Athletes refer to it as the ‘kick’. That final spurt of effort and energy in the last few metres of a running race to try and seal the win. Barnaby Pittingale came over all Seb Coe to claim the Heavy victory and title with a gutsy performance, whilst Toby Sowery gave his rivals a glimmer of hope after uncharacteristic DNFs in both Junior finals. However, his closest opponents were also unable to capitalize on his misfortune, leaving a first time winner to step forward into the limelight.
In Cadet and Light there were also first-time winners – ironically for two seasoned campaigners – ensuring that both titles will go down to the wire at Llandow.
Cadet
In the opening stages of Sunday, no one driver appeared to have the upper hand. Jordan Sanders topped the time sheet in qualifying, but saw Matthew Round-Garrido win the following heat. Jenson Murchison then won the following pre-final, signaling his intent for what would follow later.
Protracted deliberations over a protest following the pre-final forced a hasty rescheduling of the Cadet final. This probably served to ratchet up the tension inside the youngsters’ minds – it certainly did in their parents. “What is ‘e doin’?” mused one dad, bemused by his son’s tactics in the moments after the field had been flagged away. Murchison made good his pole-advantage, followed closely by Jordan Sanders, Matthew Taylor and Round-Garrido. The latter pulled off line on the entry into the opening part of the Hammerhead section (Turn 4) to calmly and serenely take 3rd from Taylor. “Good boy!” said an appreciative spectator. At the front, Murchison could be seen working the wheel, trying to find that vital difference over the rest of the field that would send him clear.
James White appeared to hesitate going into the Pits Complex, allowing Callum Croxon to pickpocket him for 5th place. With the bit between his teeth, Croxon wasted little time in catching and challenging Taylor. They appeared to nerf front and rear wheels through the exit of the Hammerhead but both kept everything legal and decent.
At mid distance Murchison was manfully defending his lead from Round-Garrido, Sanders, Croxon, Taylor and just a little off the back of them, Sam Faulkner. The Hawkey siblings, Ethan and Esmee were working well together to defend their 8th and 9th spots. Poor Tom Douglas, attempting to urge himself onwards and upwards, nodded his head forward as he emerged out of the Pits Complex onto the main straight, lost sight of where he was going and had an unscheduled trip onto the grass.
Faulkner was clearly in a purposeful mood and had steadily reeled in the lead quintet. However, Murchison and Round-Garrido responded and briefly opened a gap, forcing the others to redouble their efforts. Just as quickly as they had done so, the group concertina’d back together, whilst the Hawkeys began to swoop in on James White’s rear bumper.
In the blink of an eye, Sanders had taken 2nd with Murchison still ahead. Faulkner, having latched on to Croxon’s tail had now turned the last moments of the race into a six-kart fight for the trophies – but despite his opponents’ best intentions and efforts, no one was going to deprive Murchison of his first victory and, knowing he’d done enough to seal it, Jenson punched the air with both fists.
Junior
Reigning Champion and current series leader Toby Sowery started the day in typical style with a successful timed qualifying session and by winning the heat from pole position. Disaster followed. A brace of subsequent DNFs in the pre and main finals gave his nearest rivals a glimmer of hope for the final round and left the stage available for a new star, or indeed two, to emerge.
The exciting novice Michael Iacovou fulfilled the promise he had demonstrated in previous races with a wonderfully taken pre-final victory, whilst arguably the season’s most-improved driver, Willis Mayneord, was delighted with his 2nd. Although he had claimed a worthy first podium at the previous round, few would have rated Zack Nickson’s chances from way down the grid. He thought and performed differently, carving up the order to finish 8th in the pre-final. It was game-on for an exciting main final.
Needing only to finish 7th or higher, Sowery lifted his supporters’ hearts with a stunning opening lap. Starting from the back row he passed ten karts in the first lap, but barely two minutes later stalked back to the pits, having torn the nosecone from his kart. Another regular front-runner in the wars was James Lay. A coming together in the opening moments proved to be terminal and he lasted just five laps. In stark contrast, Tom Thickpenny’s progress was like a positive sales graph – constantly going up.
