Nathan Tye takes third TVKC win of 2020 as Oliver Rowland Motorsport smashes targets
Words: Jake Sanson
Photography © Kartpix / Stu Stretton Media / ORM
Final preparations for the 2020 British karting season are going swimmingly well for the Oliver Rowland Motorsport after Nathan Tye Jr picked up his third consecutive win at Trent Valley Kart Club’s Winter Series – based at Britain’s premier karting circuit, PF International in Lincolnshire.
With three successive IAME Cadet wins and two podium finishes for Zach Knight in Cadet and Harry Jnr Burgoyne in Junior X30 – his first in the category – the squad which won the British title in IAME Cadet in both 2018 and 2019, is now well ahead of schedule.
The team has been developing the OTK Group’s Redspeed chassis for the 2020 IAME Cadet campaign, and was expecting a reasonable start to the season in the winter campaigns. However, the team have been smashing all of their expected targets and achieving more than their original expectations for this stage of the year.
Aside from Nathan’s three wins in a row, there have also been top five finishes for Zachary and William Knight and also for Lewis Wherrell, with some solid performances from the team’s new members, with all but one of the squad finishing in the top 20 overall last weekend.
“We are delighted to win all three Winter Series rounds at PF International so far,” said Nissan Formula E racer and ORM team boss Oliver Rowland, “Developing the Redspeed chassis for the new tyres and summer conditions meant we didn’t have huge expectations for cold weather conditions.
“As a result of our success thus far, we are now more confident than ever that our Redspeed kart will be without doubt the fastest in the hotter and summer conditions.”
The progression of the Redspeed chassis has been highlighted with not only a strong performance in the Trent Valley Kart Club’s Winter Series but also in the IAME Euro Series at Valencia. The team were competing in their first ever event in the RGMMC paddock, having made their European debut at the IAME International Finals at Le Mans last October.
A top five finish from Lewis Wherrell in the X30 Mini final followed by a fifth on the road f inish for Arvid Lindblad (later lost due to a front fairing penalty) shows the incredible raw speed of the Oliver Rowland Motorsport package not just in the United Kingdom, but also on the world stage.
The Motorsport UK British Kart Championships commence for the team with the first IAME event of the year at PF International on the third weekend of April, with one more Winter Series event at the same circuit where Nathan Tye has already all but sealed his first title of the season. But for each of the drivers within the team, the year ahead already looks particularly prosperous with a chassis and package that already looks as though it will be very hard to beat in 2020.
