning from pole position, despite finishing behind the unclassified Charlie Edge on track after an entertaining battle between the two of them. Olivier Pikula kept up his fine form in second position, though around six seconds behind Benjamin. Olivier was embroiled in a very interesting battle with Jacob Holley that saw the second-placed championship runner finish only four tenths behind. Hamish Easener took victory in the heavyweights; the finishing order for the heavies was the exact order in which they qualified.
In the feature race, or ‘Grand Prix’, Benjamin completed a grand-slam performance both on track and in the classification. Charlie Edge once again finished ahead of him, but was the recipient of a three-place drop penalty for an advantage by contact against Olivier Pikula (who recovered to sixth). Jacob Holley was classified in second though had a bit of a handful from both of the Longstaff brothers. It was Ethan Longstaff who got the better of his brother to make up the last spot on the podium, the three of them finishing within six tenths of each other. As for the heavies, Hamish took a fantastic victory once again, to complete the sweep of the day, beating Lewis Merrick and Mark Beavers by at least a lap each.
DMAX
As per usual, the DMAX round delivered some excellent scraps throughout the field. No more was this evident than in the qualifying session, which was topped by a flying Jake Renshaw by four tenths of a second. Jake’s margin was particularly impressive considering only a further tenth separated. Josh Gora and Ben Sanders followed closely behind, but by far the most remarkable part of the qualifying session was Abi Sanders, Max Housley and Samuel Rasool all setting an identical 56.079! Justin Elliot was just behind, to top the heavyweight session, with Steven Humpage a few overall positions behind in second. Chris Swannell kept Steven honest, only a couple of hundredths down on Steven’s lap time in third.
The sprint was host to an entertaining, if dominant, drive from Jake Renshaw to finish six seconds to the good at the top of the overall standings. Ben Sanders finished relatively unscathed in second, though he was made to work for his spot by Max Housley in third. Max had his own troubles, in the way of Josh Gora, who was not quite able to convert on his qualifying pace but did manage to stay within a few tenths of Max in fourth. Perhaps unsurprisingly for the heavyweights, Justin Elliot converted on his pole position. The story of the day was Richard Lavender, who was able to carve his way through the field to finish in second. This was only six tenths of a second ahead of Greg Chapman, who finished third.
Heading through into the last race of the day, the DMAX Grand Prix, we were treated to another dominant drive. This time, however, it was Ben Sanders who put on a show to make it two consecutive ‘final’ victories in Superchamps S3. Jake Renshaw finished in second, seven seconds down on Ben but also a country mile ahead of Abi Sanders in third. Part of the reason for this was Abi’s sustained battle with all of Max, Samuel and Ben throughout the twenty-five minute contest. Justin Elliot took victory in another sweep of the Heavyweight class, though Chris Swannell certainly gave him a run for his money on his way to a second place finish. Rounding out the podium was Greg Chapman, who was able to hold off Steven Humpage towards the end of the race.
InKart
Round two of the third and final Inkart season of the year started with a really narrow victory for Tom Justice in the first heat of the morning, taking part in a close battle with second placed-finisher Tom Archer; the gap at the front of the field being just eight tenths of a second. Theo Laverty was third on the junior podium, three seconds ahead of fourth-place but sixteen behind that of the two leaders, who showed some incredible pace. In terms of the cadet battle, it was won by Micah Hunt-Nelson in fine style, finishing just under ten seconds ahead of Ted Hitchman in second. Ted battled with Logan Thacker for much of the race, finishing just a second ahead of him.
For the first time this season, juniors were represented in the second heat of the day as well as the first. The battle here was quickly muted though by Zayn Perry, storming to a victory by almost nine seconds, consistently one second faster than everyone else in the field. His dominance was against a good field as Samuel Chilton was the driver in second place, looking for another strong round here after a fantastic round one. Logan Brettle finished in third, a further eleven seconds off of Samuel. As for the cadets, Zachary Smith stormed to a dominant victory of around seven seconds to Ethan Guest. Ethan had a bit of work to do in the race, battling with third-placed Harvey Preen and Henry Gordon for much of the ten minutes.
Heading into the third race of the day, there were places in the A-final up for grabs, and one was swiftly secured in another strong Tom Justice victory, this time by around sixteen seconds. It was much closer behind, with Theo Laverty and Tom Archer having a back and forth battle for a lot of the ten-minute heat. Theo would find himself finishing ahead of his rival by just around a second. They would both have to wait and see if they had done enough to make the A-final. It was a similar story in the cadets, where Micah Hunt-Nelson secured qualification through his second victory of the day. He was in really fine form, though this time had Jack Charles-Bailey for company. Jack raced him all the way to the line after a multiple-lap battle which saw the lead change hands multiple times, but the defence of Micah eventually held firm. Harry Toon finished in third, finishing only around three seconds back from the battling pair at the front.
