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InKart - Daytona Sandown Park
A drizzly morning welcomed our drivers back for the second round of InKart at Daytona Sandown Park. We were on the Grand Prix layout once again, but this time it was the driver-favourite Heats format that would be the challenge of the day.
Juniors
Daniel Marutyak was flawless in his heats, winning both and managing to secure safe passage into the A-final. He was joined in the battle for the A-Final win by Leger Dimitriou and Aleksander Kozuch, two drivers that had relatively easy times in the heat races but had to fight hard for success in the final. Miles Jordan narrowly missed out on the A-Final, putting him up against Andrew Thomson and Jason Bond in the B-Final for that promotion spot.
In the B-Final, Thomson found himself battling Sarah Telford and Bond for the race win, ending up taking the promotion by just three tenths of a second. Fresh off her impressive performance in the Jamie Chadwick Series, Telford secured a strong second-place finish, narrowly missing an A-Final appearance after a hard-fought battle with Thomson. Bond was in third, rounding out the podium and found himself unlucky not to take a promotion.
There were no promotion heroics from Thomson in the A-Final, though he did manage a respectable sixth. Instead, honours went to Leger Dimitriu – who was just five tenths of a second ahead of Daniel Marutyak at the line, having to put up with stubborn resistance to get through in the first place. They were joined on the podium by fastest driver Adam Telford, who did incredibly well to fend off Felix Sheldon-Heywood towards the end of the race.
Cadets
Just like Marutyak in the Juniors, Ted Hayward dominated his heats, fully aware that Sebastian Mejer would be a formidable rival as he advanced to the finals. It was not just Mejer he had to be concerned about, as Ed Siberry and Arno Nurijanyan were very close behind. Most people were keeping their eyes on Oscar Bradley, who missed out on the A-Final qualification but would have the pace to compete if he was able to pass through the B-Final safely.
Speaking of passing through the B-Final safely, Bradley did just that – taking the lead on the tenth lap of the race and not looking back from that point. His winning margin was nearly six seconds in the end, though the size of this gap is deceiving as he was challenged by Max Hayward, who finished second. Desmond Bryan was the third-place runner in the B-Final.
For the first time this season, we saw a B-Final winner go back-to-back and also win the A-Final, though Oscar Bradley was aided by a bump and pass penalty that went the way of Sebastian Mejer, for a mistake he made at turn four in the middle of the race. They were joined on the podium by Ed Siberry, who had a handful from Ted Hayward at times during the race but ultimately emerged unscathed on the podium.
It was a fantastic round of InKart at Sandown Park, and we look forward to welcoming drivers back in a few weeks’ time for round three.
InKart - Daytona Tamworth
InKart continues to grow from strength-to-strength at Daytona Tamworth. With newcomers making their debuts and the return of drivers from previous seasons, a damp track greeted the drivers first-thing on Sunday. Following a dry round one, it was time to see who could master these tricky conditions.
Cadets
Due to the large numbers, the Cup format (ten-minute practice, five-minute qualifying, twenty-five-minute race) was run across two grids, with an A and B-Final. Reigning champion and round one winner George Marriott was absent for this round, opening the door for potential rivals. After missing round one, last season’s vice champion Henry James was back and looking for a win, to start off a season where he hoped to go one position better than he did last season. He started ideally, taking overall pole, with JCS Juniors driver Freya Lally lining up alongside him on the front row for the final. After dominating the first two Cadet InKart rounds at Milton Keynes this season, Gillen Townshend made his debut at Tamworth InKart. He set the second-fastest lap in qualifying but was penalised for spinning under yellow flags, which dropped him down the group order and into the B final.
However, the winner from the B-Final in each class is promoted to the A-Final, and Townshend showed exceptional pace, demolishing the rest of the Cadet field, beating half of the Juniors by finishing P4 overall, and setting the fastest lap of the race overall. However, how much progress could he make from the back of the A-final? After making quick work of the lower end of the field, Townshend was P2 after just two laps. He then set about chasing down Henry James, the two of them rivals at Milton Keynes as well. Despite James setting the fastest lap, Townshend was the more consistent of the two, winning by just under three seconds from James, while Freya Lally sat comfortably in P3. Townshend’s fantastic debut was enough to earn him the first of the new ‘Driver of the Day’ awards, decided by the Race Directors.
Juniors
The Junior grid for this round was made up of fifteen drivers vying for their spot on the podium. In qualifying, regular Harry Kennedy took overall pole position, with a standout drive from Harry Gardiner seeing him line up alongside him on the front row. Debutant James Stevenson was an excellent P3, lining up alongside last round’s winner Reuben Potter on row two.
There was drama even before the race start, with Gardiner spinning on the way to the grid, earning him a three-place penalty before the lights had even gone out, taking away his chances of finishing on the podium. With the conditions incredibly greasy and refusing to dry, the race proved to be a race of attrition, with drivers like Potter and Alfie Kells setting high lap times but struggling to stay consistent. One driver who was consistent was Kennedy, making it look easy as he led from the front, winning by over ten seconds. B-Final winner William Jenkinson was a candidate for Driver of the Day, strategically making his way up through the A-Final field and snatching P2 off Stevenson in the dying stages.
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