Having returned to familiar territory by rejoining PDB Racing in 2010, Jack Hawksworth has now similarly returned to familiar territory by renewing battle at the very front of the field on the international stage – after producing a sublime performance to seal the runner-up laurels in the prestigious annual Trofeo Andrea Margutti in Italy.
In lifting the coveted Margutti Trophy in 2009, Jack achieved what he rated as the greatest victory of his impressive karting career, but returning to Castelletto close to Parma 12 months on, the young Bradford ace had precious few expectations of a repeat showing in a race that has in the past been contested by the likes of current F1 superstars Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica, no less.
A distinctly low-key start to his 2010 WSK Euro Series challenge at La Conca a fortnight earlier as PDB accustomed itself to its new Maddox chassis and IAME engines pointed to a learning year ahead – but a significant improvement in practice at Castelletto showed that swift progress is already being made.
“I think we did the best job possible with what we had at La Conca,” Jack mused. “We were a country mile off the pace; we were running in the top half of the field still, but with the pace we had we really shouldn’t have been. We were six tenths of a second away from the leader, which is just too much – once you are three or four tenths off, you can’t fight at the front anymore, and instead of going forwards it becomes all about damage limitation.
“That meant I didn’t really feel under pressure entering the Margutti, because I didn’t think we had any opportunity to be at the front. We went into the meeting in a realistic frame of mind; I didn’t think I had a chance of defending my title, so I was just aiming to do the best I could.
“It was completely different to La Conca straightaway, though – everything just suited the track really well. I didn’t think anyone could make such a big step forward in such a short space of time as the guys from IAME had done. We changed quite a few things on the chassis as well to make it feel a lot different, and I just felt so much more comfortable in the kart than I had done at La Conca.
“The hard work of everyone in the team definitely paid off, and everybody did a really good job to turn it around that quickly from La Conca. There was only really a week-and-a-half between the two, so to be back racing at the front again so soon was a tribute to the great job done by all the guys at PDB and IAME. Everything was working really well and it all just started to fit together – and for the first time we suddenly began to think ‘we’ve got a chance here’.”
Fastest throughout practice, a few changes to the kart ahead of qualifying in an effort to eke out even more of an advantage unfortunately backfired and wound up costing Jack as much as four tenths of a second per lap. That left him a ‘disappointed’ and unrepresentative 11th out of the 32 KZ2 class entrants, but equally comforted by the knowledge that ‘if we reverted back to our original set-up for the races we would be back on the pace again’ – and when that was done, ‘the kart was transformed’.
Refusing to be beaten, the 19-year-old went on to storm his way through to third in a ‘ballistic’ first heat – finishing less than a second shy of the winner and less than a tenth adrift of second place – and he subsequently demonstrated a calm maturity in his driving in expertly mastering tricky conditions to go one spot better still in heat two.
“That was a crazy race!” he acknowledged. “It started raining just as we got onto the track. Everyone was out on slick tyres, which meant it was all about just keeping your cool and trying to find where the grip was. I made a good getaway, managed to keep myself out of trouble and keep my nose clean and got up to second, but by then the guy in the lead was too far ahead to catch without taking a few risks, so I just nursed it home.
“We were really optimistic on Saturday evening, and if it was dry we thought we had a really good chance of winning. I had never been there in the wet before, though, and didn’t know too much about how it would be in the rain – and when we woke up on Sunday morning it was chucking it down. We were all disappointed by that.”
Nonetheless, from an excellent third in the intermediate rankings, Jack would maintain that position in the pre-final by dint of a strong and determined effort in trying conditions. Better yet, a similarly gutsy drive in the all-important grand final yielded the runner-up trophy – something that prior to the weekend, the Cullingworth star admitted he could scarcely even have dreamt of.
“Simon Solgat was really quick on Sunday,” he recounted. “He and his team had definitely found something in the wet that nobody else had. He was too fast for us, but we were really happy to finish second, especially after La Conca. If it had been dry I think we would have won, but to be honest I’d just wanted to be back at the front fighting with everybody and really racing again – and we were.”
That much is indisputable, and as he looks ahead now to the second round of the WSK Euro Series at Lonato near Garda, the Yorkshire speed demon does so in far more optimistic spirits. Though he hasn’t raced there since 2006 – when he triumphed in the pre-final en route to the Euro Max Junior Rotax crown – it is a circuit that Jack palpably enjoys, and one that he knows well from plenty of testing miles with previous employer Energy Corse in 2009.
“Now we are a lot more positive,” he concluded. “We’re not going to set the world alight, but we will definitely be a lot further up the grid than we were at La Conca – and I think we should be able to get a top five if things pan out our way. I’m confident we can surprise a few people.
“This year is definitely a learning year, but at the same time everybody in the team is raring to get results. We need to be making progress as quickly as possible – because I want to get out there and win! The big test will come when we go to Sarno for the first round of the CIK-FIA European Championship, because there you really do need engine power. That will show us how much progress we’ve made – but as long as we keep moving in the right direction, we will be there when it matters.”
