The 2024 edition of the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Festival saw competitive action get underway in tricky conditions at Warden Law for over 85 drivers starting the journey to battle it out for five tickets to the 2024 RMC Grand Finals.
The first visit of the RMC Grand Festival to the United Kingdom began with the Friday’s Free Practices and Welcome Ceremony for the drivers across four categories. For the Grand Festival categories MicroMAX and MiniMAX, a ticket to Sarno is at stake for the winner of each of Sunday’s finals.
For Junior MAX and Senior MAX, both present at the Karting North East circuit to also compete for the coveted MotorsportUK ‘E’ plate, two tickets for the highest placed eligible drivers and a DD2 ticket for the highest placed UK driver are up for grabs respectively.
With timed qualifying set for Saturday morning, the drivers were greeted by light rain and foggy conditions, making finding a rhythm around Warden Law’s twelve turns an even tougher prospect than normal for the field containing many competitors from the national Rotax championships in the UK.
With Timed Qualifying complete and the grids confirmed, three rounds of heats for all drivers commenced on a drying track to decide points in the Intermediate Classification and who would set themselves up for a strong Sunday from the front of the Super Heats.
With the stage set by Motorsport UK – the promoter for this year’s RMC Grand Festival, JAG Rotax – technical support and official UK distributor and Karting North East, it was time for racing to begin.
MicroMAX
Timed Qualifying presented the youngest drivers in the paddock at Karting North East the challenge to set their fastest average lap time over three tours of the 1.2km circuit. British Championship runner-up Austin Oman claimed top spot for Sam Pollitt Racing with an average time of 1:11.85, taking pole position by nearly half a second over the driver who narrowly beat him for the British title two weeks ago, Luke Milward (KR-Sport).
Joss Huschka and Lucien Smith shared the second row of the grids from Timed Qualifying knowing they were best positioned to take advantage of Oman and Milward already having their routes to Sarno set from their national championship racing.
Kicking off the first of twelve races on the schedule for Saturday, Heat One for MicroMAX saw a dominant performance from the polesitter. Oman took the win by 2.8 seconds ahead of his teammate Joss Huschka from Arthur Pharoah (Dan Holland Racing) who had to recover after a first-lap incident.
Lucien Smith boosted his chances in the Intermediate Classification with a victory in Heat 2 ahead of the privateer entrant Maximilian Abrahart and a storming drive from the back in the shape of Dhian Pahal (RCE). Austin Oman retained the IC points lead with 4th.
The third and final heat saw a 2v2 squabble between the Sam Pollitt Racing duo of Oman and Huschka against KR-Sport’s Milward and Huschka. Oman would win out to take his second heat win of the day and pole position for Sunday’s Super Heat. Smith in 2nd and Milward 3rd wasn’t enough to prevent the front row being an SPR lock-out as a trio of results in the top 6 for Huschka was enough to be 2nd overnight.
Arthur Pharoah will start on the inside of row two, joined by Luke Milward. In-form Lucien Smith will look to work with his team-mate from 5th with company of row three in the form of Dhian Pahal.
MiniMAX
The second of the Grand Festival categories’ Timed Qualifying provided a familiar result for followers of the British Rotax karting scene. New British Champion Albert Friend continued his dominant form from the national championship with a magnificent qualifying performance to be more than half a second clear of his Strawberry Racing team-mate Tom Read. Synergy Factory Team’s Luca Holmes-Balac would line up on the second row of the grid for the heats alongside 2023 RMC Grand Finals MicroMAX Champion Jenson Chalk.
The performance of Friend continued into the first heat with a striking distance between his number 1 kart and the rest of the field, 6.51 seconds the gap back to Emerson MacAndrew-Uren in second. MiniMAX’s field for the 2024 Grand Festival contains several names who starred in last year’s MicroMAX RMCGF Final – Edward Haynes started his quest to return to the Grand Finals with third.
Heat Two would be a highlight of the day for Strawberry Racing. A 1-2-3 of Friend, Chalk and Read would lay a marker down to the rest of the order and give Friend a strong position in the Intermediate Classification with one race to go. Jack Collinson bounced back from a difficult first heat with 4th whilst MacAndrew-Uren scored well once again with 5th.
Final heat and the early stages saw the gap to Friend considerably smaller. The answer to the question of who could beat Friend on track would remain unanswered into tomorrow’s Super Heat. A sequence of overtakes for second place allowed Friend to break away and wrap up a perfect day. In all three heats Friends won by numerous seconds.
Friend will share the front row for the Super Heat with MacAndrew-Uren whose 2nd place in Heat Three kept him in the running at the sharp end of the IC. Jenson Chalk and Alex Goodson (DHR) will be on row 2. Eyes will be on Oliver Spencer (KR-Sport) who despite having suffered a disqualification from TQ for being underweight, was able to finish Saturday in the top 5 in the Intermediate Classification, tremendous race pace for a driver in strong form at this point of the season.
