The British Kart Grand Prix took place in it's usual slot at the beginning of August, blessed with sunshine and warm weather.
Jonny Edgar took pole position in timed qualifying, following it up with a win and a 4th in his opening two heats. Clayton Ravenscroft took the 6th fastest time, just 0.08s off Edgar's pole lap. He went on to claim 3rd and 6th in his first two heats.
Quali 2 was a sharp contrast to the first session, Edgar was excluded from the session on a technicality, whilst Ravenscroft struggled with a technical problem, finishing down in 16th overall.
Both drivers faught back well in thier heats, Ravenscroft taking a 5th and a 4th, whilst Edgar took a 7th and an 8th from the back of the field in both.
The Pre-Final saw them line up 3rd and 4th on the grid after their strong fight backs. Edgar shadowed the leader throughout the race, guaranteeing himself a front row start for the Grand Prix final. Ravenscroft was running 6th throughout the race in the fight for 3rd, until half distance when a technical issue saw him grind to a halt-meaning he would start the final from 22nd position.
Edgar maintained position for the opening lap in the final, until rival Patterson overtook him into turn one, the incident seeing Edgar pitch onto his rear bumper losing Edgar a batch of places, falling to 7th.
He began to turn in fastest laps to vault himself back up to 3rd by lap six The two Strawberry Racing drivers at the front worked together to keep Edgar at bay until they began to fight. Edgar went for an audacious move around the outside of the pair of them at the hairpin, before running out of road and consequentially falling down the field. He would recover these positions, only to try the same move again and fall foul of the same outcome.
Edgar finished the race in 6th position, not getting the result his pace deserved. Ravenscroft made a meteoric rise through the field! Dispatching karts on a regular basis to claw himself into contention. He finished a brilliant 4th on the road, less than a second behind the leader, until a post race penalty dropped him 10 seconds, undoing all his great work.
Tyler Chesterton and Oliver Luc were the Coles Racing representatives in Junior Rotax, setting the 2nd and 8th fastest times in the first qualifying session. They went on to take 1st and 14th in the opening heat, followed by a 2nd for Chesterton in heat 2, with Luc being taken out of 9th position by a rival driver.
Qualifying 2 saw Chesterton stick it 3rd on the grid for his remaining two heats, whilst Luc was denied a solid session by technical gremlins. Chesterton took another top three finish in his next heat, but fell foul of a nosecone infringement in the fourth heat, demoting him to 15th position.
Luc came back through the field well after his unfortunate qualifying to notch a 7th and a 10th place finish.
The heat results gave the drivers 5th and 12th on the grid respectively. Sadly Luc was unable to take part in the remainder of the weekend, with Chesterton the only driver racing in the Junior Max Grand Prix.
Chesterton endured a difficult Pre-Final, unable to exploit his pace in a very tight race long battle for 3rd position, finishing 6th - where he would start the final.
In the Grand Prix final, Chesterton endured the difficult start from the outside, but came into the race late on to hit the front of the battle for the podium, pulling a gap to take a 3rd on the track, later becoming 2nd after a penalty affected the driver infront. This marked another great podium finish for one of our longest serving drivers.
Zak Fulk made his full return to karting with Coles Racing competing in the Senior OK Class, making their first visit to Kartmasters. After a problem in qualifying 1 thwarted his pace, Fulk raced back to 6th and 7th in the two following heats.
Qualifying 2 saw Fulk take the 11th fastest time - which is where he would start his heats. A 7th and an 8th place finish followed given Fulk a P7 start for the Pre-Final.
A difficult race in the fastest karts in attendance took it's toll on the drivers, with Fulk finishing 9th in the Pre-Final. The Grand Prix Final was not to be for Fulk, as a collision with another driver over the bridge saw him span around and out of contention for a good result - finishing the race in 12th position.
Oliver York took the fight to the Junior X30 grid, aiming to take his dominant LGM form into the Kartmasters Grand Prix. York duly took pole position in the first timed qualifying to give him pole position for his opening two heats. He was joined by Bhavmeet Singh who had a difficult session, finishing 37th overall.
