Saturday 4th January, Daytona Milton Keynes

A fond farewell to all of our guests, spectators and everybody following along at home.

Another epic day of finals here at Daytona Milton Keynes, and a wonderful day for our community.

Special congratulations are in order to our four new champions.

We'll be posting all the pictures on our website this week.

There could well be some penalties applied after the red flag incident - we'll find out in due course.

Here's the top five as they crossed the line:

He's done it. Congratulations to our 2024 DMAX Champion of Champions, Dom Balasaitis.

He's won the top category, beating James King. Balasaitis' long-term rival and friend Jamie Tiley-Gooden finishes in third place.

It looks like Dom Balasaitis is going to do it, he's increased the gap between him and James King.

Jamie Tiley-Gooden is in third.

We're back underway.

It's freezing out there, and their tyres will have cooled down a lot.

Kuba Wozniak was involved in an incident, possibly involving Archie Bullard and Brad Philpot, and ended up in the tyre barrier. He's got out his kart, meaning red flags.

Wozniak has walked off, and exited the race, which will restart shortly.

Luckily, our media team are filming the race on our drone, so we'll be able to see exactly what happened in due course.

No injuries to anybody thankfully.

There's been a crash on turn six.

Not sure what's happened, but the drivers have paused.

Hopefully everybody is okay.

Dom has a brilliant lap and increases his gap for the lead to 0.7 seconds ahead of King.

Rhianna Purcocks has found herself in fourth! Not sure what happened there, but she's ahead of Kuba, and Brad Philpot has dropped down to sixth place.

Kuba Wozniak has worked his way up to fifth from the back of the grid, overtaking Rhianna Purcocks. He'll have to find a way through Bradley Philpot, though.

James King has just recorded the fastest lap of the race, narrowing Balaistis' lead to 0.5 of a second.

It's going to be close...

James King is 0.8 seconds behind Balasaitis. Dom is throwing down faster laps as he grows his lead marginally going into lap five.

Third-placed Jamie Tiley-Gooden has opened up a three second gap over Brad Philpot behind him.

Dom Balasaitis has opened up a one second lap ahead of James King in second.

Jamie Tiley-Gooden is in third, ahead of Brad Philpot. There was an excellent exchange between those two.

Jamie Chadwick Series champion Rhianna Purcocks is just behind Brad in fifth.

Jamie Tiley-Gooden starts on pole, with Dom Balasaitis behind him.

Balasaitis immediately makes a move, and takes the lead.

King is on Tiley-Gooden's tail straight away.

His team, CSM Racing, won the May 24 Hours in a SODI.

They then came back in October, with just three drivers, and won it again.

Now, he's just won the Daytona Race of Champions in the SODI class.

Incredible. In the end he won by 5.2 seconds, achieving the fastest lap of the race.

The top five, before any potential penalties are applied:

Barring a disaster, Andrew Strike is completely in control of this race. He's now four and a half seconds ahead of Freddie Jenkins.

Driver 61, Scott Mansell, once described Strike as the 'A.I. on Gran Turismo on hardest difficulty', as he effortlessly completes inch perfect laps of Daytona Milton Keynes

Edward Siberry has been promoted to third place in the Cadets, and will stand on the final podium alongside Karadzhov and James. Congrats, Edward.

Strike is 1.8 seconds ahead of Freddie Jenkins now. He was a hot favourite before the race had begun and he seems to be in control.

Murphy Thompson is in third, nine seconds off the leader.

Strike and Jenkins have built a very decent lead and are now in a two kart dual, five seconds ahead of Jules Larkin in third place.

There are lots of karts bunched up in contention for third place.

Andrew Strike starts on pole, with Freddie Jenkins just behind him, and Chloe McNally in third.

As a reminder, Charlie Fenton has started from the back after winning the B-final. It's unlikely that's where he'll finish though.

Alexander Karadzhov is a class act. He's dominated in this final, starting from the front and leading the entirety of the race.

What a result for the young man.

Justice has done it! He just edged out Jacob Kent and Zachary Smith to win it. What an incredible achievement for the young man.

Wow!

It's neck-and-neck between Justice, Kent and Smith in the Juniors.

Karadzhov still in the lead for the Cadets with Henry James just behind him.

Zachary Smith finds himself under intense pressure now. Jacob Kent is 0.6 seconds behind him now.

