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InKart - Daytona Milton Keynes
It was a very wet start to the day for round six of the InKart season.
Zayn Perry took the first heat of the day after a very close battle for the win between himself and Harry Fitch. Tom Justice took third on the road just seven tenths behind however, contact earlier in the race saw him receive a one place penalty and drop to fourth with Theo Laverty being promoted into third.
In the cadets it was Leo Sibthorpe that took an impressive win finishing just five tenths in front of championship leader Gillen Townshend who was looking to try and extend his lead in the championship. Amelia-Alice Barreau took the final spot on the podium.
Ethan Guest took the second heat of the day finishing just two tenths in front of Matthew Swatton after a very close battle. Micheal Oxtoby-Page took third place just 1.5 seconds behind.
In the cadets it was Alexander Karadzhov that took the second heat of the day finishing seven seconds in front of his closest rival of Arel Kesimgil in second place, Teddy Mullan was a further thirty seconds back in third.
Zachary Smith took the win on the road with Rayaan Malik 3.5 seconds behind however, both drivers were penalised causing both to drop down the order into second and third, as a result it was Justice that took the third heat.
Ryan Cafferkey picked up the third heat in the cadets with Barreau picking up yet another podium in the heats. Finishing just five seconds behind, it was Arel Kesimgil who took the final spot on the podium.
In the final heat of the day, Swatton yet again impressed in the wet conditions and secured himself the pole for the A-Final after picking up a first and second in the heats. Dominic Fleming took second place and secured his spot in the A-Final. Guest picked up third just a second behind Fleming.
Alexander Karadshov picked up his second win of the day as he looked to try and pass Townshend in the championship. Townshend placed second with Charlie Marden taking third.
Oxtoby-Page dominated the B-Final to take the race win finishing 9.4 seconds in front of Malik with Jacob Noble taking the final spot on the podium a further seven seconds back.
Barreau took yet another win in the B-Final to qualify for her second ever A-Final. Mullan took second place ten seconds behind with Marden a little way further back in third.
It was an extremely close battle for the win in the A-Final with five drivers all separated by under a second for most of the race. Swatton however was able to control the pace from the front and as the others battled behind, he managed to build a 1.6 second gap in the last few laps to take his first A-Final win of the season, becoming the fifth different winner of the season. Guest took second place just 1.6 seconds back with Fitch just 2.1 seconds back in third place.
Karadzhov took the race win in the cadets and picked up the fastest lap as he received a perfect score for round six, scoring all sixty-one points and crucially seven more points than championship rival Townshend. He managed to finish in second place while Cafferkey got the final spot on the podium.
Thursday Night League - Daytona Sandown Park
It was quite literally a freezing cold winters night at Daytona Sandown Park for the tenth round of Thursday Night League. With the drivers battling their tyre temperatures throughout the evening – it was set to be a unique affair.
SODI
Rafael Blanco-Bush took pole in a pretty close qualifying session, where two drivers were within a second of his time. Those drivers were Dan Giles and Frederick Burden, both hoping they could challenge for the win.
Heading into the race, Rafael Blanco-Bush got an incredible start and built a two second gap throughout the opening laps. From there his job was to keep plugging away and stay on circuit, something he did rather more successfully than his rivals – building a ten second gap, partially due to spins and tumbles behind. Frederick Burden was second, just six and a half seconds down at the line, clawing back in a pretty strong final stint. They were joined on the podium by Vivek Bhalla, who drove impressively to recover after a spin at turn six in the opening laps.
DMAX
A full DMAX grid found it tough to acclimatise to conditions throughout qualifying, and so we saw a much-interrupted session. Battling through many yellow flags, and even a period under full course yellow, Archie Bullard managed to snatch pole position by two tenths of a second. He was joined on the front row by fellow championship contender, Luka Nik, with other major players such as, Yaseen Khan and Charlie Foster starting just behind.