JuniorMAX
From the 24 drivers competing for the Motorsport UK ‘E’ Plate, 18 are eligible for the two RMCGF tickets available in JuniorMAX. JAXX Motorsport’s Jared Fox-Whiteley started the day strongly with an average lap time of 1:02.84 securing pole position ahead of Kai Veitch. Albie Lapper secured third on the grid, one of his best qualifying performances of the year. William Archer maximized the home-circuit knowledge of Hunter Motorsport to start alongside on the second row.
Heat One and Kai Veitch’s outstanding start from the outside of the first row gave him the lead. The KR-Sport driver capitalized on the opportunity to deliver a heat win and the first part of a 1-2 for the team, Kai Clarke coming in 1.73 seconds and clear of 2022 RMCGF JuniorMAX Champion Scott Marsh in third.
Knowing this weekend is likely the last chance for the ’22 Champion to return to the Grand Finals this year, a win in the second heat boosted his chances of pulling clear of the field. More success for Strawberry Racing occurred, with a 1-2 in the second heat completed by Lapper. A sweet moment for the Tony Kart-running team who’d had the MiniMax 1-2-3 in the race prior. Cole Denholm came close to breaking the Strawberry Racing stronghold with third, narrowly beating Veitch. The top four in Heat 2 covered by less than a second.
A frantic and fiery third heat to decide pole position for the Super Heat saw the Intermediate Classification turned on its head with many drivers either recovering from weak positions or seeing their day take a turn for the worse.
Charlie Woolfitt picked his way through the battles on track to take a breakthrough victory by 3.33 seconds ahead of Jared Fox-Whiteley, a repeat of form seen by the JAXX driver during a wildcard performance at the British Championships round at Warden Law earlier in the year. Whilst Jack Thompson moved up from 11th on the grid to finish third.
The curious case of Scott Marsh’s day saw him finish 6th in the final heat after at one stage dropping to 13th. With misfortune being dosed out in a plentiful manner to all drivers in JuniorMAX at some stage of the day, Marsh will still start Sunday’s Super Heat on pole as the only driver whose score remains in single digits. A clear indication of the unpredictable nature of the category this weekend.
Joining Marsh on the front row will be Fox-Whiteley. The second row will give Jacob Woods (Sam Pollitt Racing) and Kai Clarke a huge chance to take their best results of the season to date. Lewis Goff, safe in the knowledge his place in Team UK is already secure, will shared row three with Veitch.
Senior MAX
One ticket to the ultimate class at the RMC Grand Finals, DD2, is the largest prize for the 24 drivers competing in Senior MAX. Kai Hunter started his quest for another Motorsport UK plate race victory with a comfortable timed qualifying to take pole by 0.2 seconds ahead of JAXX Motorsport’s Deacon Russell in 2nd and a returning Louie Westover, driving for Dan Holland Racing, in 3rd.
The home favourite showed his class in Heat One with an efficient drive to fly clear of the field to win by 1.23 seconds ahead of Westover and fellow Hunter Motorsport driver Ewan Charman in third.
Heat Two was rinse and repeat for Hunter whose wealth of experience round Warden Law was proving a tough prospect for the rest of the field to contend with. This time it was a 1-2 for the team that call Karting North East their home, Charman’s number #42 coming in 1.18 behind and ahead of Archie Walker in 3rd for KR-Sport. The result left Hunter in the impressive position of knowing 5th or higher in the final heat would secure pole for the Super Heat.
A break in the run of wins would not be necessary for Hunter. A third heat victory completed the perfect day for the former Senior Rotax British Champion. This time Guy Cunnington was best of the rest, a solid 2nd place capping off a consistent run as the driver-manager looks to return to Sarno having narrowly missed out qualifying for RMCGF through the British Championship.
Ewan Charman’s third in the final heat means it’ll be two Hunter Motorsport drivers sharing the front row for Sunday’s Super Heat. Plenty to discuss for the team overnight to strategize how best to retain their position of strength into the final.
Cunnington will be happy starting on the inside of the second row for the Super Heat. Particularly in a class where the pole side of the grid more often than not gained positions by the chequered flag throughout the afternoon. Joining the former British Champion on row two will be Westover in 4th. Walker and Brandon Klein Nagelvoort will start on the third row.
Racing resumes at Karting North East – Warden Law on Sunday with the Super Heats in the morning. One race per category, double points on offer, one more chance for all to grab as strong a position on the grid for the 2024 RMC Grand Festival Finals.
In the afternoon we will find out from those finals who will join the grid for the biggest party in world karting, book their places in Sarno and claim the titles of RMC Grand Festival and Motorsport UK ‘E’ Plate Winners.
Live coverage can be watched on the Alpha Live and Karting UK YouTube Channels with the broadcast from the circuit available from 10:50am BST.