Alexander Karadzhov, who's won all of the races he's been in today, is still in the lead, but needs to maintain perfect form, as Kesimgil, now in second, is coming for him.

Henry James manages to capitalise on an attempted move by Kesimgil, and manages to slip into second place.

All the battling behind him allows Karadzhov to grow his gap further.

Zachary Smith has build himself a two-second lead at the front of the Junior pack.

Alexander Karadzhov has less breathing room, however, with Gillen Townshend and Arel Kesimgil on his tail.

So here we go, it all comes down to this.

As we complete the first lap, Zachary Smith, aka the Orange Stag, leads in the Juniors with Jacob Kent and Tom Justice behind him.

In the Cadets, Alexander Karadzhov is in first position.

We've heard from the race officials that there's going to a number of penalties applied, so this isn't how it will end, but here's the order they crossed the line.

Charlie Foster took the lead momentarily with two minutes remaining, but then Kuba retook the lead.

Foster ends up spinning out after an incident with Kuba, and drops right down to fifth.

Kuba's crossed the line in first place... but the Race Officials are going to be reviewing that. We'll keep you posted.

He's made his move on Barrass and taken the lead.

Charlie Foster's coming out of nowhere though...

Adam Barrass, Justin Elliott and Kuba Wozniak are really close to one another now.

As I write this, Kuba's just moved up to second.

Kuba's moved up to third now, having started in fourteenth. He had a big crash earlier. He's just set the fastest lap of the race.

Adam Barrass still in the lead.

In the DMAX B-Final, Adam Barrass is 2 seconds ahead of Justin Elliott, with Ben Smiles in third and last year's champion Kuba Wozniak in fourth.

Unless penalties are applied - that can take ten minutes or so...

James Devereux has received a penalty for an incident on lap one!!!

Henry Gordon has been promoted to the final.

Charlie Fenton crosses the line ahead of Matthew Turner, with his hands on his head. He can barely believe it!

Subject to any potential penalties, he'll be racing in the A-final later this afternoon.

DMAX engines are audible, ready for their B-final.

He's worked his way into the front of the pack and is seemingly in control of the race.

Scott Clenaghan was in fourth place, but has a spin, sending the people behind him dodging out the way. He drops right down and is surely now out of this.

Lily Jeffs has worked her way from tenth to fourth place with three minutes left to go.

Charlie Fenton, last year's champion, has worked his way up into second place, having started in fourteenth. He'll be desperate to make the A-final. He's just set the fastest lap.

Matthew Turner is still in the lead.

We're underway with the B-Finals.

Early on, Matthew Turner, Alfie Shrubb and Neil Hampson are battling it out for the top spot.

Seriously, what an incredible race that was.

If there's no penalties applied, this is the top three...

Wow! What a race. Kirby had the lead until the penultimate corner, and James Devereux made a move on her to snatch it right at the end.

Jessica then gets taken out trying to retake the lead, leaving Devereux to win, and get promoted to the Cadet A-final.

Marutytak wins by a second, after brilliant pressure from Alfie Kells for the entirety of the race.

We hope all the finals are that exciting...

Jessica has made her move and now leads the Cadets, with two and a half minutes to go.

Daniel Marrutyak has such a slender lead ahead of Alfie Kells, who have a two second lead ahead of Bowey in third.

Sebastian Mejer is still commanding from the front in the Cadets, with James Devereux and Jessica Kirby not giving him any margin for error, fractionally behind him.

Sebastian Mejer is under pressure from James Devereux and Jessica Kirby behind him, they're racing nose-to-tail four minutes into this race.

In the Juniors, Daniel Marutyak has just taken the lead, less than a second ahead of Alfie Kells and Lewis Bowey

Each final is fifteen minutes long, almost double the length of the heats.

Early on, Lewis Bowey leads in the Juniors after starting on pole, and Sebastian Mejer leads in the Cadets. He was desperately unlucky to miss out on the A-final, with fastest lap coming into play.

The ultimate prize up for grabs here is promotion to the A-final.

Our B-final drivers will be desperate to win with that in mind.

We're currently paused for lunch, for those following from home.

The racing will resume at 14:30.

We're nearly there with the grids for the finals.

There's a fair few tiebreaks coming into play, Yiorgos is pulling up several of the driver's fastest laps...

Yiorgos is furiously punching numbers into a calculator as he works out who qualifies for the A and B finals.

