MSA British Kart Championship
Round 1, PFI - 21/22 March 2009

In the first final of the new look British Kart Championship, complete with grid girls, live timing screens in the paddock and a results WiFi intranet, Ben Cooper was out ahead but starting to come under pressure from Jordon Lennox-Lamb.  Then Cooper's hand went up, his engine had seized up, leaving the win in Lennox-Lamb's hands. 

Above: Jordon Lennox-Lamb
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

Cooper is the unofficial world champion in the Rotax Max class, having won the Grand Finals in Italy last year, and he has moved up to the premier KF1 class.  They had both dropped Richard Bradley, who temporarily had fallen behind Elliot Burton.  Bradley nearly pulled off an audacious second last lap dive inside Robert Foster-Jones, who had inherited second, but the positions reverted later on the same lap. 

In the second final Bradley led much of the race, until a very late braking move by Lennox-Lamb gave him the win for maximum points.  "I just sat behind Richard, conserving my tyres and seeing his weak spots," said Lennox-Lamb.  Cooper was on a giant-killing recovery, clashing with KF1 vice-champion Lee Bell on the way before slicing inside Bradley at the first hairpin for second place.  "We changed the kart to give grip at the beginning and it lost it at the end of the race," explained Bradley. 

Cooper was initially excluded for the incident with Bell, but was re-instated on appeal.  He had earlier muttered: "One more lap and I would have won."  After an engine had broken in the second heat, British champion Mark Litchfield had a largely lack-lustre race to fourth place.

Final 1
1 Jordon Lennox-Lamb Topkart/IAME
2 Robert Foster-Jones Alonso/Vortex
3 Richard Bradley Maddox/IAME
4 Elliot Burton Tonykart/Vortex
5 Lee Bell Wright/tba
6 Mark Litchfield Maranello/Maxter

Final 2
1 Lennox-Lamb
2 31 Ben Cooper Tonykart/Vortex
3 Bradley
4 Litchfield 
5 Jonathan Walker Gillard/TM
6 Denis Gorman Wright/IAME

Championship standings
1 Jordon Lennox-Lamb 100
2 Richard Bradley 92
3 Mark Litchfield 86
4 Ben Cooper 84
5 Robert Foster-Jones 84
6 Elliot Burton 83

 
Championship standings
1 Jake Dennis 96
2 Sennan Fielding 94
3 Alex Albon 93
4 Macaulay Walsh 89
5 Alex Walker 85
6 Jordan King 81

Images courtesy of Chris Walker, kartpix.net

MSA British Junior Kart Championship
Round 1, PFI - 21/22 March 2009

After a repechage to sort out the last four places on the thirty strong grid for the first final, Sennan Fielding made a break at the start and thereafter was never headed.  Having traded second with a fast starting Stefan Lyttle, Macaulay Walsh surged clear of the third place battle.  Jake Dennis, with a reasonable start, worked his way through to chase down Walsh, whilst Alex Albon, from grid three, fell down to thirteenth avoiding incidents, stormed back to fifth.  Dennis was now second and in hot pursuit of Fielding, closing to within a tenth of a second. 

Above: JAlexander Albon
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

In the second final, Dennis and Fielding had a tremendous dice until Walsh intervened, Dennis dropping to fifth behind Albon and Jordan King.  As Albon vaulted into the lead, Dennis was intent on following, scraping past Walsh and Fielding on consecutive laps to reel in Albon.  The latter had to go into full defensive mode, the pair side by side through the last lap with Albon taking victory by 0.06 seconds with Albon admitting: "I was lucky to hold him off." 

Final 1
1 Sennan Fielding Tonykart/XTR
2 Jake Dennis Topkart/Maxter
3 Macaulay Walsh Birel/IAME
4 Sam Blake Octane/Maxter
5 Alexander Albon Tonykart/TM
6 Jordan King Maranello/Maxter

Final 2
1 Albon
2 Dennis
3 Alex Walker Tonykart/tba
4 Fielding
5 Walsh
6 Callum Bowyer Intrepid/Maxter