Edgar wins the closest race of the season
Image © Karting Everything
Junior X30 has a reputation for some extremely close racing and drivers not giving anyone an inch. And the latest round of the UKC at Three Sisters proved that was well and truely the case. Heading into round 3, it was Luke Watts leading the way in the title fight by 7 points over Daryl Taylor in 2nd.
The opening heat showed exactly how close the field was, with just over half a second covering the top 3 drivers when the chequed flag fell. Kanato Le managing to hold off a late challenge from James Walker and Watts, with Taylor not too far behind. Walker’s challenge would come to nothing thanks to a 5 second nose penalty dropping him down to 8th after his strong run. A distant 4th was Olivier Algieri with Sam Shaw just pipping Jessica Edgar over the line for 5th.
Heat 2 saw Sam Shaw grab the lead early on and managed to hold the advantage until the end. Despite the best efforts of Walker, he couldn’t hunt down the leader. Helped in part by the pressure from Rashan Chigorimbo behind as well as Watts, who both found their way passed by the time the flag fell. Once again, Walker would be handed a nose penalty leaving him 10th in the standings, but this time Watts and Algieri picked one up as well, dropping them to 9th and 15th respectively. It also promoted Chigorimbo to 2nd and Harry Jnr Burgoyne into 3rd with Edgar a close 4th.
The final heat on Sunday would make life difficult for the drivers. Rain clouds loomed, but the rain held off. Right up until lap 4, when the heavens opened with the whole field on slicks. With the track now an ice rink, it was a challenge just to stay on the track. The big loosers were Chigorimbo and Walker. The pair collided at Lunar bend, sliding off the track and into the grass. Chigorimbo managed to get his kart back on track, but Walker was beached, ending the race 4 laps early. The win went the way of Watts who slid to victory over Burgoyne and Robbie Stapleford with Shaw and Algieri rounding out the top 5.
When the pre final went out, the track was bone dry. But that didn’t mean life would be easy for Watts. He took the early lead but was pressed hard by Edgar who was never more than a couple of tenths away from him. Event taking the lead for a few laps herself. When the flag fell, there was just 0.025s between them, but a nose penalty would leave Edgar down in 7th and give her front row start to Burgoyne who ended the race over 2 seconds behind the leaders. Row 2 would be occupied by Le and Charlie Rippin while Taylor and Walker would race from row 3.
The final was an awesomely close fight from the top challengers. Watts held the early lead from the front row, but soon lost out to Burgoyne, with Edgar squeezing through a lap later, to relieve Burgoyne of the lead. Behind, Taylor tried to demote Watts to 4th, but the move didn’t stick and he ended up falling behind Rippin as a result. Then the top 4 started to break away.
Watts made his move for 2nd as the race approached half distance, then pushed passed Edgar to take the lead in quick succession. Not to be out done, Burgoyne fires it down the inside of Turn 1 to regain the lead, allowing Edgar to follow back through for 2nd and demote Watts back into 3rd. Watts wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and squoze passed at paddock bend to take over 2nd. But by now there was 9 drivers nose to tail for the lead. But crucially Edgar had a couple of kart lengths over Watts.
Edgar would run a defensive race, just managing to hold Watts at arms length for the remainder of the race, with the pair almost side by side as they ran to the flag. It was Edgar who ended up the victor by just 0.046 seconds. It was just as close behind, with the top 8 split by just over a second. Completing the podium was Sam Shaw with Burgoyne and Ripping completing the top 5. After showing strong pace earlier in the weekend, Walker would finish the final 9th, just behind Chigorimbo in 8th.
Thanks to his consistency in during the weekend, Watts extends his lead in the championship to 29 points over Shaw. Taylor sits in 3rd just 6 points behind while Burgoyne and Edgar are locked in a battle over 4th 11 points behind.