Stay tuned guys, we'll bring the latest to you in due course.

Jacob Kent just edged out Caelen Keith for the win, with Lewis Bowey in third.

Alexander Karadzhov, dressed intimidatingly in all black like Darth Vader, wins his third heat of the day, meaning he'll start the A-final at the front of the grid. He'll take some beating.

As the heat progresses, Dom Balasaitis finds himself in the lead, closely tailed by James King and Bradley Philpot. Adam Barrass has dropped back to seventh after leading earlier.

Adam Barrass, Dom Balasaitis and Brad Philpot are separated by seconds in the lead. This is going to be a close finish.

There's also a JCS P1, P2 and P3 emerging in the SODIs, with Keira Harris leading Amelia Charlesworth and Chloe McNally.

Kristine Kolodziejski ends up backwards in the tyre barrier at turn one, meaning she's out of this race.

A brilliant win for Ethan Critchley in the Juniors, finishing ahead of Daniel Marutyak in second. Lewis Bowey beat Zayn Perry to finish third.

In the Cadets, Gillen Townshend finished ahead of Arel Kemisgil and George Marriott.

We've just started our final adult heat of the day.

Andrew Strike won that heat, with his 24 Hour teammate Scott Clenaghan in third. A great result for Jack Redfern in second, he's now got the A-final in his sights.

Big win for Balasaitis, that. Brad Philpot also making up lost ground after an unfortunate penalty in the first heat.

Jamie has won three out of three heats. With the competition he's up against today, that's almost unbelievable. Surely he's the favourite for the DMAX title at this stage. He'll definitely start the final at the front of the pack.

Dom's overtaken Rhianna to take the lead in the DMAX!

JCS champion Rhianna Purcocks started Heat Five at the front of the pack, where she spent the first few laps. Dom Balasaitis and Brad Philpot are closing that gap as the race progresses.

In the SODIs, Andrew Strike is in the lead ahead of Jack Redfern.

Zachary Smith held off Jacob Kent to win Heat Four, the duo were a great distance ahead of Zayn Perry and Jacob Noble.

Alexander Karadzhov won in the Cadets, getting the better of Henry James in second.

Jamie Tiley-Gooden ended up winning that, starting in last place and working his way up through the grid... in an eight minute heat. Astonishing.

Jayden Lyford finished in first place in the SODIs, ahead of Sandown Park's Jules Larkin and Fin Ions.

Not sure if there were any penalties applied. Stay tuned for the official top five scorecard...

Henry Lopes Gracey is in the lead for Heat 4 in the DMAX, ahead of Archie Bullard.

In the SODIs, Jayden Lyford leads the way.

Gillen Townshend just performed a last ditch overtake to win the heat in the Cadets! Brilliant ending to that race.

Tom Justice commented on our Instagram post earlier this week claiming he was going to win this year.

Well, he's winning the third Junior Heat, and he's winning the Sim Rig competition as it stands.

There was just a big move in the Cadets, with Henry James pulling off a double overtake on Sebastian Mejer and Gillen Townshend.

An eye over to our sub-leaderboard, and the sim rigs.

We have one F1 sim, and one Assetto Corsa sim, contested at a 3D render of our Daytona Milton Keynes circuit.

The prize for winning either of those contests is a tuition in the JSCC car pictured below, courtesy of MPH Karting Academy.

Worth winning! Tom Justice is currently leading the F1 sim, and Freddie Burden is winning in the SODI sim.

Jamie Tiley-Gooden is leading in the DMAX once again, with Tamworth's Nikodem Benonski leading in the SODIs.

The DMAX and SODI drivers are about to head out again.

A very fast-paced, action-packed day at Daytona Milton Keynes, with a very quick turnaround between heats.

As the second Junior Heat draws to a conclusion, Jacob Noble has run away with it in the Juniors, and Rayaan Malik has overtaken Sebastian Mejer and managed to hold him off in the Cadets.

After the application of a handful of penalties, here's the top five from the recent DMAX Heat.

The Juniors are underway now, Jacob Noble is leading.

Sebastian Mejer of Sandown Park is leading in the cadets, though is under pressure from Tamworth's George Marriott.

Heat Two has just finished and the Juniors/ Cadets are gridding up.

There's a bit of a delay between races finishing and us posting the scores here. Our race directors have to calculate scores, and check for penalties.