York took a hard faught 3rd in the opening heat, but was dropped 10 seconds for a nosecone infringement, meaning he finished 15th - teammate Singh took 23rd in his first ever heat racing around PF International. York hit back winning his 2nd heat, with Singh 25th in his.
Qualifying 2 saw York a surprising 23rd after suffering with kart issues, Signh likewise struggling and was 40th overall. In the two heats that followed, York had a difficult third heat finishing in 16th position, but faired much better in his final heat - gaining thirteen positions to finish 2nd. Singh was forced to retire at half distance in his third heat with damage, which sadly forced him out of his final heat.
Singh managed to come through the B-Final after his best performance of the weekend, finishing 6th and getting into the main Grand Prix Pre-Final and Final.
York started 7th in the Pre-Final, launching to the front by lap 7. A race long battle between him at the three BKC drivers saw the lead change back and forth, before York was hung out on the second hairpin, dropping him to 6th position - where he finished the race. Singh had a difficult race, on tyres much more used that the rest, finishing 34th overall.
The Grand Final was almost a repeat of the Pre-Final for York, a good opening stint of the race saw him embroiled in a battle with the BKC Drivers. York made his move to come through to the front of the pack, taking two of his rivals within two corners!
Going for the lead at the second hairpin - his rival chopped across the front of him, forcing contact and dropping York back to fourth. He immediately gained a position back going into the final lap.
York went into the bowl in 3rd and pulled off an outrageous move - around the outside of the two drivers to come out in the lead of the race, taking the victory over the line!
Sadly though, the contact in the second hairpin had dislodged his nosecone and cruelly denied him of the victory in Junior X30.
Senior X30 saw Rotax regulars Josh White and Josh Skelton join Scott Mackrell in the class, alongside Connor Hall, making a one-off return to karting.
Mackrell took a brilliant 2nd fastest time in qualifying, with White and Hall taking 4th and 5th fastest, Skelton setting the 14th fastest time struggling to get a clear lap in.
White was taken out in his opening heat but came back with a 3rd in his second. Mackrell took a strong 6th and a 2nd in his heats, Skelton a 4th and 10th, and Hall taking a strong 9th and a 5th on his racing comeback.
Into Quali 2, White took the 3rd fastest time overall, Hall and Mackrell taking 12th and 13th overall with Skelton 17th in a difficult early session.
The remaining heats saw White and Mackrell both taken out in their 3rd heats, but faught back to a 1st and a 3rd respectively in their final heats. Skelton endured a more consistent pair of heats with a 7th and a 12th. Hall rounded off the heats with a 6th and a 7th. These results gave Hall 7th, Skelton 8th, Mackrell 10th and the luckless White 24th on the grid for the Pre-Final.
Hall led the charge, fighting for the podium from the off, taking an eventual 4th position less than a second off the win. Skelton finished ahead of the next train of karts in 6th position, three positions ahead of teammate Mackrell in 9th. White's luckless time continued,despite finishing 11th on the road, he suffered a nosecone infringement dropping him to 28th in the classification.
The Grand Prix for Senior X30 was a tight contest from the off, with a train of karts fighting for the lead. Hall hit the front on lap 7 only to be immediately deposed as the lead changed lap by lap. At the end of a furiously fast final, Skelton finished 5th overall as the highest placed Coles driver, White finished 9th on the road but again fell foul of a nosecone penalty - dropping him to 19th. Mackrell was taken out of contention after just 9 laps of the race, whilst returnee Hall finished 7th on the road after his bright start, but was aggrieved to have caused contact and was excluded from the results.
A Kartmasters weekend that saw the team lead in every final bar one was not to be in the final results, such is the nature of these one-off events - anything can happen! The team moves onto the final rounds of the LGM and Rotax Euro Challenge, after recharging the batteries from the five day event at Kartmasters.
