Hawksworth gets 2008 into gear with victory

Jack Hawksworth has got his 2008 racing campaign off to the best possible start, by thoroughly trouncing the opposition in his maiden competitive outing of the year.

The young Bradford ace – who turned 17 only last week – took on a full, 26-strong grid of KZ1 and KZ2 competitors at Shenington, including reigning British ICC Champion Sam Moore and fellow class front-runners James Mudd, Stephen Lane and Nik Goodfellow. Jack was not, however, about to let any of them steal his thunder.

“I was looking forward to kicking off my season with a win,” the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow leading light reflected, looking back. “It was always going to be competitive, but the weekend got off to a good start. In the first session on Saturday we had a few problems with the brakes, but once we sorted that out we were around four tenths ahead of our nearest rivals and we pretty much dominated.”

That much is an understatement, as the PDB Racing star prevailed by more than five seconds in the opening heat from fifth on the grid, taking fastest lap – almost four tenths of a second quicker than anyone else – along the way for good measure. The second heat, though, would not prove quite so straightforward…

“I didn’t get a very good start off the line,” Jack admitted, “because the guy in front of me stalled and in taking avoiding action I lost a few places. I was then coming through the pack, but made a bit of a rash move on Peter Baybutt and there was contact which left me with a flat tyre.

“It was frustrating at the time, because we were so fast we didn’t need to take risks, but it was my mistake. I knew as long as I avoided any accidents in the final, I should be able to come through pretty quickly.”

He would prove as good as his word, making a good start to move up five places from his tenth grid slot and going on to pick off his rivals one-by-one before whittling down the advantage held by leaders Mudd and Moore to overtake both and cruise to victory – with again no one else even coming close to threatening his fastest lap time, a new lap record on this occasion. As he prepares to next return to Kerpen – Michael Schumacher’s home track and scene of a starring performance in the Winter Cup just three months ago – it was a potent warning shot.

“It was superb,” the 2007 British ICC Vice-Champion smiled. “We were in complete control of the race meeting, and the AFR engines and Gillard chassis were once again very strong.

“It was pretty easy to be honest; admittedly racing is never easy, but we had it all under control. With all the testing we had done, we knew we were going to come back and be a lot faster than we had been last year

“It was a great start, and it puts us on the right foot heading into the season. If I am going to challenge for the European and WSK titles then I knew we would have to be able to dominate British meetings. All the hard work over the winter has paid off, and I feel like we’re really making progress.

“I’m really looking forward to Kerpen – I can’t wait! With a host of high-profile KZ1 and KZ2 drivers expected to enter it is not going to be easy to win, but we have moved our game on a long way since December, and I have full confidence in my equipment and ability to be able to take the fight to them.”

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