Wright and McInerney share Cadet 105 honours
Image © Karting Everything
The Cadets returned for 2021, blasting into action at Whilton Mill for the opening round of the Cadet Kart Championship. Using the venerable RPM tuned GX200 engines, this is one of the closest cadet classes in the country. Its also one of the most popular, with 38 drivers in the 105kg class.
The grid would be split into 2 groups, the red and blue groups. Each having their own heats and finals and scoring their own points for the overall championship. The blue group would also share the track with the new 112kg category.
Wright & Fox-Whiteley the Stars of the Red Group
The opening heat was a mega battle between Jared Fox-Whiteley and Riley Wright. The pair were part of a leading quartet, also featuring Freddie Moor and Isaac Parkinson. But, by half distance, the top 2 had broken away, and built a 1 second gap over 3rd place.
The final laps saw Wright and Fox-Whiteley swap places almost corner by corner, with Fox-Whiteley just snatching the top spot from Wright. Moor would come home 3rd with Parkinson 4th. There was an impressive run from Tom Holden, who climbed 17 places in the opening heat.
Heat 2 would see Wright take the top step. Fox-Whiteley held 2nd in the early stages, but a slight twitch at Champan, cost him 2 places to Holden and Leon Barlow. The Sodikart driver worked hard, and managed to get back passed Barlow with a brave move at Oblivion. A few laps later, he got back passed Holden, but by that point, Wright was away in the distance. When the flag fell, he had a 4 second lead over Fox-Whiteley & Holden, who in turn had 4 seconds over Moore.
The shortened final was a real classic, with Wright and Fox-Whiteley sharing the front row, thanks to the cancellation of heat 3. Holden and Moore would hold row 2, with Barlow and Parkinson ready to pounce from row 3.
When the flag dropped, the top 3 of Fox-Whiteley , Wright and Holden set about building a gap at the front. Within a couple of laps, they had over a second in hand over the chasers, lead by Freddie Moore. Over the course of the 10 minute race, Holden threw everything at Fox-Whiteley, but the 22 had just enough in hand to hold Holden back. That was until the final lap.
Heading down the back straight, Holden move out and dove down the inside of the boot. That slowed the leading pair down. Wright saw his chance, taking a wide line into the boot and sliding passed Fox-Whiteley and Holden to take the lead on the final corner of the final lap, snatching the victory. Behind the leaders, Leon Barlow took 4th with Parkinson completing the top 5.
Dara McInerney Dominates Blue Group
While there was a close battle for the win in the Red group, the Blue races had a single name at the top of the time sheets, that being Dara McInerney.
The opening heat saw them take a lights to flag victory, pulling out a 5 second gap over Andrew Dixon in 2nd. Despite their pace, McInerney didn’t bag the fastest lap. That went to Harris Roberts, who was almost a quarter of a second faster than the winner. Proving that the rest of the field had the pace to beat the early leader.
Heat 2, saw another win for McInerney, but this time their advantage was slashed to just over 3 seconds over Dixon and Roberts, who were having an awesome fight for 2nd between each other. Meanwhile, Max Williams was spun out of the top 10 on the start, leaving them with a lot of work to do, eventually hauling their kart up to 14th at the flag.
The final would see, once again, an awesome start from McInerney, pulling over half a second in a single lap over Haris Roberts, who had got the jump on Andrew Dixon. McInerney then started to pull away, gaining a couple of tenths every lap over the course of the race.
Meanwhile, a battle was brewing over 4th, with Logan McAlister, Ben & Melissa Adrian and Martin Wright all flying in formation together. Adrian saw a gap on the inside of McAlister at the boot, but the move wouldn’t work, leaving the Adrian in the grass and out of the race, promoting Melissa up to 5th, and leaving McAlister clear in 4th.
At the front, nobody could match Dara McInerney, who took the win by just over 3 seconds over Haris Roberts, who just got the best of Andrew Dixon while Logan McAlister was 4th. Martin Wright would take 5th after a late move on Melissa Adrian, dropping her to 6th.
With all the points totalled up, McInerney leads the championship on 105 points and holds a 1 point advantage over Wright, thanks to his 2 heat wins. Jared Fox-Whiteley sits 3rd on 103 points with Dixon the final driver over the 100 point mark on 101. Tom Holden completes the top 5, level on points with Harris Roberts.
The next round for the CKC cadets will see the paddock head to Lydd at the start of June. To find out more about the series or sign up yourself, head over to the CKC website. You can also watch the racing back for your self on the CKC Facebook page.
