Hawksworth makes world-class impression on international stage

Jack Hawksworth mixed it with the very best young karters the world has to offer as he took on the crème de la crème of international opposition in the opening round of the WSK International Series in France – and he undeniably came out fighting.

The young Bradford ace headed to the Angerville circuit just south of Paris having tested there twice since Christmas, and though he confessed to not being a huge fan of the track, he certainly did not let it show once the action got underway. In his first full international KZ2 meeting – arguably the biggest race date of his career so far, comprising front-runners from both KZ2 and the more advanced KZ1 class – the 17-year-old was simply superb.

“I felt reasonably confident,” he recounted. “The kart was quite good, and I thought we could get a good result.

“There were two 20-minute practice sessions on the Thursday. It was hard to tell where we were because a lot of people were running in engines and so forth, but the kart felt ok and the engine was good. We got a better indication of where we were pace-wise on the Friday, when we were around 12th or 13th out of the 72 drivers there.”

The only Brit in a truly cosmopolitan field, Jack was also the top-placed driver on a Gillard mount at the end of qualifying, as he lined up seventh in group – from where he would begin each of his heat races – and 13th overall, third-best KZ2 regular and less than four tenths of a second shy of the top spot in a supremely close-knit field where as many as 60 drivers were covered by just a single second. What’s more, despite grappling with understeer issues the 2006 Rotax Max Vice-World Champion successfully achieved the number one objective for any professional racing driver – beating his team-mate – as he shaded home grown hero Manuel Renaudie by six hundredths of a second.

“Obviously I go into every race aiming to win,” Jack acknowledged, “but this is the toughest competition in the world. There’s not one bad driver out there – they can all race well – so to be just two or three tenths of a second away from people like Marco Ardigo [24-year-old reigning World and European KF1 Champion] and Jonathan Thonon [2007 FIA KZ1 World Cup winner] was really good. We thought maybe we could have done a little bit better, but it was nevertheless a good starting point.”

After ‘taking it easy’ in the first race to ensure he got to the finish and crossing the line 12th, the PDB Racing ace would prove braver in the second outing, taking the fight to Thonon – four years his senior and a good deal more experienced at both international and KZ2 level – and passing the Belgian to take the chequered flag seventh, something Jack described as ‘a really good feeling’.

“With it being my first race with all these guys – with [Roberto] Toninelli and Ardigo starting just in front of me – I thought I would simply feed myself into it and make sure I finish the race,” he explained of the first heat. “I was running well, but then somebody got past me about halfway through and two or three others followed him by. I lost a few places there and so could have been ninth or tenth, but the most important thing was I finished the race, which for me was what it was all about.”

Then followed the third and final heat, what Jack considered ‘probably the best race of the weekend’, as he made up for a late error to reclaim second place off Toninelli and stay there all the way to the close.

“It was a bit slippery out there and the track was a bit cold, but being accustomed to racing in England that suited more what I’m used to!” he joked. “I got a good start up into third, and then got past both Toninelli and Ardigo into the lead.

“I pulled out a good gap over them, but then about three laps from home somebody went off and brought some water back onto the track with them, and as I was the first to arrive there I spun on it. It was frustrating not to win, but to finish second to someone like Ardigo wasn’t too bad…”

That left the reigning British ICC Vice-Champion once more lining up seventh on the grid for the pre-final, and he was well aware that much was at stake.

“With points being awarded for both finals, it was important to finish inside the top ten,” he underlined, “and the kart was the best it had been all weekend. I was quick and able to keep up with the top six. [Alessandro] Piccini got past me which caused me to lose some time, but we managed to reel the lead group back in by the end of the race.

“I just needed another couple of laps to get sixth place, but seventh was still a really good result and showed we had the pace. I was happy we had scored some points – that was the main thing, because you need to get the points on the board right from the start.”

The impressive performance saw Jack come home just 5.6 seconds away from the race-winner, second amongst the KZ2 brigade and having set a fastest lap a scant two tenths shy of the ultimate pace. A knock into the first corner at the start of the final, however, would see him lose a whole handful of places – bending his kart’s axle and consequently affecting its handling – but he still enjoyed some ‘good battles’ on his way back to eleventh position at the flag and third of the KZ2 regulars, ensuring he left the circuit sitting in a strong ninth spot in the outright drivers’ standings after the first round of four.

“I was very, very pleased,” he enthused afterwards. “Going into the meeting, I didn’t know just how competitive it was going to be, but when I got there I quickly realised it was the best drivers in the world. I didn’t realise how aggressive European drivers are either; now I do know, I can adapt my style to try and beat them.

“This result proved we are going to be right at the front this year, and now we have raced against these guys we know where we are lacking in pace – where we are strong and where we are weak. We still have a lot of things to test on the engine and chassis side, and we know if we keep working hard we can find some more performance from both.

“It’s effectively as tough as the world championship, but hopefully if we can find just another two tenths, we can be pushing for the podium and hopefully at the next round [at Mariembourg, Belgium, in June] we can climb further up the table.”

First, though, the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow leading light has an outing in the German Championship to look forward to, though if anything it is more of a glorified testing opportunity rather than a racing weekend as he is not competing in the full series. WSK rivals Bas Lammers [Dutch KZ1 Champion] and Rick Dreezen [KZ2 European Vice-Champion] – more experienced drivers both – will also be present, and it is a further opportunity for Jack to bond with his PDB racing outfit.

“That will enable us to see if we have made any progress since Angerville. If we are faster than we were there I will be happy,” he insisted, before adding, with a glint in his eye, “but obviously I will be aiming to win the race too…”

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