Hawksworth takes maiden Super ICC win

BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Super ICC rookie Jack Hawksworth has taken his maiden victory in the gearbox class – and in so doing launched himself to the top of the championship standings.

The 16-year-old headed to the most recent meeting at Llandow in Wales – round five of nine on the 2007 calendar – lying second in the title chase on the back of a close second place finish last time out at Larkhall up in Scotland. That followed a switch across from his previous CRG chassis to Gillard – with whom Jack has long shared a successful relationship – after the opening round at Kimbolton back in April, and the upturn in his fortunes was immediately evident.

Following a peerless performance that had seen him thoroughly dominate the rain-truncated meeting at Shenington in May, when the heavens opened again early on Sunday many wondered if this time the reigning Euro Max Challenge Champion may not just finish the job off.

“I had driven the track on the Friday in the wet,” Jack remarked, “but on the Saturday it was completely dry with plenty of grip. Then on the Sunday we went straight out again in the morning in the rain and it was very slippery. At the hairpin at the bottom of the circuit there was no grip whatsoever – in the first heat I ran straight into Tom Hibbert simply because I couldn’t stop!”

Indeed, in such conditions the heats were always going to be eventful, and from his third, sixth and seventh grid spots respectively the Bradford ace took away third, seventh and second place finishes. Though it might have been better, given the unpredictable nature of the day it could also have been substantially worse.

“In the first heat it was chucking it down,” he said. “You just couldn’t see a thing. I got off the line quite well and was up to second behind Nigel Moore, but then when I tried to go down the inside of him I out-braked myself a bit and Tom got past me. I was making mistakes left right and centre, but I managed to get into a rhythm eventually and then the race was red-flagged three laps early because of an accident.

“Nigel’s engine broke on that same lap and Tom got caught up behind him which put me into the lead, but because the result was counted back to the end of the previous lap I was classified third. That was quite frustrating because I wanted to take as many points off Tom as possible with him leading the championship.

“The second heat was awful; I drove completely the wrong way. I got a good start off the line, but didn’t anticipate how slippery the first corner was going to be and I lost it, putting me right down at the back of the pack. It was hard to keep the kart on the track and I ended up falling off again later on in the race.

“In the third heat I saw a gap at the start and got up into second place. James Mudd kept it quite tight into the first corner, but there was a lot more grip around the outside there.”

Indeed, Jack’s lightning getaways over the course of the meeting would prove pivotal to his success, as he explains…

“It’s just down to practice,” last year’s Junior Max runner-up admitted. “At the beginning of the season my starts were really poor; standing starts are quite different to the rolling ones I had been used to, so I practised in a car park near my dad’s work.

“If you can make a lot of positions up at the start you can gain a couple of seconds, whereas once the race is underway if you’re only a tenth quicker for example than the driver ahead it can take laps to catch them up.”

Beginning the all-important final from the inside of the second row of the grid, Jack displayed a perfect blend of intelligence, speed and racecraft to move into the lead by the end of the opening lap. From there on in he would not look back, edging ever-further away from his pursuers to take the chequered flag more than six seconds clear of his nearest rival and establish a 17-point lead in the drivers’ standings.

“It was all about getting the set-up right and taking care of your tyres,” he stated, “because if they went off you were going to get caught. It had dried up quite a lot in time for the final, so we made a few adjustments to the tyre pressures and so on and I made a note of where the wet and dry patches were on the warm-up lap.

“I made another good start, but so did Tom and Dan Rodde from pole and I had to tuck in behind the pair of them. Going into the tight left-right chicane Dan made a bit of a mistake and Tom pulled alongside him. I got past as well, and then going along the back straight Tom made a small mistake too and drifted a bit wide into the final corner. I managed to get up the inside of him and into the lead. He kept tabs on me for a while, but from there on the kart was just perfect all the way through. The tyres didn’t go off at all and I could keep setting consistent lap times. It was fantastic.

“It was a really good feeling to win – all the hard work has paid off. It’s really close on dropped scores with Frank Wrathall doing well too, so it should be a good end to the championship, but we will just keep pushing our hardest and hopefully we will beat them.”

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