Whilton Mill Kart Club Round 11

There was a bumper entry for the final round of the Whilton Mill kart club, with quite a few eyes set on next season.

Junior TKM

Archie Strong was unchallenged all weekend. He was fastest in practice, won all three heats and took a lights to flag victory in the Final. Despite his dominance on the time sheets, the rest of the field was never far behind him. Theo Tibbitts kept Strong honest in the final, but wasn’t able to keep on terms with him. Scott Smith also had a solid run to finish a close 3rd behind Tibbitts.

Mini Max

The Mini Max class shared the track with the juniors, as just 3 karts came out to play at Whilton Mill. Marcus Littlewood sealed the deal in all 3 heats ahead of Callum Voisin and Benjamin Watts. He carried that dominance through to the final, sealing the win by over 14 seconds from Voisin. Its no surprise that Littlewood has taken the Mini Max title by 154 points.

Mini X30

The Mini X30 class looked like it was going the way of Freddie Spindlow. Fastest in practice, winner of heat 1, winner of heat 2 and 2nd in heat 3 meant he was in prime position to lead from the front of the final. And that is what happened right up until lap 8. When Zach Ripley managed to get a move on Spindlow to drop him to 2nd. It wasn’t for long though, as Spindlow made his way passed a lap later. Spindlow would cross the line to take the win, only to have it taken off him, thanks to a 5 place penalty for exceeding track limits at the final corner.

That handed Ripley the win and promoted Robbie Stapleford to second. Stapleford was the only person of the weekend to beat Spindlow on track. Rounding out the podium was Aaron Walker who also bagged the fastest lap of the contest. Spindlow would end up 6th.

Junior X30

37 drivers took to the track in the Junior X30 class, split into two groups for practice. Over the 2 sessions, it was championship leader Caden McQueen who topped the time sheets with O plate holder and title rival Axel LaFlamme in second just behind him. McQueen would use his pace to score the first two heat wins of the day leaving him in prime position for the final. LaFlamme won heat 3 with Joseph Taylor winning heat 4. What sepperated the trio was their other results. While McQueen finished 3rd in his other heat. When McQueen won, Taylor managed 12th and then second to LaFlamme. LAFlamme managed 8th and 7th in his other heats.

That meant McQueen would share the front row with Taylor with LaFlamme in 3rd. Off the start though, McQueen dropped right back allowing LaFlamme and Taylor to move into P1 and 2 with Josh Rowledge into 3rd. Once LaFlamme got to the front, he didn’t look back, driving comfortably to victory. Taylor held on in second until around half distance where Rowledge got through to second and Thomas Lebbon through to 3rd. McQueen ended the race down in 10th after his poor start.

Junior Max

3 heats, 3 different winners. First blood went to E plate Tom Adams, who had a substantial lead over Matthew Higgins who was closely chased by Lewis Smith and Teddy Clinton. It was then Clinton’s who took victory over Adams with James Crossley in 3rd. The final heat went the way of Will Jenkins ahead of Higgins and Clinton, this time Adams was down in 6th. Despite this he still qualified on pole for the final, Clinton lined up second with Higgins 3rd and Jenkins 4th.

It wasn’t going to be an easy win for anyone. Adams, Jenkins and Higgins all had a stint leading the race while Clinton dropped straight to 4th and stayed there. Jenkins would take the win on the road, but would be handed a 10 second penalty for ‘gaining an unfair advantage’ dropping him to 6th. That would hand Adams the win with Higgins taking 2nd. Clinton was promoted to 3rd.

Honda Cadet

38 Honda cadets were present at Whilton Mill, including GP plate holder Theo Micouris, who was in his final cadet race, looking to go out with a bang having already sown up the championship. The first heat though went the way of Ethian Symonds with Kean Berta chasing him home. Micouris was down in 5th. Heat 2 and 3 went the way of Berta in two different ways. In Heat 2, Symonds chased him home, just a few tenths behind at the flag with Micouris 3rd. Heat 3 Berta won by over 5 seconds, Symonds was 3rd behind Daniel Parrans-Smith. Heat 4 was Theo Micouris’ win, but only just. Mitchell Gibbons showed his pace just 0.1 behind the champ on the line.

The Final was a classic battle between Berta and Micouris, with the GP Plate throwing everything at the race leader to try and get passed. However, on the last lap, Berta started defending hard eventually throwing Micouris off the road on the final lap. That would leave Micouris 4th at the flag behind Berta, Symonds and Parrans-Smith, right up until Berta was handed a 1 lap penalty for his actions. That gave Symonds the win under the floodlights.

Iame Cadet

26 cadets took to the track to try, with just 2 in the frame for the title. Miach Taylor and Alfie Baxter-Davies were the only two who had a real chance of taking the crown. It was advantage Baxter-Davies in the heats. As Taylor finished 16th in heat 1 and was excluded from heat 2. Baxter-Davies finished 3rd and 4th in those heats. Taylor recovered in heat 3 to take the win while Baxter-Davies ended up in 9th. The front battle would be contested between Leo Robinson and Macauley Bishop, who would seal the front row of the grid for the final between them. Ella Stevens had a good showing in the heats while Baxter-Davies would line up 4th. Taylor would have it all to do from 16th.

Taylor set about getting the job done as quickly as possible, and by the end of lap 1 had climbed up to 7th. Robinson held the lead for a large portion of the race, before the charging Taylor sent his Synergy kart passed on lap 7. Baxter-Davies managed to pass Stevens for 3rd but soon lost out to Bishop who ended up seeing the flag in 3rd. Stevens hit trouble later in the race to drop to 11th by the finish. Despite taking the win, Taylor missed out on the title by 9 points at the end. If he hadn’t of had that exclusion it could have been a very different story.

Senior X30

The day started and finished in the same way, with Piers Prior coming out on top. Over the 3 heats, there were 3 different winners. Prior, Matt Armstrong and Luke Whitehead. It would be those guys who would seal the top 3 spots on the grid for the final.

Prior would demonstrate his driving class, taking a lights to flag victory while the rest of the pack squabbled behind him. Whitehead lost out to Armstrong at the start, and took his time to get back on terms with him, before sending it passed him on lap 3. From there Armstrong’s race started to unravel, eventually dropping down to 5th at the flag. Whitehead finished 2nd on the road, but fell fowl of track limits at the final corner, being handed a 5 place penalty dropping him down to 7th. That meant that Prior was joined on the podium by Jenson Brown and Gus Lawrence, both having solid results for their seasons.

Image: Whilton Mill Kart Club