Mini Marvel - Butterfield is Super One ChampionWhile McCarthy waits on Senior Max title confirmation
Jenson Butterfield capped his fantastic Super One Mini Max campaign with a dominant performance in the season finale at PFi last weekend (24/25 September). The Strawberry Racing driver won both his finals, with team-mate Lorcan Hanafin joining him on the podium.
Jack McCarthy’s brace of runner-up finishes should have been enough to lift the Senior Max crown, but following an appeal by one of his competitors, he must now wait to see if he has made history by becoming one, if not the, youngest champion in the class. Mark Kimber’s valiant efforts in Junior OK saw him podium in Lincolnshire.
From the get-go, Strawberry’s hard-charging trio of Butterfield, Hanafin and Dexter Patterson were in the reckoning for glory in Sunday’s finals. After the heats had been dispensed with, Lorcan had qualified for the first final in 3rd, with Jenson 4th and Dexter 5th. Making his S1 debut with the team, Suleiman Zanfari would line up on P19.
Butterfield went on to triumph, ahead of Hanafin in 3rd and Patterson 7th, while Zanfari crossed the finishing line in 14th.
With so much at stake, Jenson displayed all the coolness, guile and pace of his famous namesake to make it two wins from two in the main final. His victory put the title beyond the reach of his nearest rival, Jonny Edgar. Lorcan made it a double celebration for the Tony Kart squad by taking the runner-up place, but Dexter’s sterling efforts were for nothing, after the young Scot was punted off the circuit during the first lap. He recovered to take 15th place - setting the fastest lap in the process – and finish two places ahead of Suleiman.
Mark Kimber was certainly the busiest of Strawberry’s drivers at PFi, as he was competing in both the Junior Max and OK classes. Having qualified for the first Rotax final in 3rd place, Mark went on to finish 5th before going one place better in the main final. His points tally took him to 6th overall in the Junior Max series. In OK, he finished 4th and 2nd respectively to complete the inaugural MSA British Championship in a fine 3rd place.
The chance to make a little history as one of the few drivers to not just win back-to-back titles in different classes, but also be one of the youngest to boot, could have plated heavily on Jack McCarthy’s mind. As it was, the 16-year old was completely unfazed and remained steadfastly focused on denying his closest rivals the title he so badly wanted.
His fellow title protagonist, Josh White, was equally fired-up and the pair would set up a crowd-pleasing ‘Super Sunday’ of their own by locking out the front row of the grid for the first final.
During the last few laps of the race McCarthy and White were engaged in a battle royal. With one of the best moves of the day, McCarthy attacked on the approach to the circuit’s tight first hairpin. Josh defended and shut any way down the inside line, inspiring Jack to simply power round the outside. The pair were neck and neck as they sprinted towards the chequered flag but it was the Strawberry driver who claimed 2nd, behind winner Josh Collings. White’s 3rd ensured that the title decider would be the very last final race of the season.
Another thriller saw the trio finished in the same order in the main final, capping off not just another enthralling race but a year in which each of them had enjoyed hard-fought success. With White and McCarthy tying on points, on paper the title goes to McCarthy by virtue of the Strawberry driver having a better total score over the seven rounds. However, with an MSA tribunal yet to hear an appeal concerning Collings’ exclusion from round five, at Fulbeck, the team’s celebrations remain on hold.
In the Senior OK class Dean Macdonald was going for the new category’s very first British championship. His hopes were dealt a cruel blow when his motor mysteriously refused to fire on the dummy grid, which meant that he would be a non-starter for Timed Qualifying. Although automatically put on the back foot for the rest of the meeting, MacDonald displayed his never-say-die attitude to set fastest laps in the heats as he raced from the back of the grid. His combined finishes earned him P4 on the pre-final grid.
Sadly, a collision at the first corner dropped him to the back of the field and, to add insult to injury, he incurred a time penalty for a dropped nose cone. This put-paid to his title chances but a terrific performance in the second final, in which he claimed 3rd at the finish, was further testimony to the young Scot’s talent and professionalism.
MacDonald’s team-mates also experienced varied fortunes. Luke Knott had been second-quickest in TQ but despite his obvious pace, chalked up a brace of 7th-place finishes in the finals. Newly-crowned Euro Max champion Nicholas Schoell had a DNF in the first final but rocketed up the order in the second to finish 5th. Similarly, Tom Gamble had driven with great verve throughout the weekend but a podium in either final just eluded him, leaving him having to content himself with 4th place in both races.
Strawberry Racing Team Manager, Warwick Ringham said: “It’s a shame for Jack and his family, as he’d done absolutely everything he needed to do to get the job done. It’s not been a perfect season for him, but it is a mark of his star quality that he kept himself in the hunt, even when his back was against the wall. He’s definitely qualified for the Grand Finals in Italy but it would be harsh on him if he doesn’t go to Sarno as the 2016 British Super One champion.”
He added: “This has been a really hard year, in terms of the level of competition across the board, so it is fantastic to see Jenson win his title, with Lorcan and Dexter also in the top five [in 4th and 5th respectively]. Mark has also done a great job; racing in two different classes is far from easy. So for him to take 6th in Junior Max and 3rd in OK is a real achievement. Dean has been fantastic all year but just when he needed it, he ran out of luck. However, we must congratulate Oliver Hodgson, the first ever MSA British Senior OK champion, who has driven brilliantly all year and made it such a great new series for karting in the UK. He deserves his success!”
Having previously clinched the Junior and Senior Euro Max series wins with Axel Charpentier and Nicholas Schoell, Strawberry will take a strong line-up to the International Open at Adria (8/9 October) and then the Grand Finals a fortnight later.
