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SuperChamps, Round Four
Daytona Sandown Park
In a fresh shake up to the championship calendar, the races for this month’s Heats format round were to be held in the afternoon. The fading light and cooling track temperatures adding an extra challenge for drivers across both the SODI and DMAX classes. The GP circuit layout had been drying out throughout the day, after heavy rain in the early morning, but there were still areas of standing water, particularly off the circuit and stuck within the kerbs, waiting to punish any drivers that overstepped the limits of grip.
The afternoon of racing began with the DMAX category, a full grid of 22 karts hit the circuit for their initial 10-minute practice session. While practice didn’t count towards the upcoming Heats grids it was an important opportunity for drivers to gauge the grip levels and settle into a rhythm out on the track. Max Miller, Ashton Woolger and Adam Palmer were trading fastest laps between them, but it was Thomas Willians who secured the top spot with a blistering 46.483 fastest lap midway through the session. Practice led straight into DMAX Heat One, and with relatively warm tyres and focussed minds the first few laps were always going to prove lucrative for those willing to take the risk of pushing hard. The grid lineup was generated randomly which left the faster drivers from Practice scattered throughout the field with the fastest driver from Practice, Thomas Williams, starting at the rear. It was a generally tidy start to the race with Adam Palmer getting away cleanly and managing to keep his pole position start into turn one. Archie Bullard was deemed to have not left a kart length gap between himself and the kart ahead during the roll up to the lights and was handed a post-race penalty. Nonetheless, Bullard made a strong start and was up to third position by the end of the first lap, separating Freddie Burden and Ashton Woolger as they headed into turn one for the second time. The squabbling behind allowed Palmer to begin to pull a gap, but as Bullard passed Burden he began to reel in the race leader. By lap five he was well and truly glued to Palmers rear bumper. Palmer kept the kart under control and despite the pressure from Bullard took the race win by a few tenths of a second with Ashton Woolger securing third place. Further down the field a four-way battle for 6th place raged with Fin Ions securing the position from hard charging Thomas Williams, George Beauchamp, James Callan and Jamie Warner. Alfie Shrubb showed clear dominance over the Heavyweight category, winning by 6 seconds over Warren Gomm and setting the fastest lap time of the category
As the DMAX class returned to the pit lane, the SODI drivers hit the circuit for their initial Practice. With rubber starting to be laid down by the previous DMAX sessions, it was evident that lap times were going to be fast. A melee of drivers held the top spot as tyre temps warmed and drivers became familiar with the intricacies of the autumn conditions; it was Harry Banks who finished the session with his name at the top of the timesheets, Reece Harris the quickest of the Heavy category. As with the DMAX, the SODI drivers lined straight up for their first Heat with a random order placing Caesar Chen alongside Peter Tilev on the front row. By the end of the first lap Harry Banks was demonstrating the pace he had shown in Practice and was up into 2nd place, wrestling with Chen for the lead, Leger Dimitriou having made fantastic use of the bunched pack to move from 8th to 3rd in just over half a lap. A gaggle of karts followed Caesar with Banks, Tilev, Jeremy Gong and Tyler Orridge all trying to find dominance. However, it was Ryan Bentley who played his cards at the right moments and moved through the pack, avoiding getting caught up in other drivers’ battles. As the race drew to a close Bentley had reeled in Chen at the front, but wasn’t quite able to secure the win, the leading pair finishing with a comfortable gap over Dimitriou and Abhay Parmar behind. Jason Miller and Malachy Prakash squabbled hard over second place in the Heavies which allowed Reece Harris to consistently pull a gap from them and take the class win.
With the random grid of Heat One reversed for Heat Two, James Callan was pole alongside Thomas Williams, with young drivers Fin Ions and Amor Zayana behind. The race started well, and again Archie Bullard took full advantage of the bunched pack, sailing up into 2nd by the first cross of the start line. Williams got away well leaving the pack behind tripping over itself somewhat, resulting in penalties for drivers who made contact. The gap between Bullard and Williams barely exceeded one tenth of a second throughout the entire race distance and when the last lap board came out Williams was able to do just enough to deny Bullard the opportunity to pass, James Callan secured 3rd place on track with Freddie Burden and Oscar Homerstone 4th and 5th. Post race penalties dropped a few drivers down the order, having a knock-on effect for the Grand Final grids. Mikhail Sitnikov kept Alfie Shrubb honest throughout to secure second position in the Heavy category. A great performance on his first entry into the SuperChamps series. In the SODI class, Dylan Hourican and Tom Reed leapt off the front row of the grid and down towards turn one for the first time. Sid Stubbings and Leger Dimitriou were quick to take the top spots though and Abhay Parmer and Harry Banks followed them through to complete the top four by the end of lap one. Stubbings was passed a lap later by Dimitriou and then Parmer, eventually getting swallowed up by the pack of Tilev, Hourican and Gong, with Tom Reed and Harry Banks just ahead of Ryan Bentley. Dimitriou led to the flag, but hard charging Caesar Chen put tremendous pressure on Parmer for 2nd place, having started in 11th position. Reece Harris made his way from last to 1st in the Heavies, a textbook drive to secure maximum points.
