Jonathan was delighted - if a little
surprised - to finish 3rd at last Sunday's (18 May) second round of the British
Super 1 kart Championship.
He had put in a storming drive in the second
of the day's two finals to finish in 4th place - but a driver's
disqualification from 2nd place moved him into a trophy-winning position.
"I couldn't ask for any more really" he said, reflecting on the fact
that he'd previously stated that he needed a podium finish to kick-start his
title ambitions, after a disastrous first round of the UK's premier karting
Championship - "Beforehand I did say: 'If I'm not in the top 3 in the Finals,
it'll be a disaster'."
His day didn't start quite to plan. After
starting from 6th on the grid, he'd got up to 4th place when on the last lap,
his chain snapped putting him out on the spot.
Things started to
improve in the 2nd heat, when he took he took an excellent 5th after driving
from the back of the field.
In the tough first Final, Jonathan was
involved in battles with three drivers - first with Nick Yelloly and later with
Elliott Burton and Sam Tordoff. At the finish, he crossed the line barely a
tenth of a second ahead of Tordoff, but just behind Burton.
"Considering
I had a puncture for three quarters of the race, 8th wasn't too bad really" he
said dryly.
With his AMT team making changes to his kart's set-up,
Jonathan knew that he needed to produce something special in the second
points-scoring race - "In the first final I didn't have enough 'waff'. I needed
the sort of speed I'd had in the two heats -when I'd been second quickest in
the first one, and fastest in the second."
Whatever his mechanics Ashley
and Kevin did, it worked. In the second final, Jonny was in storming form.
Overtaking two karts in the first corner, he earned the praise of watching 2005
World Kart Champion, Oliver Oakes for his aggressive start.
Now in 5th,
Jonny momentarily dropped to 6th before (reigning British Champion) Chris
Rogers exited with a seized motor and put him back into 5th spot.
After
losing three places in one move, former race-leader Mark Litchfield now found
himself under attack from Jonathan.
With three corners to go of the
last lap, he pulled off a superb move to wrest 4th place from Litchfield - "I
tapped Mark wide going into Fletcher's (corner). He'd braked hard and I just
ran into the back of him. It wasn't intentional." He said afterwards, unaware
that the drama wasn't yet over.
During post race checks, Bradley was
excluded from 2nd-place for an error on his scrutineering card.
Promoted to 3rd, Jonny has also moved into Championship contention, now
lying in 6th place overall and just 31 points off the lead. With 50 points
awarded for a win, he is confident that he can build on his PFi podium -"We
head up to Rowrah (in Cumbria) for the next round and the last time I was
there, I was fighting for the win. It's game-on now."
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