We'll post them as soon as we have them.

Reigning champion Kuba Wozniak is leading the way in the DMAX, with Dom Balasaitis just behind him.

In the SODIs, Freddie Jenkins is ahead of Richard Danby for P1&2.

Not long left now, in this rapid sprint heats.

We've got Tom Fox here today, taking some beautiful photos, like these ones...

We just mentioned Bradley Philpot. He's here today racing and filming a YouTube video. He qualified after his podium finish at our most recent enduro.

He's absolutely rapid and could be a dark horse for the title at the end of the day.

It's not his first 'Race of Champions' rodeo. He won the Race of Champions 2015, racing in Aerial Atom at the Olympic Stadium in London, beating Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Daniel Riccardo, Felipe Massa, to name but a few.

He also won a Kart Race of Champions at Buckmore a few years after that.

Most notably, he's won SP2T class of the German VLN series in 2018 & 2019 at the Nürburgring.

In the second round of DMAX Practice, Joseph Simcock got the fastest lap, followed by Dom Balasaitis, and Brad Philpot third.

In the SODIs, Freddie Jenkins was the fastest, followed by Lily Jeffs and Ash Chivers.

That doesn't count for anything, though.

They're all about to race in their first heat of the day.

We've got a sim rig challenge going on in the pavilion all day.

It has no impact on the overall racing result.

However, there are some tasty prizes up for grabs.

We've just learned that Charlie Foster has been disqualified from that first heat for tampering with his kart.

He's now got a mountain to climb. He finished in the top five as well.

No, not that one.

Your host for the day is Jacob Connellan. We interviewed him earlier on about what to expect for the day.

Our DMAX heats are underway, and Jamie Tiley-Gooden has established an early 6-second lead over James King in the first DMAX heat.

Our youngest drivers here, aged between eight and eleven, are also battling it out today.

Milton Keynes driver Rayaan Malik won InKart earlier on this year, but Alexander Karadzhov won the most recent edition. It should be a thrilling battle between those two. Gillen Townshend has also been a noble competitor throughout 2024, and will be right up there at the end.

George Marriott will be Tamworth's most hopeful prospect, having recently been crowned InKart champion. Sebastian Mejer won InKart at Sandown Park earlier this year, and will be a fierce competitor today.

The Junior category is going to be an exciting one.

Tom Justice, recently crowned champion of Milton Keynes' InKart, will do battle once more with his title rival Zayn Perry. Those two drivers have been battling all season long.

Caelen Keith won the event last year in the Cadet class, and has been invited back as a wildcard this year. He's now a year older and ready to do battle in the Junior class.

Zachary Smith is another one to watch - he won three InKart's at Daytona Tamworth in a row, and has since been competing here at Daytona Milton Keynes in preparation for this event.

The first handful of DMAX/SODI drivers are out for practice, which has no bearing on today's results.

However, it's two familiar names currently setting the fastest lap times - Jamie Tiley-Gooden in DMAX, Barry Morris in SODIs.

Lily Jeffs, who ran away with the championship in the 4-stroke class, is competing in the SODIs, alongside Amelia Charlesworth, Keira Boylan, Skye Batley, Lilia Scatchard and Chloe McNally.

Rhianna Purcocks, who won the DMAX title on the final round of the season, will be joined on the grid by double-champion Kristine Kolodziejski, and Julia Stankowiak, who recently made Jamie Chadwick do a TikTok dance with them.

Better analyse those racing lines guys...

Nikodem Benonski is rapid, as is Neil Hampson. Both drivers are serial winners at Daytona Tamworth.

Not only are they racing at a new venue, however, they're also racing in a new kart. Tamworth is our only venue that doesn't use SODI SR5s.

They're joined by Kieran Bryant and Sinclair Potter-Greene.

Reece Harris has won the SuperChamps SODI Heavyweight title three seasons in a row throughout 2024, and has plenty of local experience in Milton Keynes too.

There are lots of Sandown Park hopefuls on display today – Alfie Shrubb, winner of Thursday Night League, former InKart champions Jules Larkin and Ellis McKenzie, and wildcards Freddie Burden & Fin Ions, who seem to get better every race they compete in.

Freddie Funnell, Jack Redfern & Matthew Turner are also here representing Sandown Park.