Eyes drew towards the Final in the DMAX class where Archie Bullard and Thomas Williams set the rolling start pace down towards the lights, with Frederick Burden and Adam Palmer 3rd and 4th. As the race progressed Bullard built himself a small safety net from Williams, the pair able to stay ahead of the group of Palmer, Burden, James Callan and Fin Ions. Williams maintained pressure on Bullard and after an uncharacteristic mistake by the leader, was able to take the lead on Lap Six. The leading pair consequentially working together to maintain a gap over third place Burden while behind Ions and Jamie Warner fought their way to the front of a train of six karts. As the last lap board came out, it marked the final opportunity for Bullard to take the lead, but he simply wasn’t close enough and Williams crossed under the chequered flag with just a few tenths of breathing room. Freddie Burden finished in third with a gap back to the squabbling pack behind, it was Warner who led that over the line with post-race penalties applied to drivers behind for final corner contact. Alfie Shrubb led the Heavies from flag to flag but a close battle between Warren Gomm and Mikhail Sitnikov ended with the two taking 2nd and 3rd places respectively. The SODI Final was equally exhilarating, with several drivers having shown great pace in the Heats, each capable of winning races, the front row of Caesar Chen and Leger Dimitriou were always going to be under a lot of pressure throughout. Chen managed to keep the lead over Lap One but Dimitriou wasn’t so fortunate - he dropped to 7th which promoted Abhay Parmar and Ryan Bentley into the podium positions. Leger wasn’t to be beaten though and over the next five laps made his way back up into third. What followed was an impressive recovery drive as he slowly reeled in the leaders ahead. Chen and Parmar were having a phenomenal drive themselves, with no more than a kart length separating them at any one time, and it looked as though Dimitriou may be able to catch the duelling front runners. But it wasn’t to be, and Chen took the win by less than a tenth from Parmar with Dimitriou just behind. Harry Banks finished in 4th with the rest of the field in a tightly grouped pack behind. Reece Harris capitalised on his Heats performances to take the win and maximum points in the Heavy category, with Jason Miller 2nd ahead of Malachy Prakash.
InKart, Round Five
Daytona Sandown Park
The Cup format was order of the day for the Fifth Round of the hard-fought Junior and Cadet Championships. Heavy rain overnight meant that the circuit was wet, but with a forecast of clear skies ahead the day promised to deliver a drying circuit and the resultant changeable conditions that ensured close racing.
With the grid split into two groups, based around the championship standings, Qualifying got off to a strong start. Group One hit the circuit to assess the grip levels and work towards setting a quick time. The first fifteen minutes of the session are practice, with a green flag signalling the start of 5-minutes of qualifying. With a wet track having clear space on the circuit was always going to be important and it was on lap two that Sully Khan found the perfect mix of speed, control and track position to set the quickest time of the session. Daniel Harman was 2nd quickest and Rafeal Beattie-McKerrow dropped a quick final lap to take 3rd, edging out Sarah Telford and Leo Hyde-Vaamonde. In the Cadets both Lucio Vaval and Joshua Puttick set very quick initial laps with just three-thousandths of a second separating their times. Max Skilton took third place with a blistering 1:09.3 on his third lap. As the green flag lit up for the start of Group Two’s Qualifying session it was clear that some drivers hadn’t quite yet mastered the changeable track conditions and yellow flags for spinning drivers mean that it was important to get a clean lap in over the final few minutes of the session. That is exactly what Adam Telford did, managing to secure 2nd place on the final lap just behind fastest driver George Pitch. Barnaby Ford and George Candasamy finished less than half a second behind Telford. Desmond Bryan showed absolute class, as he has throughout the season, setting a time that was not only fastest of the Cadets but also very nearly got him into the top ten of the faster Junior class results. The margin between 1st place Bryan and 2nd place Thomas Volante was a fraction of a second, the pair just a little faster than 3rd place Ejay Barrs-James.
With Qualifying complete the drivers were split into A and B-Final grids. The latter went first, and Kiran Lemacon sat on pole alongside Milan Pilay in the Juniors with a front row of Vladimir Patapas and Jack Dodgson in the Cadets. The Juniors left the line cleanly with a penalty given out for not following the tramlines in the Cadet grid. Pilay took the lead on lap one, but the standout first lap performances went to Jason Bond and Valters Zips, both drivers unfamiliar with starting towards the rear of the B-Final and finding their way up into the top five by Turn Eight. As the race developed Hadi Chaudry took the lead in the Cadets and held it until the chequered with a strong race by Teddy Cogbill and Thomas Gulliver rounding out the podium. Pilay slowly but surely edged away from the field in the Juniors, but it was second place Bond who took fastest lap. Lemacon held onto third from Harvey Standfield who looked to be completely at home in the difficult circuit conditions, moving from 9th to 4th overall.
