British Super One MSA Series, Round 5

from Graham Smith

Making its first visit to the Northern Ireland province for nine years, the Super One Series was embraced by the region, with Nelson McCausland, the Government’s Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure saying: “I am very pleased that the Ulster Karting Club has secured a round of the MSA British Karting Championship in 2009. Returning to Nutts Corner Motorsports Centre shows that this venue is capable of staging major events and with planned improvements I am certain the track will continue to build on its excellent reputation.    Karting has produced some of the best known drivers: the current Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, current Formula One leader, Jenson Button, as well as recently crowned World A1 GP champion Adam Carroll, from Portadown, starting their careers in this sport.” 

pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

Under the new ownership of a prominent karting family, the circuit is virtually up to CIK standards, and only the weather let down what was a fantastic event.  The Mayor of Antrim Councillor Adrian Cochrane-Watson welcomed driver to a civic reception, saying: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome drivers, officials and karting enthusiasts from across the UK and Ireland to the Borough of Antrim, for round 5 of the British Karting Championship.   This prestigious event is welcomed to Nutt’s Corner and, indeed, to Northern Ireland for the first time in many years. With its on-site facilities, ease of access and central location, this venue makes an ideal setting for high calibre events such as this. I have no doubt that the impressive track will also pose quite a challenge to the budding F1 stars taking part this weekend.” 

Top KF2 driver Shaun Carter replied on behalf of the competitors and teams, saying how pleased they all were to be competing once again at the venue.  Unfortunately the second finals had to be cancelled due to torrential rain and so instead of 10 out of 14 finals counting for the championship, it will now be 9 out of 13.  The club put on a guest race for their local Cadets to the championship format, and the finals were won by William Creighton and Darragh Cormack.

The next and penultimate round is at Larkhall in Scotland, on 12-13 September.

pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

KF1 MSA British Kart Championship
Timed Qualifying: Luke Wright, Robert Foster-Jones, Elliot Burton
Heat 1: Luke Wright, Robert Foster-Jones, Jordon Lennox-Lamb
Heat 2: Richard Bradley, Robert Foster-Jones, Jonathan Walker
Final 1: Robert Foster-Jones grabbed the hole shot from pole position, the very quick youngster Luke Wright right behind then a train with Jordon Lennox-Lamb, Ben Cooper, Richard Bradley and Elliot Burton.  Sam Snell had a big slide losing ground on the others and Lennox-Lamb would fade quickly.  He had been on a RK (Kubica) kart for the first time, at least for the dry races.  This final started after a heavy shower, and everyone was on wets, but with the track drying they would be in poor condition by the end, making a following outing very problematical since only one set of tyres is permitted.  Defending champion Mark Litchfield had missed a heat, and his new rain tyres were taking time to work, he finished sixth.  Burton proved to have the best set-up as he sped up to relieve Foster-Jones of the lead, Bradley following along for second.  Earlier Wright had plummeted to the back after an error, and Foster-Jones faded to fifth behind Cooper and Walker as his tyres went off whilst Lee Bell gave up after only five laps. 

Results
1 Elliot Burton (Tonykart)
2 Richard Bradley (Tonykart)
3 Ben Cooper (Tonykart)
4 Jonathan Walker (Gillard)
5 Robert Foster-Jones (Alonso)
Championship Standings
1 Ben Cooper 420
2 Mark Litchfield 395
3 Jordon Lennox-Lamb 393
4 Luke Wright 386
5 Rob Foster-Jones 382
5= Lee Bell 382

Above: Elliot Burton
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

KF3 MSA British Junior Kart Championship
Timed Qualifying: Sennan Fielding, Alexander Albon, Stefan Lyttle
Heat 1: Alexander Albon, Sennan Fielding, Edward Jones
Heat 2: Alexander Albon, Macaulay Walsh, Guilherme Silva
Heat 3: Sennan Fielding, Ben Barnicoat, Stefan Lyttle
Final 1: Alexander Albon dominated proceedings in once more, winning both his heats and enjoying a lights to flag victory in the sole final.  From winning the other heat, Sennan Fielding had the unloved outside front row position, and fell to fourth at the start.  He was back in second by mid-distance.  Dubai domiciled Edward Jones grabbed second at the start, but hit a puddle dropping to fourth, which he later had to give up to Stefan Lyttle.  Ollie Walker, Jake Dalton and others spun off on the water that had been thrown on the track.  Title challenger Jake Dennis reached eleventh from the back after two disastrous heats, whilst Macaulay Walsh capitalised on Jones’ error for third place.

Results
1 Alexander Albon (Tonykart)
2 Sennan Fielding (Tonykart)
3 Macaulay Walsh (Birel)
4 Stefan Lyttle (Maranello)
5 Edward Jones (Zanardi)
Championship Standings
1 Alexander Albon 431
2 Jake Dennis 415
3 Jordan King 379
4 Sennan Fielding 369
5 Sam Blake 356

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

KF2 ABkC National Kart Championship
Timed Qualifying: Jordan Chamberlain, Chris Lock, Ollie Morris-Jones
Heat 1: Jordan Chamberlain, Shaun Carter, Jake Ball
Heat 2: Shaun Carter, James Godbehere, Chris Lock
Final 1: With Jordan Chamberlain sidelined after breaking his collar-bone in a heat start, Shaun Carter earned pole position, and with a good start was never headed.  Alongside him Charles Bonsey was less lucky, falling away to tenth before clawing his way back through the field to fourth place.  The drivers had all started on slick tyrs, but the rain started up again towards the end of the race.  Tom Joyner had slotted into second at the start, but he was forced into retirement after a few laps, after the track became slippy with the approaching rain.  That promoted Jake Ball into second whilst Alex Lynn behind was fending off David Wagner and Steven Napier.  Both of them got past Lynn when he made an error, but Lynn soon regained the final podium place.  Championship contender Chris Lock was excluded for a driving offence.

Results:
1 Shaun Carter (Tonykart)
2 Jake Ball (Tonykart)
3 Alex Lynn (Alonso)
4 Charles Bonsey (Tonykart)
5 Jake Lloyd (Tonykart)
Championship Standings
1 Jordan Chamberlain 406
2 Shaun Carter 389
3 Charles Bonsey 368
4 Alex Lynn 352
5 Chris Lock 339

Above: Shaun Carter
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

Cadet ABkC National Kart Championship
Timed Qualifying: Lando Norris, Harry Woodhead, Connor Jupp
Heat 1: Alex Gill, Lano Norris, Connor Jupp
Heat 2: Connor Jupp, Ricky Collard, George Russell
Final 1: As Connor Jupp led Ricky Collard, Alex Gill, George Russell and Sam Webster away in that order, the karts were all on slick tyres bar one although the track was damp off-line.  Gill leapfrogged Collard to try and push Jupp clear, whilst Webster briefly did the same to Russell, before losing places and later recovering to fifth.  Collard fell out of the battle with Russell, dropping to twentieth place and now seeing Russell behind, Gill made his move on the lead, and pulled clear.  That gave Russell a run on Jupp for second place, as Harry Woodhead sped up to fourth from his lowly grid 14 start position. 

Results
1 Alex Gill (Wright)
2 George Russell (Zip)
3 Connor Jupp (Zip)
4 Harry Woodhead (Zip)
5 Sam Webster (Zip)
Championship Standings
1 Alex Gill 403
2 Harry Woodhead 307
3 Max Vaughan 385
4 George Russell 379
5 Josh White 369

Above: Alex Gill
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net

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