Kartmasters 2020 – A rundown of Britain’s biggest kart race

With the current British Formula 1 drivers racing at Silverstone this weekend. Many of them remembered to pay homage to their karting roots with a message to the drivers competing in this years Kartmasters Grand Prix at Paul Fletcher International Karting circuit in Grantham.

The event is held yearly with drivers across eight classes competing for the coveted ‘GP’ number plate that the likes of Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Alex Albon and British GT driver and record holder for most GP plate wins, Ben Barnicoat all have. With this years event falling on the weekend of the British GP, Williams driver George Williams sent a video message to the drivers competing at PFI wishing them luck with the weekends racing. Russell sent the following message to drivers competing in the event.

“Hi guys, its George here and I want to wish a massive good luck to everyone competing in Kartmasters this weekend. A race I did almost every year of my karting career, one I love and one of the biggest in the UK this year. So keep it clean to everyone racing and I hope you have a great time. All the best cheers guys!”

A message from Williams F1 driver George Russell

With cadet categories heading the field of classes, drivers aged 8-13 begun their races in the Iame Cadet and Honda Cadet classes. Followed by the next age group of 12-17 being the Mini X30 and Minimax classes. Drivers then aged 13-17 would race in the Junior Rotax and Junior X30 classes before the top tier of drivers in the Senior Max and Senior X30 classes ranging from ages 16 onwards would fight in the climax of the event.

Results of the Cadet and Junior categories go as follows:

Iame Cadet
1. Nathan Tye
2. Fionne McLaughlin
3. Macauley Bishop

Honda Cadet
1. Connor Duncan
2. Timo Jungling
3. Zac Drummond

Minimax
1. Harry Linden
2. Mckenzie Douglas
3. Pierson Bullock-Carter

Mini X30
1. Ethian Symonds
2. Jay Holtby
3. Vinnie Phillips

Junior Rotax
1. Harrison Collings
2. Daniel Armstrong
3. Mattie Hingeley

Junior X30
1. Aaron Walker
2. Freddie Spindlow
3. Luke Watts

Once the junior categories were completed and settled, the tightly fought senior classes begun their finals, beginning with the Senior Rotax class. With the majority of the grid deemed in with a chance to win the title, Morgan Porter for Argenti Motorsport took the Pre Final win and claimed pole position for the final with DHR’s Rhys Hunter alongside. Strawberry Racing’s Guy Cunnington started in P3 with the other Hunter brother in Kai Hunter starting P4. A fifteen minute final would decide the winner and it took all fifteen minutes before a clear winner was sighted in the pole sitter Porter, taking advantage of a battle for 2nd place and using the opportunity to create a gap to the rest of the field with under a minute to go. Porter would go on to claim the victory and the GP plate followed by Coles Racing’s James Lowther and Strawberry Racing’s Alex Pendlebury.

The offical post race top 5 for Senior Rotax goes as follows:

1st. Morgan Porter
2nd. James Lowther
3rd. Alex Pendlebury
4th. Rhys Hunter
5th. George Holdbrook

The final race of the day would be the other senior class of Senior X30, another grid packed with rising and risen stars of the sport. 2017 Iame Senior X30 World Champion Danny Keirle would start on pole position with newcomer to the class Caden Mcqueen alongside in P2. The other favourites for the win would be Jordan Brown Nutley for Strawberry Racing (Starting in P5); one of the few privateer drivers Oliver Hodgson (Starting in P3) and Fusion Motorsports Connor Jupp (Starting in P7). With an early lead Danny Keirle looked comfortable at the front of the field to claim another win but second place driver Caden Mcqueen made the early overtake to send Keirle back into the group of drivers behind. Several laps of swapping places in the top 7 pursued ending with Mcqueen and Jupp overtaking Keirle into the second hairpin and clipping Keirle’s front left tire on exit flicking the 2017 World Champion into a spin and out of the race.

The last few laps post-Keirle’s retirement threw the race into chaos with any of the top 10 drivers having a realistic shot at the win. Mcqueen lead Hodgson onto the final lap with Jupp, Brown-Nutley and Gus Lawrence close behind. With half a lap to go entering the Mike Wilson Complex in the final sector of the lap, Hodgson made his move for the lead although Mcqueen defend his position heavily forcing them both to slide out wide entering the 2nd from last corner. Jupp lying in waiting, used this chance to jump Mcqueen for 2nd, tumbling Mcqueen down to 5th where he would finish. But Jupp continued to use his extra momentum to drag race the new leader Oliver Hodgson to the finish line, missing out on 1st place by 0.02 of a second.

The top five finishers of the Senior X30 final go as follows:

1st. Oliver Hodgson
2nd. Connor Jupp
3rd. Jordon Brown-Nutley
4th. Gus Lawrence
5th. Caden Mcqueen

You can find the full weekends racing through the following the links below. All the races and post race interviews can be found on the channel along with other races from previous years.

Did you enjoy Kartmasters 2020? Leave you thought’s in the comments below. Thank you for reading.