Duncan claims kartmasters Grand Prix victory
Another 35 drivers would race PF International in the Honda Cadet class for the British Kart Grand Prix, with a bumper grid and the usually close cadet racing, this was going to be a good one. The Hondas were also the only class to have a standing start.
Qualifying showed exactly how close, with Devon Nolan leading an SFR Motorsport 1-2, lapping the 1382 meter circuit in 1:07.33 seconds, just 0.05 ahead of his team mate Max Cuthbert. A further 0.01 behind was Ewan Charman and Ambition Motorsport team mate Henry Joslyn in 4th. After his strong showing at UKC, Connor Duncan could only manage 26th fastest with rival Zac Drummond further up the field in 17th.
The opening heat didn’t go the way SFR will of wanted, with the win going the way of Charman off P3. Cuthbert crossed the line 2nd, but a 5 second penalty would drop him down to 6th while team mate Nolan would fall down to 14th. A solid run for Alfie Thompson would see him come home 2nd, having spent most of the race chasing Charman until a fight in the last laps saw him drop behind Cuthbert. 3rd was Josyln, over 3 seconds behind the leading trio with Timo Jungling for close company.
Charman would double up in heat 2, leading all but 1 lap over the line. In truth, it was a hard fought, 6 way fight for the win, with Charman and Joslyn seperated by 0.05 on the line ahead of Ticheurst, Ralf Jungling, Gustavs Usakovs and Cuthbert, who all came home within a second of each other. Nolan would fair better, coming home 7th, just 4 tenths behind the top 6.
When the lights went out Duncan took the lead over Jungling and Charman while the rest of the field squabbled over 4th place behind. At the back, a big off saw Ashton Sharp get spun around and then another kart go over the top of him. Amazingly nobody was hurt and the race was able to continue. But the top 2 quickly opened a gap over Charman’s Ambition Motorsport machine who was now running on his own in 3rd.
It wasn’t long before Charman was caught by Ambition team mates Joslyn and Ticehurst. Ideally, the trio could start working together to overhaul the 1.7 second lead that Duncan and Jungling had opened up. But the oposite started to happen. The leaders just kept pulling away as they worked together and resisted the urge to fight each other. It wasn’t long before the Ambition trio were caught, as Ticehurst was caught by Jenson Graham who moved into 5th. Behind these guys, Reg Heywood was staging a come back, running 15th with 5 minutes to go having started off __.
Back at the front, Graham smelt a podium, forcing his way to the front of the Ambition trio, but Charman and Josyln tried to come back at him coming through the opening sector. That ended with Charman holding 3rd, Josyln facing the wrong way at the bridge and Graham dropping to down to 10th. All of that let the leaders extend their advantage to over 4 seconds. But the fight for 3rd wasn’t done yet as Drummond forced his way through on Charman and Ticheurst.
Drummond knew that the only way to catch the leaders was to work together, but all the Ambiton boys wanted to do was fight each other for 3rd instead of trying to catch the leaders. Then as the race entered it’s final lap, and with a 6 second gap, Duncan started defending. Jungling was pushing Duncan as much as he could, coming down the short shoot, Jungling went side by side with Duncan, but slid on the kerb to loose momentum. For the 2nd race in a row, the pair exited the final corner together, but Duncan was the one who took the win over a gutted Jungling. 3rd was Drummond over 6 seconds down at the flag with Graham leading the charging Heywood over the line. Heywood managed to climb from 31st to finish 5th.
Honda Cadet Kartmasters GP Top 10
1 – Connor Duncan – SFR Motorsport
2 – Timo Jungling – Privateer
3 – Zac Drummond – Synergy Factory
4 – Joshua Graham – Ambition Motorsport
5 – Reg Heywood – Ambition Motorsport
6 – Alfie Thompson – Project One East Anglia
7 – Ewan Charman – Ambition Motorsport
8 – Ralf Jungling – Privateer
9 – Aston Sharp
10 – Blake Ticehurst – Ambition Motorsport