Heat four was dominated by Zayn Perry once again, outdoing his first heat successes with a victory margin of seventeen seconds to Samuel Chilton. Samuel remained hopeful of A-final qualification with his second place, finishing twenty-three seconds ahead of Logan Brettle in third. In the cadet class, Ethan Guest took victory ahead of Harry Fitch. The two of them battled for much of the race, in similar style to that of their cadet counterparts on the other grid. Ethan only prevailed by around three tenths at the end of the race. Henry Gordon finished in third, making a good account of himself only a couple of seconds behind. There was heartbreak in this race for Zachary Smith, who fell victim to a mechanical problem, though his fastest lap earned him A-Final qualification.
After a short break, the drivers were out for the first of the two finals, the B-final. Theo Laverty took victory ahead of Logan Brettle, the winning margin being just over twenty seconds. The third and final junior in the race was Cooper Campbell-Lee, who did a good job to carry on and finish the race after an incident in the opening laps. Domination was the story inside of the cadets as well, where Harvey Preen took a wonderful victory by nine seconds or so to Henry Gordon in second. Joseph Smith joined them on the podium, finishing only around a second behind Henry.
The A-final saw the completion of a Zayn Perry grand slam: winning both heats, taking the fastest lap of the day and leading every lap in the final on the way to a victory. Zayn’s winning margin was borderline unbelievable, finishing thirty seconds ahead of the rest of the field. What was also almost unbelievable was the battle for second, where Tom Justice finished only one-thousandth of a second ahead of Tom Archer in a nail-biting drag race to the finish line. Domination from the pole was not the case in the cadet race. Zachary Smith only scraped into the final by virtue of his fastest lap, starting dead last, but he was able to climb through for victory by six seconds to Ethan Guest, a testament to his pace throughout the day. Ethan was kept busy by Harry Fitch, who finished in third but only two tenths short of Ethan in second. It is also worth mentioning Jack Charles-Bailey, who finished in fourth in his first ever A-final appearance.
Milton Keynes
SuperChamps
On the 22nd of October we welcomed back thirty drivers back for the fifth round of the third season of SuperChamps at Daytona Milton Keynes. To kick-start the second half of the season we have our Grand Prix format, on the longest and most technical layout of our circuit, ‘cliff-drop’ and ‘bus-stop’, also known as ‘cliff-bus’. This layout adds in two different chicanes into far side of the circuit, both requiring a technique, to maximise the laptimes in the all-important 10-minute qualifying session. Three out of four championship leaders were present, in the form of DMAX Heavyweight leader, Carl Stephens, Harry Asher for the SODI Lightweights, and Jamie Tiley-Gooden for the DMAX Lightweight category. Tom Illingworth missed the round, which will mean he will need to ensure good results in the remaining three rounds to balance out his score after the ‘drop-round’ at the end of the season.
In the DMAX qualifying session, there was just 0.001 separating the two leaders of Nathan James who took pole position over Jack Stewart in second place, Dom Balasaitis qualified in third place, and this meant that the top three overall drivers were lightweight drivers. Pole in the heavyweights was taken by Carl Stephens, who set a 1:13.126 and was four tenths faster than AJ Watson in second for heavies, and Gareth Baldwin in third place.
The DMAX Sprint race was thrilled with excitement as Jack Stewart got a great start and almost took the lead of the race into the second corner, he would contest with Nathan Boyle for the next three laps before making the move for the lead! He would then run away with the sprint victory and win by 4.8 seconds over Nathan in second, and then Dom Balasaitis held firm in third place, not quite managing to get past Nathan ahead. In the Heavyweight category, Carl Stephens was able to take a convincing eight second victory over Gareth Baldwin in second, who defended brilliantly from Sebastian Musicka in third.
In the SODI qualifying session, Harry Asher completed another beautifully executed lap to take pole by 0.4 of a second ahead of Scott Woosey in second, the heavyweight driver also managed to be second fastest overall as well! Adam Green would form up directly behind Harry Asher on the rolling start as we moved into the sprint. In the sprint race, Charlie Fenton would find his pace get within half of second of victor Harry Asher, with Scott Woosey in third place in what was a great battle at the front of the SODI class.
