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SuperChamps - Daytona Sandown Park
We were greeted by quite mild conditions for the sixth round of SuperChamps at Daytona Sandown Park, a pleasant change from the freezing conditions over the last couple of days. We were back on the Grand Prix format, which is a test of both a driver’s one lap pace and consistency – making for an interesting race.
With it all square at the top of the DMAX Lightweight standings, the penultimate round of SuperChamps at Daytona Sandown Park was set to be incredible. In the tough conditions of a named storm, two packed grids took to the GP circuit in the ‘heats’ format.
SODI
Oscar Homerstone snuck into pole position after his two heat races, finishing just a point ahead of Ellis McKenzie in an all-Lightweight front row. The wet conditions evened out the playing field somewhat, with Reece Harris and Olly Cooper-Welton set to share the second row of the grid despite being in the Heavyweight class. This was particularly important for the championship where Cooper-Welton was desperate to get one over on his main rival with only a handful of points between them at this point in the season.
In the final, Jamie Warner managed to take the lead into the first corner, not losing that top spot at any point throughout the fifteen-minute final, managing to build a comfortable six and a half second gap to second place. Ellis McKenzie was just one of the drivers that Charlie Foster had to get past on his storming first lap, managing to climb to second by the time it had concluded. McKenzie was able to stay with Foster but ultimately finished in third after a hard-fought battle between the two. Given he had some difficult heats to navigate, Foster was delighted to get onto the second step of the podium.
As for the Heavyweights, Reece Harris struck a massive blow into Cooper-Welton’s championship hopes with an impressive victory, finishing in fourth overall and an entire three seconds clear of the Lightweight driver behind him. It is fair to say that Cooper-Welton struggled a bit in the final, but did manage to get into a commendable tenth overall on his way to the Heavyweight runner’s up spot. The battle behind was fascinating, as Sam Roy and Kevin Warner fought throughout the late stages of the race. Eventually, it was series debutant Warner that was able to secure the final podium spot.
DMAX
The Lightweights locked out the first two rows of the grid for the final based on their heat’s performance in the DMAX class. Archie Bullard struck the first blow of the day into Luka Nik, who struggled to score in the first two races. Henry Lopes Gracey was alongside Bullard on the front row, with William Willard being the pick of the Heavyweights in the early stages of the day.
With the security of being in the championship lead heading into final round, Archie Bullard fought hard to take victory. The margin at the line was just eight tenths of a second ahead of the fastest driver of the day, Henry Lopes Gracey. It got quite dramatic on the final lap of the race as Bullard made a mistake in the closing corners. Lopes Gracey pushed him right to the line but could not quite take victory. They were joined on the podium by Antonio Sholin, who actually had a quiet race despite all things considered.
Continuing from his good momentum in the heats, William Willard took victory in the Heavyweight final. Second place was slightly more controversial, as initial second place finisher Andreas Demetriades recieved a -3 place penalty for a takeout in the opening laps of the race. This promoted Kieran Hyde-Moody into second position, with Ross Sandwell driving well throughout to get himself onto the final step of the podium.
Even though Bullard took victory this time, the championship is still wide open in the DMAX category, and we look forward to seeing the drama unfold in the final round of the season on the 22nd of December.
SuperChamps - Daytona Milton Keynes
It was a wet and windy round thanks to the arrival of Storm Darragh for the penultimate round of the SuperChamps season, meaning the drivers had to try and keep it on track if they wanted to take the win.
SODI
Charlie Csepreghi took the pole in the SODI category by an impressive eight tenths over his closest rival Tom Justice the current InKart championship leader taking second place. Richard Danby had his best qualifying performance of the year to take third and pole in the Heavyweight category by six tenths over Barry Morris who just needed to finish the race to pick up the championship.
Justice stormed to the race win, taking it by 6.5 seconds over Charlie Csepreghi who did manage to pick up the fastest lap and gain himself what could be a crucial point going into the season finale. Max Lindgren picked up a podium finish taking third place 9.8 seconds back.
Danby received his first race win of the season in the Heavyweight category as he just about managed to hold off Morris by 1.4 seconds. With that finish for Morris it now meant he was uncatchable at the top of the table.
DMAX
James King took what could be a crucial pole position as he looked to try and pick up as many points as possible before the final round of the season. One of the championship rivals, Ethan Pritchard, managed to take second place as he tried to stay as close to King as possible.
Samuel Spencer had his best qualifying of the season as he took third place with the opportunity to take a first SuperChamp’s podium.
Myles Bate obtained pole position in the Heavyweight category by five tenths over Ashley Mayston-King in second and Scott Woosey in third.
There was drama on the first lap as contact between the top two (King and Pritchard) saw them both spin out on the first lap; King returned the position due contact to avoid himself a penalty.
King however, made a championship defining drive back through the field taking the race win by a margin of 8.8 seconds over Pritchard. He also delivered an unbelievable drive back through the field however, Harry Asher, Edgar Azevedo, and Pritchard all went a too quickly under a yellow flag, picking themselves up a position penalty. As a result, Pritchard dropped to third and Spencer took his first podium of the season securing second place.
Woosey managed to get the better of Mayston-King as he picked up his second win of the season. Mayston-King gained the fastest lap of the race, keeping a 100% record of receiving the fastest lap in every round of SuperChamps this season.
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