Iacovou initially led, but an increasingly long travel on his left pedal signified brake issues. Seizing the initiative, Nickson – whom had not wasted any time in moving up to 2nd – and not content with that, was soon leading. Iacovou gamely held 2nd from Mayneord, Adam Payne, Jack New, Ronan McKenzie and Will Stowell. As they jostled for position, Nickson had begun to build an ever increasing gap.
New sent a peach of a move down the inside of Mayneord and Iacovou to snatch 2nd at Turn 5 but one tour later was chasing Will Stowell’s rear bumper from 3rd.
By mid distance Nickson was firmly in control with Stowell, equally comfortable, in 2nd. That was until he came to lap a backmarker who remained firmly planted on the racing line, despite furiously waved blue flags. The contrast in the two drivers’ entry speeds into one corner was almost demonstrated to catastrophic effect but Will skillfully avoided hitting the hapless tail-ender with instinctive reflexes.
At this stage, Iacovou was battling gamely with New for 4th with AJ Morris bearing down on the pair. Mckenzie, deposing Payne a place, joined him and the newly formed duo made short work of wriggling past the scrapping Iacovou and New.
Backmarkers were now causing a series of hairy moments for the leaders, but in each case a combination of deft driving, alert marshaling and simple good fortune ensured that some find individual performances were not spoiled. That said – and albeit his kart clearly bore the signs of some ‘close’ racing – Morris deserved his 3rd place. As he and McKenzie exited the very last corner and began their frantic dash to the finishing, Morris practically climbed out of the seat and stuck his head over the front bumper to ensure the last step on the podium was his.
Post-race, there was much praise for the winner Nickson. “Zack managed to steer clear of the mishaps that befell the other leading contenders and once he hit the front he was never going to be caught,” observed one spectator sagely. Zack’s mechanic, Chris Cox was justifiably effusive: “What impressed me more than all of his achievements so far, (were his drives) from grid 25 in the pre-final to 8th, then from 8th to the win. Brilliant! I am very proud of him.”
Light
Hindsight is not a wonderful thing when the eventual winner all but predicts his later triumph by telling you about his previous victories at the same circuit and there isn’t a betting shop for miles. Sam Dimelow finally overcame his Easykart hoodoo with a brace of finely judged victories, but was made to work hard for them throughout. Jamie Crease had been the man to beat after setting the pole time in qualifying and duly winning the heat. Ayrton Hirst had been his shadow on both occasions whilst Championship leader Elliot Rice had found himself in the midfield. Terry Langley’s title aspirations appeared to have caught a serious cold and he never looked fully dialed in throughout. Referencing Alex Ferguson’s famous phrase about “squeaky bum time” Joe Paterson recognized that his afternoon had merely become a damage limitation exercise after a tough time in the preliminaries.
Ironically, it was the squeaking of cold brakes that signaled the impending fun. As the pack rolled out of the pits for its formation lap, the drivers stabbed at their brake pedals to try and inject some heat into the discs before the mad rush into the first corner.
Dimelow slithered through the chicane to hold his pole advantage with Sam Massey, Crease, Hirst and Rice in close attendance. From the back of the field, Owen Jenman and Paterson were making respectable progress. Out front Dimelow had quickly established a cushion of approximately half a second, aided by Massey scrapping with Crease. On lap 3, the E-Plate holder was up to 2nd and clearly intent on taking the fight to the leader. Similarly, Hirst was keen not to let Massey hold him up but had to use all his guile to get past. With things rapidly hotting up, it was Ayrton’s namesake, Luca Hirst, who now turned on the style. He sliced past Rice at Turn 4 and then had to hold his line and nerve on the dash into the left-right-right of Turn 5. They were wheel to wheel, but a subsequent scruffy lap saw Luca cede the advantage back to the reigning number one.
Mid-race saw the top ten positions stagnate a little and the race in danger of becoming a procession. Dimelow, Crease, Ayrton Hirst and Massey were now ell clear of Rice, Patrick Lay and the recovering Luca Hirst. However, with the lead quartet equally spaced from one another, the battle for supremacy appeared somewhat cut and dried. After banging on the door, Lay finally succeeded in finding a gap past Rice and made the most of it. Paterson’s momentum up the order, having temporarily arrested itself, suddenly sparked back into life and he looked physically more interested in the hunt – but from lap 14, he was becalmed in 13th position.
