Mackenzie’s delight at Super win…

Mackenzie Taylor took a decisive KF3 victory at the opening round of the British Super 1 Championship at Three Sisters, near Wigan last weekend (12/13 April).

Coming just a week after his Winning Series Karting success at Angerville in France (5/6 April), the Ricky Flynn Motorsport driver has clearly marked himself as one of the favourites to take the Super 1 title.

In difficult conditions during Timed Qualifying, Taylor clocked the 7th fastest time - but admitted to making a costly error: “The guys who recorded quicker times were all slip-streaming one another, but I was out on my own and didn’t get a tow. At Wigan you can gain a tenth of a second by towing behind someone, and I just didn’t give myself that opportunity - I was pushing my own air.”

Though his self criticism sounds a little harsh – especially when you consider that he was just a tenth of a second off pole position - it worked as a brilliant motivational tool for his performance in the heats.

Surviving a massive ‘moment’, he won his first race. “I was coming down the fast ‘Valley’ section and ran onto a damp section of the track. My kart suddenly snapped sideways and I was thinking ‘this is going to hurt,’ but I clipped a kerb and the kart flicked back the right way”.

Mackenzie won the second heat and booked his place on the front row of the grid for the pre-final.

As the pack barreled into the first corner he found himself unable to get onto the dry, racing-line and dropped to 12th - before getting his head down and working his way up to 3rd at the chequered flag.

Getting a fantastic start to tuck in behind pole-man Carl Stirling, Mackenzie started the final in a bullish mood. Half a lap later, seeing a chance, he passed Stirling - who immediately had a stab back. Taylor led the pair onto the long main-straight, with the young Ulsterman slipstreaming him and preparing to pass. However, the alert Taylor saw waved yellow flags and pointed first at them and then at Stirling. The Irish driver duly backed out of the move, handing the advantage back to Taylor who then firmly pressed it home as rain began to fall.

Demonstrating his superb kart control in the worsening conditions, Mackenzie quickly opened a gap of nearly five seconds. As his rivals slowed, he drove perfectly, corner after corner to cruise to a dominant win.

“I’m very pleased with the result” he said afterwards. “I would’ve been angry with myself if I hadn’t won. Once again, the team (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) did a perfect job and gave me the best equipment to go out and win with. That’s why I would’ve been angry if I hadn’t. I’m also very grateful to Gordy at GFR for my engines and to Martin and Dan at Pro-Performance – their involvement has really made a difference to me this year.”

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