BRITS REIGN IN WORLD FINALS
Organiser: FIA When: September 20-24 Where: PF International, Grantham, Lincolnshire Championship: OK Junior, OK Senior
On his CIK debut 20-year-old Englishman Danny Keirle stunned the greatest field of drivers ever assembled at PF International to win the CIK FIA World Karting Championship on a day where British drivers won both the Senior and Junior World titles.
In front of the largest crowd British karting has seen since the 1970s, Keirle and his Chiesa Corse team pummelled the rest of a near 90-strong Senior class into submission. From an entry containing no less than 12 current or former international karting champions, Keirle led all 22 laps of the final to become the sixth British driver to win the official CIK World title, the first time it was being held in the UK.
With just eight minutes of qualifying, five heat races each and no second-chance race to trim the field to 34, each one of the 181 entrants (94 Juniors, 87 Seniors) knew that a single mistake could spell disaster. Keirle belied his relative lack of experience to win four of his five heats and the final with ice cold precision.
Starting alongside defending world champion Pedro Hiltbrand, Keirle made the perfect getaway as Hiltbrand faded to an early retirement. With his team-mate Esteban Muth, David Vidales, Juho Valtanen and Oliver Hodgson in relentless pursuit Keirle gradually eked out a gap of half a second over Muth as the lap record tumbled.
Despite missing the apex at the first hairpin on the final lap Keirle crossed the line two tenths clear of Muth, although the German subsequently lost second place with a nosecone penalty, allowing Vidales and Valtanen to complete the podium. Hodgson also lost fifth place to the same penalty, which promoted Paavo Tonteri and Rasmus Lindh into the top five.
The most excitement came from Keirle’s team-mate, Lorenzo Travisanutto, who started 30th and then became the first driver to officially lap the Lincolnshire venue in under 55 seconds as he scythed his way to 13th.
British drivers locked out the OK Junior podium and Dexter Patterson became the first Scottish driver to claim the world title as he held off his Forza Racing team-mate Chris Lulham by one tenth of a second.
Patterson started the 19-lap final from the outside of the front row after joining six other drivers in heat wins, along with Lulham, polesitter Harry Thompson, Aleksey Brizhan, Gabriel Bortoleto, Jack Doohan and Zane Maloney, who made history on Saturday by becoming the first Bajan driver to win a race at CIK level.
Between them, they accounted for 14 of the 15 heat wins but during a frantic opening few laps Brizhan, Maloney, Bortoleto and Doohan were all delayed, leaving the three British contenders clear of the rest.
When the impressive Alex Simmonds tapped Maloney into a half spin shortly before half distance, Lulham lost a couple of valuable tenths to Patterson, who had only just regained the lead after numerous exchanges. Thompson too had to ease off and, when the dust had settled, Patterson held a one second lead.
Lulham took half a dozen laps to reel Patterson in but chose to push the Scotsman rather than attack, leaving Thompson, who had set the fastest time in qualifying and then won four of his five heats, powerless to catch them.
But even with no threat from behind Lulham couldn’t quite get alongside Patterson on the final lap and when Patterson survived Lulham’s attempted cutback coming out of the second hairpin, the win was all but sealed.
A dejected Thompson completed the podium with Oman’s Shihab Al Habsi an outstanding fourth. Tyler Gonzales was initially fifth before a nosecone penalty spoiled the best drive of his life, which left the recovering Maloney and Doohan to complete the top six.