With the winners of the B-Finals taking their places at the rear of the A-Final grids, the circuit was almost dry as the green light triggered the start of the 25-minute A-Final. George Pitch and Sully Khan leapt from the line to lead the Juniors down into turn one, followed moments later by the Cadet front row of Lucio Vaval and Desmond Bryan. By the end of lap two Daniel Harman had moved ahead of Khan with Adam Telford in tow, Joshua Puttick and Max Skilton taking 1st and 2nd place at the head of the Cadet train. By lap four, Daniel Marutyak was up into 4th position and pulling away from 5th place Jack Candasamy. Marutyak passed Telford on lap six and then Pitch on lap seven who had lost the lead to Harman only a lap earlier. On lap nine Marutyak took the lead, but Harman was certainly not going to let him off easily, the pair remained glued together for the rest of the race ending up separated by just two tenths of a second at the chequered flag. George Pitch was able to fend off a determined Adam Telford to secure 3rd place in the Junior Category. Thomas Volante took the Cadet lead on lap three from Joshua Puttick with Lucio Vaval following all the way to the flag, but it was incredibly impressive to see B-Final winner, Hadi Chaudry make his way from the very back of the grid all the way to 3rd step on the podium.
Daytona Milton Keynes
Daytona Milton Keynes’ InKart title fight returned for Round Five on the Linkback & Cliff Drop layout in the Cup format. Grip came and went, setting the stage for a morning packed with unpredictability, precision, and a fair share of brave driving from our up-and-coming motorsport stars.
As the first half of the field rolled out for their 5-minute Qualifying session, it was clear that conditions would reward those willing to push early. Last year’s Cadet champion, Gillen Townshend, wasted no time reminding everyone why he wore the crown. Townshend delivered a statement run, stopping the clocks over three tenths clear of the field. Behind him, a tight fight brewed between his closest Cadet rivals. Teddy Mullan secured second, while Ryan Cafferkey completed the top three. In the Junior class, the story was equally compelling. Arel Kesimgil rose to the occasion in Group One, mastering the shifting grip levels and using said traction to go fastest of the opening runners, locking down a place on the front row of the A-Final. Close behind came Nathanial Garai, continuing his strong form with a solid second place in the group, while Oliver Catchpole rounded out third, completing a fiercely competitive opening session. Next, the spotlight shifted towards Group Two who took to the track under conditions that were no less of a challenge. In the Juniors, Dominic Flemming stole the stage, piecing together a superb lap to top the times and edge out Rayaan Malik, who missed out on the group’s fastest time by less than three hundredths of a second. Henry James secured third, just over a second back from the flying top two as the group battled an increasingly unpredictable circuit. The second half of the Cadet field delivered its own share of drama. Jack Dowding rose to the top, outpacing Charlie Marden by under a tenth in a tightly fought contest. Senna Khosrowpanah completed the Cadet top three, keeping the pressure on as conditions continued to ebb and flow.
In the Juniors B-Final, Daniel McNally delivered one of the standout drives of the morning. Launching into the lead early on, McNally stormed clear of the field and greeted the chequered flag with a margin of over 11 seconds to his nearest rival. Behind him, Zachary Wright held firm to take second place, while Dominic Gulbis completed the Junior podium after a composed and consistent performance. The Cadets saw an even more commanding display. Nathan Grech was simply untouchable, building a gap that grew lap after lap until he crossed the line more than 25 seconds ahead of his closest challenger. That rival was Noah Martin, who himself managed to pull a solid cushion over Avi Goel, the latter securing third place and the final spot on the Cadet podium. With both class winners booking their place in the A-Final, the morning’s tension only grew.
With the day’s action nearing an end, the Junior class A-Final drivers took to the track. It quickly became a three-way showdown. Arel Kesimgil, Rayaan Malik, and Dominic Flemming locked into a race-long duel that kept the spectators on edge. Lap after lap, the trio traded sectors, pressured one another, and refused to let even a kart’s length slip. In the end, it was Kesimgil who held his nerve and pace to take the round win, with Flemming crossing the line in second and Malik forced to settle for third. All three were covered by just three seconds, a testament to how fiercely contested the fight had been. The Cadet race however, told a very different story. From the moment the lights went out, Gillen Townshend asserted the authority of a reigning champion. While chaos and battles erupted behind him, Townshend executed a controlled race that saw him steadily stretch his lead with each passing lap. By the time he crossed the line, he had built a commanding margin of over 20 seconds. Behind him, Senna Khosrowpanah secured a well-earned second place, while Charlie Marden completed the podium with a solid drive to third.
Daytona Tamworth
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