In the second final, Litchfield roared from start to finish unheaded, this time with nearly six seconds in hand. Wright gave chase, until Bell elbowed past at the second hairpin, Cooper right behind and waiting his turn. Walker started a downward spiral when Jordon Lennox-Lamb drafted past soon emulated by Denis Gorman snd Elliott Burton, but Gorman fell to ninth later. Cooper was helping Wright towards Bell and they hung him out to dry at the Pits Corner, then the next lap Cooper saw his chance and grabbed second. Wright was suffering from a loose exhaust, hampering his power. “We’ve finally got it together after changing engines to the TM and going back to basics,” enthused Litchfield whilst Cooper added: “The kart was good to start with, then slowed a bit in the middle of the race before coming on again towards the end, so it was important to get a good result this weekend. Luckily the kart was pretty undamaged in the crash but my back and leg are hurting.”

Final 1
1 Mark Litchfield (Maranello)
2 Lee Bell (Wright)
3 Luke Wright (Tonykart)
4 Ben Cooper (Tonykart)
5 Jonathan Walker (Gillard)
6 Robert Foster-Jones (FA Kart)

Final 2
1 Litchfield
2 Cooper
3 Wright
4 Bell
5 Elliot Burton (Tonykart)
6 Jordan Lennox-Lamb (Topkart)

Championship standings
1 Ben Cooper 276
2 Jordon Lennox-Lamb 266
3 Lee Bell 266
4 Mark Litchfield 265
5 Luke Wright 255
6 Robert Foster-Jones 251

Close to Banbury, Shenington might be Jordan’s nearest circuit, but having never competed in the club championship there he is not afforded the same advantage that ‘local specialists’ often enjoy. Still, with pole position there last year in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow – now the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars – fourth place in Super 1 in 2008 and sixth position in the 2009 Winter Series, it is a track at which he boasts a good record.

“I like Shenington,” the 15-year-old acknowledged. “It’s a fast circuit and one that’s pretty good fun to drive. The first Super 1 round hadn’t gone great, so we were just aiming to make up as much ground as we could really on the leaders. I was feeling quite confident, but equally you know it’s never going to be easy. Every weekend in the series is different.”

Indeed, with a hotly-contested, 36-strong KF3 class field populated by the likes of defending British Champion Jake Dennis, Red Bull-backed European star Alex Albon, 2008 British Mini Max Champion Callum Bowyer and Ultimate Motorsport front-runner Macaulay Walsh, securing a strong result was going to be no mean feat.
What’s more, handling woes and a down-on-power engine around one of the most power-dependent tracks in the country put Jordan onto the back foot right from the word ‘go’, so fifth spot in qualifying, less than two tenths of a second shy of pole position, was a laudable effort.

“I’d thought we’d be able to do quite well on new tyres in qualifying,” he explained, “but I only actually got one flying lap before the carb went down. I reckon if we’d been able to do a couple more flying laps we could have done a bit better, but I was quite happy with fifth in the circumstances, and it proved that we had the pace.”

The heat races would subsequently yield a brace of solid results, though the Harbury ace was not truly on the leading pace in either. A bright start to the first of them saw him run an encouraging third for the opening five laps, but his lack of grunt from the engine would eventually prove telling as he powerlessly slipped back to sixth at the chequered flag. He would add to that with fourth place in heat two, earning him sixth spot on the grid for the first of the two all-important finals – from where he was forced to revise his objectives to aim simply for a couple of top ten finishes.

“The kart was sliding around a lot and we were still struggling for power from the engine,” Jordan recounted of his difficulties in the heats. “Over a single lap we were alright, but over a full race distance we just couldn’t keep up. I wasn’t happy with the results, but they were the best we could do with what we had.

“In the first final again we couldn’t really stay with the leaders and ended up seventh. The second final got red-flagged twice, but at the second re-start I just kept everything steady and managed to come home sixth.”

Now fifth in the drivers’ standings, a mere four points shy of third, Jordan recognised that he had extracted the maximum from a bad weekend – and as an exercise in damage limitation his performance was faultless. Following a well-deserved break, he heads next to Rowrah in Cumbria – a tortuous and challenging track where the Repton School pupil has an impressive résumé, having taken a win and a second place there in Super 1 last year.

“It was pleasing to score some good points towards the championship and to close up on some of the drivers ahead of me,” he summarised of his Shenington outing. “The championship is still very open; I’m only 32 points behind the leader, so if he has a bad round at Rowrah and I have two good finals, I can easily catch up again.”

Mark said: “I’m very happy about it. It’s different after winning several titles, I have a different view to when I was younger. When you have your first win it is the best thing in the world. Now when I don’t win it’s a disaster. I want to keep going and look forward to next year. The competition has been really good this year with any one of five drivers capable of winning races, but it would be nice to have a few more drivers next year.”

Litchfield led the first final from pole position to the flag, barring a brief exchange of places with outgoing champion and long-time karting colleague Chris Rogers (Waltham Cross, Herts), who finished second. Jordan Lennox-Lamb (Bedford) completed the podium for final one.

It was Lennox-Lamb who led most of the second half of final two, but with two laps to go, Litchfield retook the lead, only to be pushed wide by Lennox-Lamb going into Café bend. Lennox-Lamb crossed the finish line first but was later demoted five places, while Litchfield was fined for an incident as the karts made their way back into the pits.

This left Lee Bell (High Wycombe) the race winner in Final Two. Bell, in an incredibly close fight with Richard Bradley (Blackheath) for the runner-up spot in the championship, was slowed by a blocked radiator in final one, but burst through the ranks in the second final.

“It’s been an unlucky year,” he said. “I could have been up there with contending with Mark (Litchfield), but I needed a few more seconds and thirds to keep it there. I’m still pleased to be second, it was a close run thing.”

Photo by Chris Walker