A race win each for chief title protagonists Carl Stirling (Criagavon, NI) and Mackenzie Taylor (Ashford, Middlesex) means the Renault-sponsored MSA Junior British karting championship will be decided at the final round in October.

Stirling leads the series by a healthy 20-point margin after winning the first of two championship races at Whilton Mill on Sunday, 31st August, but Taylor keeps an outside shot at the title after making a strong recovery from an 11th place grid slot in the first final.

Taylor climbed an impressive nine places to finish close behind Stirling in the final one. In the second race, Taylor took victory from John Norris (Co Kildare) while a mistake dropped Stirling back to fourth.

Stirling, whose older brother Craig races in the sister KF2 championship, has been one of the revelations of Super One this year. He lined up second at the start of the first race at Whilton Mill, but was headed at the start of the chaotic race by Sam Jenkins (Bristol) and Ashley Sutton (Bishop’s Stortford). A three-kart crash put the field under ‘pace flags’ and on the restart Jenkins ran wide and lost position, later to retire. Sutton also dropped back to fifth, giving Stirling the lead and allowing Taylor to close in.

John Norris held his nerve in the wet conditions, climbing from eighth on the grid to finish third. He went one better in the second final, ahead of a recovering Ashley Sutton, who took the bottom step of the podium in final two.

The championship concludes at Shenington on 4th/5th October.

KF3 provisional championship points: 1 Carl Stirling 471pts; 2 Mackenzie Taylor 451pts; 3 Jake Dennis, Nuneaton 392pts; 4 John Norris 383pts; 5 Lewis Hall 376pts; 6 Sennan Fielding 352pts; 7 Sam Snell 352pts.

Remaining rounds

4th/5th October – Shenington, nr Banbury, Oxon

For all the latest KF1, KF2 and KF3 karting news visit the official Renault Sport UK website www.renaultsport.co.uk

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