The final round of the Super One British Karting Championships took place at PF International, where Coles Racing were still in the fight for the Rotax Max British Championship title.
In Minimax, the title had already been provisionally won - meaning Jonny Edgar was fighting for the Vice-Champion position. A difficult qualifying saw Edgar set the 12th fastest time, with teammates Ravenscroft and Burgess placing 6th and 18th respectively.
In the heats, Edgar battled through to a 3rd and a 2nd, to give him a front row start in 2nd on the grid for the Pre-Final. Ravenscroft took a 4th and a 19th in his heats to line up 10th on the grid - Burgess took 11th and a 13th on his way to qualifying 12th on the grid.
The Pre-Final saw Edgar get pushed out of the fight for the lead early on, after some robust driving demoted him down the order. He faught back to 4th before a last lap tussle saw him finish in 6th. Ravenscroft equally suffered a tough race, finishing in 16th. Burgess suffered the same fate as Ravenscroft, bumped down to last position on the second lap, being forced to settle for 18th at the flag.
The Final saw both Ravenscroft and Burgess make up good progress in the race, gaining 8 and 6 positions respectively. Edgar was less fortunate, a challenging race at the front saw places change consistently through the race - Edgar finishing 5th at the chequered flag. The results secured Edgar 2nd overall in the championship, with Ravenscroft a strong 6th and Burgess taking the Rookie Title,13th overall.
Tyler Chesterton was aiming to take his Shenington form into the final round of the championship. He set the 7th quickest time in Qualifying in a challenging session, before going on to take a 6th and a 3rd in his two heat - meaning a second row start from 4th on the grid for the Pre-Final.
An incident in the Pre-Final shuffled him out of contention for the top places, but he recovered back up to 9th, giving him the favoured inside line for turn one.
The Final saw him make brilliant progress. Consistently the fastest kart on track, setting the fastest lap of the race he hauled himself into podium contention, before it all kicked off at the front in the championship fight! Chesterton was baulked and finished the race in 5th position overall, which he was unlucky to not get atleast some silverwear from.
He ended the season 7th overall, after a difficult start to the season thwarted his top 3 aspirations.
Josh White and Josh Skelton were well in contention for the top 3 of the Rotax Max Championship and the prestigious tickets for the World Finals. Skelton set the 2nd fastest lap in qualifying, with White 4th, Tom Croydon 7th and Morgan Rose 8th fastest.
White stated his claim for the title with a heat win and a 3rd place finish - putting him on pole position for the Pre-Final. Skelton took a 4th and a 6th in his heats to line up 4th on the gird, whilst Rose and Croydon would start 8th and 10th after a pair of solid finishes.
White was knocked off the top step in the Pre-Final, as a rival driver made good progress through the field - in the process however it elevated White's championship rival a place ahead of him, as White finished 3rd at the flag - meaning it was winner takes all in the Final race, or the final round! Skelton took 4th, Croydon gained four positions to finish 6th and Rose finished in 8th position.
The Grand Final saw White take the initiative at the start, jumping ahead of his main rival for 2nd. Skelton was taken out of contention on the second lap, and was forced to spectate for the remainder of the race. A race-long duel between White and McCarthy for the title went to the very last lap, until a rival driving made a wild lunge, knocked White off-line allowing McCarthy through in controversial circumstances. White would finish the race in 3rd position, meaning a tie-break on points with McCarthy for the championship.
Agonisingly the driver with the highest drop score was declared the champion, meaning White was cruelly denied the British Championship. Skelton took 3rd overall and won a ticket to the Rotax World Finals, where teammate White has already qualified via the Rotax Euro Challenge. Rose and Croydon finished 6th and 7th in the final - contributing to them finishing 7th and 9th overall in a solid campaign for the pair of them.
After a relentless season of the Super One British Karting Championship, various club events, the X30 UK Tour and the Rotax Euro Challenge, the final race of the season takes place at the Rotax World Finals in Sarno, Italy on the 15-22 October.
Stay tuned to see how drivers Jonny Edgar, Josh White and Josh Skelton will fair in the biggest event of the year.