In contrast, Crease looked desperate to get onto level terms with Dimelow and slowly he began to inch closer. Massey too found a kart length on Ayrton Hirst. With barely a handful of laps remaining, Crease was now in striking distance of Dimelow. All he had to do was pick his spot, brake a metre later than Sam and go in hard. Simple. It wasn’t that easy though. The tattooed and pierced Dimelow was not going to give up so cheaply and responded by driving a faultless last lap. As he took the chequered flag he threw his head back with a mixture of relief and sheer delight. The fight between Massey and Hirst to the line was a humdinger. The former’s kart repeated darted forward and back like a snake’s tongue but Ayrton’s stout defence of his line proved sufficient to claim his 4th trophy of the campaign.
Heavy
Barnaby Pittingale sat on the grid knowing that he simply needed to finish 9th in the final to ensure that the Heavy title remained his. An off at the start of the pre-final had raised the collective heartbeat and blood pressure of his friends and family, but a typically flamboyant drive to 8th in the pre-final had done much to calm their nerves. With Pittingale ‘down’ on row 4 William Smith, Mark Lawrence, Neil Fisher and Roland Bredner all had an excellent chance of staking a claim for the win. Lawrence especially, as his pace had been excellent in the early part of the event.
Out-dragging the pole-sitter, Smith, to the first corner the flying Scotsman burst back into view leading the field down the back straight. Bredner and Fisher had also surprised Smith but it was all change on the following orbit of the old bomber base. Smith Lawrence still led from Bredner, but Smith had slotted into 3rd ahead of Michael Roots, Tim Hill Pittingale and Fisher.
Finding his rhythm, Lawrence began to stretch away, taking Bredner with him. As his set-up came on, Roots emerged as the man to watch and indeed, he soon found a way past Smith. The race ignited when Pittingale went for 4th at Turn 5. Responding, Smith kept his foot in through Turn 5 forcing Pittingale back and into a tactical re-think. Perhaps sensing that allowing Barnaby past could benefit the pair of them and take him forward, Will pointed his great rival through on the following lap. The former World Finals winner gratefully accepted, but had quite an amount of ground to cover in order to bridge the gap. Smith clearly understood this and tucked into Pittingale’s slipstream.
Regardless of how well he was driving, Lawrence had not been able to keep Bredner and Roots away. The latter tripped over Bredner’s rear bumper at Turn 4 and as they collected themselves, Pittingale arrived. Seeing his chance, Lawrence scampered away, as Roots moved into 2nd leaving Bredner to tackle the surging Pittingale. Barnaby jinked inside Roland at Turn 4, as he had with Will earlier, and again faced a fightback through Turn 5.
Roots had pegged the gap to Lawrence to just one kart length and deftly slid down the leader’s inside at Turn 4. Unable to scrub off the extra speed though, he overcooked it and ran wide on the exit, allowing Mark to regain the upper hand. Roots had a big look at Turn 5 with his kart dramatically oversteering through the exit of the corner. Seconds later, Lawrence was out with Roots able to continue but having lost a couple of places. A surprised but grateful Pittingale now had the lead, from Bredner, Smith, Roots, Fisher, Hill and Ken Churchill.
From there, he asserted his authority and coolly brought his kart home in one piece to claim his 5th straight win and the title with one race to go. Roots’ combative attempt for the lead earned him a post-race penalty and he was deducted four places for his rash move on Lawrence.
Results:
Cadet: Final 1 Jenson Murchison; 2 Jordan Sanders, 3 Matthew Round-Garrido; 4 Sam Faulkner; 5 Matthew Taylor; 6 Callum Croxon.
Junior: Final 1 Zack Nickson; 2 William Stowell; 3 AJ Morris; 4 Ronan McKenzie; 5 Willis Mayneord; 6 Jack New.
Light: Final 1 Sam Dimelow; 2 Jamie Crease; 3 Ayrton Hirst; 4 Sam Massey; 5 Patrick Lay; 6 Elliot Rice.
Heavy: Final 1 Barnaby Pittingale; 2 Roland Bredner; 3 Will Smith; 4 Neil Fisher; 5 Tim Hill; 6 Ken Churchill.