The DMAX Feature Race brought a plethora of excitement, and high standard racing, Jack Stewart started on pole position and would go on to win convincingly, but the battle behind was a joy to watch. Phillip Baboolal, Nathan Boyle. Lewis Barton, Jamie-Tiley Gooden and Dom Balasaitis all fought valiantly over second place, but it would be Phillip who came out on top, and Nathan Boyle completed the podium. In the Heavyweights, Carl was able to convert his pole to a win and take another 61 points, from Barry Morris in second in the race but third overall, with AJ Watson being third in the race and second overall.
The SODI Feature Race was also full of drama! The group of Harry Asher, Scott Woosey, George Benson, Charlie Fenton and Adam Green fought hard all race, but a last lap incident meant that Harry Asher took victory and fastest lap, and George Benson was promoted to second on the road, with Adam Green in third. In the heavies, Scott Woosey was able to take the round win ahead of Harry Clifford in second, who both beat a demoted Charlie Fenton.
Sandown Park
SuperChamps
On the 22nd of October we welcomed back thirty drivers back for the fifth round of the third season of SuperChamps at Daytona Milton Keynes. To kick-start the second half of the season we have our Grand Prix format, on the longest and most technical layout of our circuit, ‘cliff-drop’ and ‘bus-stop’, also known as ‘cliff-bus’. This layout adds in two different chicanes into far side of the circuit, both requiring a technique, to maximise the laptimes in the all-important 10-minute qualifying session. Three out of four championship leaders were present, in the form of DMAX Heavyweight leader, Carl Stephens, Harry Asher for the SODI Lightweights, and Jamie Tiley-Gooden for the DMAX Lightweight category. Tom Illingworth missed the round, which will mean he will need to ensure good results in the remaining three rounds to balance out his score after the ‘drop-round’ at the end of the season.
In the DMAX qualifying session, there was just 0.001 separating the two leaders of Nathan James who took pole position over Jack Stewart in second place, Dom Balasaitis qualified in third place, and this meant that the top three overall drivers were lightweight drivers. Pole in the heavyweights was taken by Carl Stephens, who set a 1:13.126 and was four tenths faster than AJ Watson in second for heavies, and Gareth Baldwin in third place.
The DMAX Sprint race was thrilled with excitement as Jack Stewart got a great start and almost took the lead of the race into the second corner, he would contest with Nathan Boyle for the next three laps before making the move for the lead! He would then run away with the sprint victory and win by 4.8 seconds over Nathan in second, and then Dom Balasaitis held firm in third place, not quite managing to get past Nathan ahead. In the Heavyweight category, Carl Stephens was able to take a convincing eight second victory over Gareth Baldwin in second, who defended brilliantly from Sebastian Musicka in third.
In the SODI qualifying session, Harry Asher completed another beautifully executed lap to take pole by 0.4 of a second ahead of Scott Woosey in second, the heavyweight driver also managed to be second fastest overall as well! Adam Green would form up directly behind Harry Asher on the rolling start as we moved into the sprint. In the sprint race, Charlie Fenton would find his pace get within half of second of victor Harry Asher, with Scott Woosey in third place in what was a great battle at the front of the SODI class.
The DMAX Feature Race brought a plethora of excitement, and high standard racing, Jack Stewart started on pole position and would go on to win convincingly, but the battle behind was a joy to watch. Phillip Baboolal, Nathan Boyle. Lewis Barton, Jamie-Tiley Gooden and Dom Balasaitis all fought valiantly over second place, but it would be Phillip who came out on top, and Nathan Boyle completed the podium. In the Heavyweights, Carl was able to convert his pole to a win and take another 61 points, from Barry Morris in second in the race but third overall, with AJ Watson being third in the race and second overall.
The SODI Feature Race was also full of drama! The group of Harry Asher, Scott Woosey, George Benson, Charlie Fenton and Adam Green fought hard all race, but a last lap incident meant that Harry Asher took victory and fastest lap, and George Benson was promoted to second on the road, with Adam Green in third. In the heavies, Scott Woosey was able to take the round win ahead of Harry Clifford in second, who both beat a demoted Charlie Fenton.
InKart
B Final
The B final unfolded with intense competition in both the junior and cadet categories. In the junior category, Ellis McKenzie and Callum Ince engaged in a thrilling back-and-forth battle for the top spot. Their closely fought contest was a highlight of the race, with Harrison Bishop and Ethan Critchley trailing not too far behind. As the race progressed, some drivers faced penalties for various infractions, adding an extra layer of drama to the proceedings. However, Ellis McKenzie maintained composure and skill to claim the victory in the junior category, showcasing exceptional racing prowess.
