BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Super ICC (Round 3) - Shennington
12th/13th May 2007
Saturday Testing – I was 5th in the standings after a couple of poor rounds but was determined to climb to the top of the championship table with a win at Shenington. Testing went well and I was quick in the wet and the dry consistently lapping well under the lap record on new and old tyres setting a best time of 46.60 thanks to a Gillard chassis which had a great balance and some very strong Maxter engines tuned by Don Parker. I was very confident going into Sunday but knew that it was going to be hard with the likes of Frank Wrathall, Jake Rozenweig, Tom Hibbert, James Mudd, Nick Goodfellow and Nigel Moore breathing down my neck.
Sunday Qualifying heats – It was chucking it down when race day arrived and a quick change to wet tyres and a wet setup was required before the morning warm up. After the warm up I didn’t quite feel comfortable with the kart and lacked some front end grip in the middle of the corners but we changed a few things on the chassis setup side and stuck some new wets on the kart to give me some extra tread as it had now started to get very wet. I started 11th on the grid for the first race of the day and made a good start immediately up to 8th off the line. I then managed to squeeze past Nigel Moore through the fast left hander before taking a risk and moving to the outside before Stratford bend in an attempt to make some more places. The risk paid off and I managed to gain some more places in the braking zone despite some near contact with Frank Wrathall on the exit of the bend. I was now up to 3rd and quickly made that 2nd on the second lap at wilkins. I was now tucked up behind the leader Scott Allen and before long had made my move at the Bruno chicane to take the lead. I managed to pull away for the next 3 laps but had not anticipated Allens speed in the closing part of the race and with 5 laps to go Allen made a rash move that forced me into a spin. (Allen was later excluded for this incident). I managed to rejoin in 10th but with a limited amount of laps left could only get back to 8th.
After a disappointing first heat I started on P4 for the second and the rain had now worsened and conditions were beginning to come treacherous. A good start off the grid pushed me up to 3rd behind Daniel Rodde and Nick Goodfellow but a lap later Jake Rozenweig had managed to slip past me relegating me back to 4th. Two laps later I had a bit of contact with Rodde but managed to get past and up into the top 3. The conditions were horrendous and a slight error would have ended up with severe consequences. I settled in behind the leading 2 not getting too close to avoid the spray leaving me with some clear track so I could watch the events unfold. Unfortunately for Goodfellow he was caught out by some water coming out of Wilkins and he aqua planed into a spin and with Rozenweig right behind him I managed to slip past the both of them to take the lead. I settled into a decent pace pushing the limits at about 60% so that not to make any mistakes. But I saw Rozenweig pushing very hard at one point to try catch me so I started pushing harder posting some quick times to put some space between myself and Rozenweig to secure the victory. The race was very difficult with limited visibility and very high concentration level needed but nevertheless I was happy with the win and was now confident of a win in the main event. Unfortunately the conditions worsened still and the event had to be abandoned on the ground of safety. Luck had eluded me again and despite another promising showing and a very good chance of victory the round was declared void. So with no results to show from the Third round of the championship we will start a fresh at the next round at Larkhall and I know that the package is there now and all it will take is no bad luck and I will be winning again. This is a very tough championship with some quality drivers and it is proving to be a testing season for me after a lot of bad luck but I remain positive and have more belief in myself than ever before. I am 5th in the standings now but there is no reason why I cant still win it with 6 rounds left and I'm only 30 points off 1st. I know that when the victories start coming they will taste better than every before.
Jack Hawksworth
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