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Eventful racing debut for Jonny

23rd February 2012


Jonny’s first race in cadets turned out to be an eventful one. It was also pretty costly, as he left the Shenington circuit with a twisted chassis and an axle bent like a banana. "It all happened in his 2nd Heat, when the pace car flag went out following a minor collision ahead," explained Jonny’s dad, Justin. "Some of the drivers ahead seemed confused and ended up by spinning. Jonny was able to slow down and avoid them, but another competitor hit him from behind. I was unsighted, but those who did see this incident told me that the other lad hit him at full speed. Certainly the damage done to his kart would bear this out.”

Jonny had been on the pace all weekend in both wet and dry conditions. As a novice driver, however, he had to start each of his two Heats from the back. "That isn’t so bad when you’re in a field of a dozen or so karts, but the cadet entry at Shenington was in excess of 60," Justin remarked. "It was quite a daunting task, but we were all delighted at the way he handled things.” Jonny got off to a cracking start in his opening Heat before getting involved in a collision that temporarily sidelined him. However, from 32nd place he recovered well to finish this race in 18th spot setting a time that was actually quicker than the winner’s. Things were looking good for a place in the "A" Final.

For his next race he was placed 31st on the grid but, after just two laps, he’d come storming through into 18th spot. Then there came that disastrous knock from behind that wrecked his chances. Fortunately Jonny had brought a spare chassis along and a quick check with the officials confirmed that he could use it in the "B" Final. He would be starting off grid 16 and there was more bad news when this race got shortened down to 7 laps.

Even so, he made a confident start and soon began picking up places. However, after two or three laps a group of six drivers pulled well ahead of the rest. Jonny, though, was making up ground very quickly and by the final lap had almost caught the leaders. Although he did exceptionally well to finish 6th it wasn’t quite good enough to get him into the "A" Final. "Apart from the disappointment of leaving with a wrecked kart, I was more than happy at how the weekend panned out," said Justin. "Jonny exceeded all our expectations, his times were very quick and he made some excellent overtaking moves, all of which were executed cleanly. I think he’ll have learned quite a bit from this one and is certainly looking forward to the next race at Whilton Mill.”


 



News list...




 1st race - 19 February 2012

 JONNY's KARTING HERITAGE!

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