CLOSELY-CONTESTED FINALS AT ROTAX GRAND FESTIVAL

The Rotax Grand Festival continues to provide competitors entering the wider Rotax community with an opportunity to compete locally, as well as in an international field, as the event relocates to different nations from season to season. The majority of entries were from within the United Kingdom in this case, where the competition ideally showcased the latest up-and-coming talent of Rotax drivers from within the region. Team UK secured another five members for their RMC Grand Finals campaign when they head to Sarno, Italy, this October to defend their Nations Cup.

Celebrating the victory in the Rotax Micro MAX category as the new RMC Grand Festival 2024 champion was Austin Oman (Sam Pollitt Racing), following in the footsteps of his successful Rotax racing dad. He had already won his RMCGF ticket earlier this month as the vice champion at the British Kart Championship. The nine-year-old E Plate winner will be joined by runner-up Lucien Smith (KR Sport), who was presented with the Grand Finals invitation, to represent their country at the end of season highlight event.

When it came to results over the course of the weekend, Austin Oman was almost unbeatable in the Rotax Micro MAX class, qualifying on pole with a 1:11.85 and going on to win all but one of his Heat races, up to and including the Final Sunday. In second place, Lucien Smith was only one of the evenly-matched contenders who battled it out for the podium, producing non-stop track action in every session. He had won the other heat, although it was Joss Huschka, Arthur Pharoah and recently-crowned BKC champ Luke Milward filling the first two rows for the Super Heat in front of him. Oman’s next victory Sunday morning meant he still led the final standings when the points were calculated, leaving Smith and Milward separated by just one point. The Final was another good scrap. The gap at the line with Oman leading was 0.18 seconds to Smith and the first independent entry of Maximilian Abrahart directly behind to complete the top three. Rotax UK Distributor J.A.G. also rewarding the leading privateer finishing P3 with a brand new Rotax 125 MAX Evo engine. The E Plate winner was Oman and his ticket handed down to Smith.

In the Rotax Mini MAX class, it was the RMCGF 2023 Rotax Micro MAX champion Jenson Chalk (Strawberry Racing Team) who came away with the Grand Festival and E Plate titles in an action-packed final. He has featured on the podium numerous times over recent years and this adds two more championships to the honour list for the young British competitor. Jenson won his ticket to race against the top Mini MAX drivers from around the world next month in Italy, where he is aiming to repeat his excellent performance from the Kingdom of Bahrain last December.

Albert Friend has been racking up the Rotax Mini MAX titles all season at both national and international level and came into the weekend as a twice Grand Festival champion. He set the pace in official timed practice with a best lap of 1:07.14 and kept up the momentum to win all three heats Saturday. This put the 11-year-old at the top of the intermediate classification from close rivals Emerson MacAndrew-Uren and Jenson Chalk. However, the Super Heat was won by Edward Haynes, as the competition started to turn up the heat for the all-important points for grid places. On pole for the Final it was MacAndrew-Uren lining up alongside Friend, with Chalk and Oliver Spencer on row 2. The lead was shuffled between the front-runners over the 1200-metre course as the 18-lapper unfolded. It was neck-and-neck racing, taking a turn at half-race distance as Friend fell out of contention and the eventual winner Jenson Chalk overcoming the opposition. The first group of seven karts was covered by less than two seconds at the finish, as Riley Murro took P2 and Haynes was third. Chalk now goes to Sarno to hunt another RMCGF title in 2024. Frazer Anderson was the leading privateer entry taking home his new Rotax engine from J.A.G.

The RMC Grand Festival was met with some adverse weather that brought a bitterly cool change and heavy fog rolling in from along the coast, but the competition still remained exciting until the end. The popular race format with qualifying, heats and super heats offering double points to determine the final grid positions from the combined tally kept things even more interesting too.

“It was a great honour to host the RMC Grand Festival for the first time here in the UK,” says Dan Parker, Head of Karting Motorsport UK. “The racing was very competitive and exciting to watch, which we streamed live across the weekend for all the fans not able to be at Warden Law. We introduced a slightly different race format for the event, with the goal to make this a special competition as a one-off Rotax championship primarily for the younger drivers. There was a different feel about it and I believe it was a fun weekend. Having the opportunity to award RMC Grand Finals 2024 tickets, together with lots of cool Rotax prizes offered by J.A.G. UK, only added to this. It’s something quite unique to be able to represent your country at such a prestigious event as the RMCGF and we are proud to support our drivers in achieving their dreams at MSUK. I want to personally thank all the team at Warden Law Kart Club and Karting North East, along with everyone involved in the organisation for making this a wonderful event. We hope all the kids liked their custom-made RMC Grand Festival T-shirts and stickers too.”

Watch all the race action from the RMC Grand Festival on YouTube at Karting UK - https://www.youtube.com/live/r0j9_mi-mSU?si=m7YDjY5onjmEVBGE

For the full Results please click here