Two superbly taken victories at Whilton Mill have all but guaranteed Strawberry Racing’s Kiern Jewiss the Mini Max ABKC crown with a round to spare.
Connor Hall – Mini Max Champion in 2013 – also confirmed his star-status with back-to-back wins in the Senior Max class, while Jai Nijjar marked his return to the Strawberry fold with a stunning brace of podiums at the Northamptonshire venue. With Junior stars Jack McCarthy and Tom Gamble taking one final each, Strawberry’s domination of round six of the Super One series was complete.
By their own standards, timed qualifying was a modest affair for the team’s Mini Max title protagonists; Jewiss and Axel Charpentier, with the pair respectively finishing in 11th and 19th places. Connor McCarthy fared better, clocking the 9th-quickest time. After the heats, Jewiss and Charpentier’s fortunes had improved to see them lining up alongside each other on the second row of the pre-final grid. In contrast, Connor found himself going off P14.
Charpentier enjoyed the better start and moved up to 2nd in the early moments of the race. Sadly, as he probed for a way past the leader, a spin dropped him to last and effectively ended his title hopes. Having watched the squabble ahead for supremacy, Kiern picked his moment and attacked in the penultimate corner, driving round the outside of the two leaders to take the victory and put one hand on the championship trophy.
A faultless opening lap saw Jewiss scamper away from his rivals and deliver a textbook lights-to-flag triumph. Having finished 11th in the previous race, Connor rounded off another solid weekend with 10th – just one place ahead of the charging Axel, who had started at the tail of the field. Charpentier took satisfaction from having netted sufficient points to secure 2nd overall in the championship, allowing both him and Jewiss to go into the PFI finale in a relaxed frame of mind.
Tom Gamble sprinted into an early lead at the start of the Junior Max final, with Jack McCarthy forming part of a chasing quartet. Almost in spite of themselves, the group caught Tom, with Jack seizing his chance to take up the front-running. Succumbing to the pressure, Tom was eventually overtaken, ran wide and lost ground – eventually crossing the line in 4th. As the competition intensified, the officials began penalising the drivers for rough tactics. Josh Skelton was one of those handed a five-place penalty, eventually being classified in 18th spot. Up front, McCarthy resisted the last attacks to win and added vital points to his series lead.
Tom and Jack disputed the lead in the early stages of the second final, but it was Gamble who managed to take the upper hand, distancing himself from his team-mate and the rest of the field to take victory. This sparked a string of attacks on McCarthy, who fought valiantly to net 4th, with Josh Skelton again falling foul of the authorities, taking another penalty to finish 18th.
Strawberry’s quintet of Luke Knott, Gary Donnelly, Connor Hall, James Johnson and returnee Jai Nijjar looked a potent force throughout the Senior Max preliminaries. Donnelly led the field away to set the first final in motion, but ceded that to fellow front-row man, Sam Marsh. The Irishman fought back to head the pack on lap two, while Hall charged up from the midfield to demote Marsh for 2nd. The precociously talented youngster then passed his team-mate for the lead. Showing a similar turn of speed, Jai rampaged up the order and out-paced the karts ahead to slice past into 2nd place. Despite setting off in pursuit of Hall, the chequered flag brought a friendly halt to their showdown. With Donnelly 5th, Johnson 9th and Knott 10th, all three drivers collected healthy points for their championship tallies.
Perhaps sensing Nijjar’s sheer pace, Hall responded by getting the hammer down from the get-go of the second final. Rather than attack, Jai intelligently held station to protect his team-mate’s lead. Behind them, Gary raced hard for his eventual 8th place, with Luke also made to work for his 10th. James was forced to retire after four laps, denying him a chance to compete with his team-mates on the road and in the higher echelons of the overall title fight.
Sam Marsh (DHR) has, like Jewiss, secured enough points to take the title leaving Knott, Hall and Donnelly to fight it out for 2nd and 3rd in the championship, at PFI on 27 September.
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