Hawksworth wins British ICC

For a while it looked as though Jack Hawksworth’s dreams of clinching the runner-up spot in the Super 4 British ICC Championship at his maiden attempt would come unstuck in the very last round, but if that was true, the Bradford ace obviously hadn’t read the script.

Jack headed into the meeting at Fulbeck in Lincolnshire 25 points ahead of nearest rival Stephen Lane in the battle for second place in the end-of-season standings, and if he thought that was a fairly comfortable margin, he was soon forced to think again.

“We were really quick throughout practice in the dry,” he recounted, “but come Sunday it didn’t really go to plan…

“In the first heat I started near the back and got off the line well, but then there was a big mêlée in the middle of the field – everybody just crashed into each other and there must have been ten karts blocking the track, and I simply drove into it. That bent the trackrod and steering column, so I just circulated really slowly after that to get the points for finishing.”

Having conceded 20 points to Lane in one fell swoop, the pressure was now suddenly on, and heat two would go little better.

“In the second heat I started mid-pack,” the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow front-runner continued, “but again I went off at the first corner which put me back down to last place. After that I started making my way through again until I had a collision with Will Hibbert when I accidentally clipped the back of his kart. That cost us both a lot of time and I ended up tenth.”

With Lane once more taking the chequered flag second, there was little to choose between the two pretenders entering the last of the three heats, and starting from pole position Jack knew it was time to play his joker. That he did to perfection, storming away to victory to hoist himself up to tenth position on the grid for the all-important final, though it was Lane occupying the top spot.

“I just had to finish inside the top six, no matter what he did,” the 16-year-old explained. “The kart felt really good in either bone dry conditions or in the wet; it was the intermediate conditions we were struggling with, and the final was held in just those kind of conditions.

“The first start went really well for me – Stephen crashed and I was up to fifth place, but then the red flags came out so I had to do it all over again. I didn’t get away as well the second time – I was up to seventh initially, but then I got edged wide into the first corner and dropped back to 13th.

“From there I just had to keep my head and work my way up as best I could. It wasn’t easy because the kart wasn’t really handling that well in the conditions. I slowly made my way through to fourth place by the end; I was hoping to get onto the podium in the last race of the season, but it wasn’t worth risking anything stupid.”

With Lane finishing second, fourth spot was nevertheless easily enough for Jack to seal the runner-up honours, and having endured a nightmarish opening round at Shenington back in April – failing to complete so much as a lap during the heats, having to begin the ‘B’ final plum last and then not even making it around the first corner – to fight his way back up from a distant 43rd position in the standings into second place was an outstanding achievement.

Even more impressively still, that was accomplished in his debut season in the gearbox class and running as a privateer, whereas the champion – the experienced Sam Moore – has been competing in the category for several years.

“I’d like to thank AFR for their excellent engines and Tim Gillard for producing a really good chassis,” Jack concluded. “After Shenington we just had to stick at it really.”

That he certainly did, and with ICC – both at home and on the European stage – once again the promising young star’s main focus in 2008, who’s willing to bet against him going one step better still?

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