NEWS...
Viva Las Vegas
27th November 2014
American Supernationals 19th to 24th November 2014
Jonny could reflect on a job well done after finishing 5th in the American Super Nationals, held in Las Vegas last weekend. After flying out in Tuesday, with an eight hour time differential to manage, he signed on alongside 87 other drivers who were contesting the Super Cadet category.
His kart, a brand new Benik chassis built in Italy, had been already prepared for him by Ben Cruttenden and Nicky Mitchell. These two Brits, both originally from Kent, formed the Benik team together and are now based in Florida, some 3,000 miles from Las Vegas. It had taken them three full days of driving their truck to reach Las Vegas. "We used to complain about travelling up to Larkhall," they quipped.
Over the two days of practice Jonny had just over an hour's total time out on the circuit to get accustomed to the new kart before Friday's opening heats. It was a good bit bigger than his usual chassis and used much stickier tyres that only lasted around 20 minutes. Instead of producing just 6 horsepower, the Vortex Rok engine churned out 10bhp.
Overall though, it was the jet lag that told on him and he emerged from his first practice on Wednesday several seconds per lap slower than the leading bunch. However, he worked hard at overcoming these difficulties and by Friday afternoon climbed up to 19th in the Timed Qualifying list.
There was a setback in Heat 1 when he crashed out on the very first corner and dropped down to 43rd position. However, he applied himself to the task of picking up places and eventually finished this race in 22nd spot. The next Heat was much easier for him and he claimed 6th place. Heat 3 on Saturday could have been disastrous when his motor refused to start. It meant him setting off down in 40th place, but he quickly moved through the field and eventually finished 7th.
These results put him amongst the top 34 qualifiers for Sunday's main final. In the main event, Jonny had to do a lot of overtaking. He eventually climbed back to 5th spot, but by this time the front four were too far ahead. The race was won by Guiseppe Fusco from Italy. Finishing 3rd was Australian star Jack Doohan, son of the five times world motorcycling champion, Mick. Jack was sandwiched by two Americans, Jagger Jones and Jack Crawford. Jonny's 5th position earned him a place on the championship podium.
Jonny finished as the top points scorer for his team and won lots of plaudits for the way he applied himself. "He's an unbelievable talent, " said Craig Boyd who acted as Jonny's mechanic over in America. "To learn so much in such a short space of time was just incredible."
1st race - 19 February 2012
JONNY's KARTING HERITAGE!
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