Bullard did not let his pole position go to waste, taking a lights-to-flag victory in the twenty-minute race, not receiving much of a challenge from the drivers behind. Backmarker traffic was a big factor in the race, as some of the less experienced drivers struggled with the circuit’s problematic condition. Luka Nik was a driver who was deemed to have misjudged this traffic, receiving a three-place penalty for contact with a backmarker – but upon appeal was reinstated into his podium spot, finishing the race in third. As for the runner-up spot, it was taken by Ian Del-Pizzo – who’s consistency was the reason for his good finish, despite major challenges from the likes of Nik and Foster behind.
Thursday Night League - Daytona Tamworth
The third-to-last round of Thursday Night League at Daytona Tamworth in 2024 saw the drivers having to contend with some of the greasiest track conditions all season, despite the clear and dark skies, as winter had well and truly arrived.
N35-ST
The championship picture for the N35s had truly started to take shape. With just four drivers now mathematically able to take the crown, all of them were present in the top four in qualifying. Current championship leader Sam Chaplin took pole from returning Jude Lillyman by the narrowest of margins, just seven hundredths of a second separating them around an almost ninety second lap. Nihal Joye and Brent Deeley made up the second row, but both were more than a second off pole with work to do.
As the Lightweights went out, Chaplin took the risky damp inside line through turn one to maintain his lead from Lillyman, with Deeley and Joye duelling behind. However, there was disaster for the man currently sitting P2 in the championship, as Joye found himself in the grass on the outside of turn five, dropping him to last and potentially spelling an end to his title hopes.
At the front of the field, Chaplin never looked back. The only driver in the whole field who finished the race with no major mistakes. He eventually took the win by a remarkable forty seconds in what became a race of attrition, strengthening his grip at the top of the championship in the process. Lillyman did well to stay with him in the opening stages but a couple of half-spins towards the end took him out of contention for the win. Meanwhile, Deeley battled fiercely with Scott Coley for P3, the latter just falling short of a first podium of the season.
DMAX-GT
Whitehouse. Foden. Duffy. These three had emerged as the ones who will battle for the title and with the first of them absent from this round, it spelled a big opportunity for the latter two to grab some crucial points.
Ben Foden grabbed a narrow pole by three tenths of a second from Tom Duffy, multiple seconds clear of anyone else. Heading into the race, Duffy took advantage of the better outside line to slingshot himself down the straight, and with a bold move into turn four, he snatched the lead off the polesitter.
Knowledgeable spectators would expect Foden to start piling on the pressure, but it wasn’t to be. A calm and measured drive from Duffy, fresh from his first DMAX SuperChamps win, saw him take a fantastic first win of this TNL season by over seven seconds from Foden, catapulting him from championship outsider to right in the mix. Meanwhile, an equally engaging battle was happening for the final step on the podium, Sonny Zacharias and Peter Wach trading position for the entire race, culminating in a dramatic final lap mistake from Zacharias, gifting Wach his first podium of the season.
Two rounds to go. One championship cementing, one still wide open. Join us in just 7 days for the penultimate round of an enthralling TNL season at Tamworth!
Thursday Night League - Daytona Milton Keynes
SODI
Noah Willis took pole position for round ten of Thursday Night League in very cold and icy conditions with the temperature reaching a freezing 0 degrees. Ash Chivers took second place just four tenths behind. Richard Danby was a further three tenths off Chivers.
The opening lap ended up being very chaotic with drivers struggling to keep the kart pointing in the right direction, including both Chivers and Willis who spun out and dropped to the back of the field. This allowed Danby to take the lead and go on to take the chequered flag in first. Chivers and Willis both had impressive recovery drives after their spins, making it back onto the podium with Chivers in second and Willis in third.
DMAX
Lee Schnitzler used all his experience in challenging conditions to take pole position by just a tenth over Nathan Boyle in second. Current championship leader Jamie Tiley-Gooden took third just a further two tenths off.
As in the SODI race it was all about keeping the kart on the track with almost all the drivers having a spin during the race. Tiley-Gooden proved why he was at the top of the championship as he stormed to the race victory taking the win by ten seconds and securing the fastest lap by 1.2 seconds over any other driver. Schnitzler led for a large part of the race but a spin at the turn ten hairpin saw him drop down to second which is where he ended up at the finish. Boyle also had a spin, this time at the turn two chicane however, it didn’t effect his position as he came home to take the final step on the podium.
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