In the cadet category, Marcus Cooper set the pace early on and managed to hold onto his lead. However, a significant turning point occurred when a collision unfolded between Arno Nurijanyan and Alexandru Ibanescu, the two top contenders. This incident reshuffled the leaderboard and allowed Frankie Matwiejczuk and Leo Ingarfield to emerge as strong challengers. The race was characterized by its dynamic nature, with the drivers refusing to give each other any breathing room and going three-wide into corners, making for a spectacle that had spectators on the edge of their seats. Despite some drivers incurring penalties, Marcus Cooper's performance was unwavering as he eventually crossed the finish line as the winner in the cadet category, securing his well-deserved victory.
A Final
In the Junior category, the race kicked off with an early spin at the second corner, resulting from a rather chaotic start with multiple drivers vying for position. The track conditions posed a challenge, and it was evident that five drivers couldn't squeeze through the tight corner simultaneously. This created some initial confusion, which would be clarified later.
Taking the lead was Leo Edger, who exhibited remarkable composure throughout the race. His driving prowess and determination quickly propelled him to the front of the pack. Close behind him was Charlie Bradburn, who displayed excellent consistency. The battle for second place was intense, with several drivers trying to outmanoeuvre each other. Ollie Peters, Nicolai Eidsgaard, Luca Cook, Jack Bromham, Max Miller, William Bradbery, and David Szucs-Farkas were among the top contenders, and they showcased their skills with some exciting racing.
As the race progressed, Leo Edger continued to build on his lead, demonstrating impressive lap times and a clear understanding of the track. He soon had a substantial 6.8-second gap between himself and the rest of the field.
Meanwhile, the race for the remaining podium places in the Junior category intensified. Ollie Peters made a significant move, climbing up to second place, showcasing his determination and skill. However, in a surprising turn of events, Ollie Peters made an unexpected pit stop, leaving his competitors to battle for the remaining positions.
In the Cadet category, Fabian Grandhok took the lead, followed closely by Felix Heywood. Their rivalry was a highlight of the race, and they kept the audience on the edge of their seats. Fabian displayed skill and consistency in maintaining his lead.
Towards the end of the race, Leo Edger was well ahead of the competition, securing an impressive 10.5-second lead by the time he crossed the finish line. The audience applauded his outstanding performance, recognizing his victory.
In the Cadet category, Fabian Grandhok emerged as the victor, showcasing his racing talent. He was closely followed by Felix Heywood in second place, while Daniel Szucs-Farkas secured third place. This race featured thrilling battles, impressive driving skills, and a true display of the competitive spirit that makes motorsports so exciting.
Junior Sprint League
In the Junior Sprint League race, it all began with a thrilling start as Max Miller, starting from pole position, executed a flawless launch off the line. At the same time, Ellis McKenzie, who started from third, made a remarkable move, quickly advancing to the second position. However, Nicolai Eidsgaard faced early challenges and, unfortunately, dropped down the order.
The early laps were action-packed, with several incidents adding to the excitement. Max Miller and Ellis McKenzie engaged in a fierce battle for supremacy at the front. The lead changed hands multiple times, with each driver showcasing their skill and determination. It was edge-of-the-seat racing as they jockeyed for position.
Amidst the Miller-McKenzie showdown, Jack Flint also entered the picture, making his presence felt by aggressively pursuing the third spot on the podium. His performance added another layer of excitement to the race, and the trio at the front made it clear that this race would be hard-fought from start to finish.
As the laps rolled by, Max Miller managed to maintain a slender lead over Ellis McKenzie. The battle for third saw Jack Flint successfully creating a gap between himself and the chasing pack. The battle for fourth place was perhaps the most intense of all. Oliver Bush and Harrison Bishop were locked in a fierce contest, with positions swapping multiple times during the race. In the end, it was Oliver Bush who prevailed, securing a hard-fought fourth place.
In the final minutes of the race, it all came down to the wire. Max Miller, showing incredible race craft and unwavering composure, successfully defended his position against Ellis McKenzie's relentless pursuit. As the checkered flag waved, it was Max Miller who claimed victory, demonstrating his expertise in defensive driving.
Meanwhile, Jack Flint held on to secure third place, rounding out the podium positions. Oliver Bush's tenacious performance ensured that he finished fourth, holding off the persistent challenges from Harrison Bishop.
The rest of the top ten was rounded out by a talented group of drivers, including Nicolai Eidsgaard, Harry Bedford, David Szucs-Farkas, and Charlie Parker.
Photos:
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