Russell and Mentier take top honours in JKC Rotax classes

Junior racing is always extremely competitive, and round 2 of the JKC at Lydd was to be no exception. 15 Junior rotax drivers would be joined by 2 Mini Max drivers over the course of the weekend.

Qualifying showed how close the Junior Max field would be, with the top 9 drivers separated by just over a second. Leading the field was Declan Russell, whose time of 37.778 was enough to score pole ahead of George Donald and Jacob Jukes, who returned to the series after his accident at Whilton Mill. Meanwhile, round 1 winner Oliver Buckton could only manage 10th fastest. In mini max, it was Lizzy Mentier who lead Ollie Naylor in their weekend long battle for supremacy.

Mentier would continue to hold the upper hand over Ollie Naylor, beating him over the line by just half a second when the flag fell. In Junior Max, Russell lead the field over the line by a staggering 4.5 seconds after the 14 lap heat, but a 5 second penalty for jump start would drop him back to 2nd behind George Donald. Ronnie Shrimpton completed the top 3 with a 2.8 second in hand over Alex Warnaby. Jacob Jukes would get up to 2nd early on, but his weekend would only last 2 laps.

Things wouldn’t go as well for Russell in heat 2, with a mechanical failure putting him out on the opening lap. That left George Donald free to dominate the second heat. He pulled out a 6 second lead over Ronnie Shrimpton and Jacob Vickers. Jake Robinson & Alex Warnaby would complete the top 5. Behind, Mentier would again hold the upper hand over Ollie Naylor, this time by over 5 seconds.

The final heat would see a storming drive from Declan Russell, coming through from the back of the grid to finish a very close second to George Donald. Jackob Vickers would come home a distant 3rd, almost 4 seconds behind the leaders. Shrimpton would fall to 4th, while Warnaby completed the top 5. Naylor would fail to start the final heat, handing Mentier a 3rd win of the day.

Thanks to his 2 heat wins, Donald would hold the front row alongside Shrimpton. Jackob Vickers and Warnaby would hold row 2 while Robinson would have Russell alongside on row 3. Round 1 winner Buckton would have to go from 8th place.

Russell would quickly make up places, and by the end of lap 2 he was locked on the rear bumper of Donald for the lead. It took just a single lap for him to make his move for the lead, but unlike previous heats, Russell couldn’t pull away.

Instead, the leading pair pulled away, building a near 10 second gap over the rest of the field. The race ended with a drag race, where Russell took the flag by 0.090 seconds over Donald. The fight for 3rd was just as close, with Shrimpton taking the place by just a tenth over Jacob Vickers.

In Mini Max, Mentier held the advantage the whole way, building a huge gap over Ollie Naylor when the flag fell. She ended up right on the tail of Joel Ryan, despite being in a lower paced class. An impressive performance after 20 laps.

That leaves George Donald at the head of the championship, with 15 points over Jacob Vickers who in turn has 20 points over Oliver Buckton. Shrimpton and Russell sit 12th and 13th in the standings thanks to them missing round 1.

Just like the rest of the CKC paddock, the juniors will be back in action at the start of July when the field heads to Fulbeck. Again, the full event will be broadcast live on the CKC Facebook page.