We should probably start by mentioning Charlie Fenton, last year’s champion, who can beat anybody on his day. Fenton has won countless races here at Daytona and is a 4-stroke specialist. If he can remain consistent, he'll be right up there at the end of the day.

Barry Morris has probably completed more laps of this track than anybody else here today. He's won SODI & DMAX titles across many championships over the years, and will be hungry for success today.

CSM Racing teammates Andrew Strike and Scott Clenaghan are here today, too, after having won TWO Daytona 24 Hour races this year. These two were delivering monster 3-hour solo shifts during the most recent event and were completely untouchable in the SODIs. Very different racing styles today, though, with the short-nature of the heats & finals.

Jacob Csepegrehi & his twin brother Charlie have been winning titles with us since they were eight years old, and have progressed up the Dyatona ladder – Jacob won the Junior category last year, and is fresh from a SuperChamps SODI victory.

Murphy Thomspon and Jayden Lyford are both rapid a SODI, having both achieved lap records since we introduced the SR5 karts.

It would be unjust to call Justin Elliott a Tamworth driver, he’s finished on SuperChamps podiums at both Daytona Milton Keynes & Tamworth – and won the Daytona Milton Keynes Season One SODI category in 2024. Tamworth would be keen to claim him as one of their own, certainly, a gentleman of our community and a brilliant driver. Yiorgos reckons he started at Milton Keynes, but we’re not going to check.

Ben Smiles is one to watch. He won SuperChamps earlier on at Daytona Tamworth last year and has since been tearing it in Citroen Saxo’s in the Junior Saloon Car Championship this year.

Jack Middleton is lightning quick; he currently holds the DMAX-GT lap record in Tamworth. Kristine Kolodziejski, Daytona Motorsport’s Driver of the Month for June, has won a few SuperChamps titles at Tamworth, but has also taken part in plenty of rounds at Daytona Milton Keynes, so she's very familiar with the circuit.

Tom Duffy, Joseph Simcok and Jacob Holley are also all in contention.

Archie Bullard is the most likely frontrunner representing Daytona Sandown Park. He’s won four championships this year, running away with many of them and has ambitions to race in F4 in 2025. He’s extremely talented and will be determined to challenge the local drivers for the top spot. He had

a shocker last time round, as an unnecessary penalty took him out of contention, but he’ll have learned from that.

Will Tidnam is another Sandown Park driver with a point to prove – he won two SuperChamps Heavyweight titles in 2024 and threw down some blistering performances in the process.

Charlie Foster, Luka Nik, Andreas Demetriades, Steve Hannon, Alfie Mitchell, Henry Lopes Gracey are the other Sandown Park DMAX drivers here today to challenge for the final podium.

There are 33 drivers battling it out today in the DMAX category, the competition is absolutely immense.

There’s been a lot of talk about home advantage for the Milton Keynes drivers – let’s have a look at some of those drivers…

We’ve got dozens of the big names in contention – James King tasted victory very recently, having won the latest SuperChamps title at Daytona Milton Keynes, after being part of the 24 Hour winning team in October.

Jamie-Tiley Gooden will fancy his chances having won SuperChamps in December last year, amongst three other titles at Daytona Milton Keynes. He also won the EKS Series and Club100’s Junior Southern Championship in 2024. He’s fast…

Last year’s champion, Kuba Wozniak, qualified for the race after winning the Daytona 24 Hours with CI Group in May. He hasn’t been as active at Daytona in 2024, but his experience racing on this circuit spans over 10 years. And he’s won a lot during that time…

Ethan Pritchard & James Bettison are another two local SuperChamps champions, who will both fancy their chances of a result today.

Pride and status, mostly.

There can only be one Daytona Champion of Champions in each class – meaning we’ll crown four drivers at the end of the day – a Cadet, Junior, 4-stroke & DMAX 2024 Daytona Champion.

Everybody in contention for this accolade has earned the right to be here because of their prowess in our championships or endurance races in 2024 – it’s an invitation only event and these are our fastest drivers.

We’ll be profiling some of them in due course.

It’s a big day here at Daytona Milton Keynes, so we’re bringing out the live feed to mark the occasion.

Racers & spectators - are you wrapped up warm? It’s currently -2c. It's still dark, but we're not expecting it to get much brighter than this.

Those who are following from the warmth of their homes – please refresh this page throughout the day as we’ll be bringing you all the drama.