It is perhaps entirely appropriate that at the close of a karting career that has brought him tremendous success on both national and international shores, Jack Hawksworth should sign off with a brace of combative front-running performances at home and abroad – and as he reflects on an impressive swansong, he concedes that it is in many respects the end of an era.
Jack has been karting competitively for almost seven years, but is now revving his burgeoning career up through the gears somewhat by graduating to car racing in the fiercely-competitive Formula Renault UK Championship with Mark Burdett Motorsport in 2011, off the back of an outstanding debut in the single-seater category’s 2010 Winter Series.
As he took his first tentative steps in his new world, however, the highly-rated young Bradford star was also closing a chapter, with two final high-profile karting appearances in the prestigious Monaco Kart Cup and on more familiar turf at PF International in Lincolnshire. Having the chance to race around the narrow, tight confines of Monte Carlo, he admitted, was certainly quite an eye-opener.
“It was the first time I’d been there, and it’s just an awesome place!” Jack enthused. “I was really taken aback by it all, especially to find the paddock and track right in the middle of the town! It was all a bit surreal, not like anywhere I’d ever experienced before. It was a bit of a shock to begin with, but really exciting at the same time and a great opportunity to be able to go there and race.
“The circuit was great! You’ve got to be on the limit, but at the same time there’s such a fine line between being on the limit and going over the limit – and as soon as you go over the limit, it punishes you so hard. Everything seems to happen so much faster round there than anywhere else, and seeing the track gave me so much more respect for F1 drivers – it really is mind-blowing.”
Be that as it may, around the perilous, mini grand prix circuit, the Cullingworth-based hotshot was on the pace all weekend and indeed the pace for much of it, but he strayed over the limit to which he had alluded once or twice and it bit him. In qualifying, he rued, ‘there was a point where I seemed to be spending more time in the barriers than on the track – and the disappointing thing was that in practice, I hadn’t clipped the barriers once...’
Still, out of the 34 KZ2 class entrants, Jack placed sixth in the pecking order, and after leading his opening heat race only to be forced out by a spark plug issue, he went on to finish third in heat two with fastest lap to his credit. And then, around a circuit that hardly promotes overtaking, he scythed his way magnificently up through the order from 22nd into seventh in the grand final – lapping amongst the very quickest on the track – when in pushing just a little too hard to make up ground, he crossed that limit one last time...
“It was one of those weekends where we had the pace but for various reasons it just never properly came off,” he mused. “It was a great experience, though, and I would love to do it again! It was just so different to anything I’d ever done before, and really refreshing for it.”
PF, happily, would more than make up for any Monégasque frustrations, as the 19-year-old found himself invited to take part in the inaugural outing for the new KGP (Kart Grand Prix) class on the national Super 1 Series bill. In so doing, he went up against a high-calibre field composed of the likes of Michael Simpson and Mark Litchfield, two of the country’s most successful and crowned karters over the last decade.
“Mark Rose – one of the top engineers in karting – asked me to come along and race in this new class that they’re bringing out, and since I had a free weekend I thought it would be good fun,” he explained. “I asked Tim Gillard, who had supplied the kart to me for Kartmasters, if I could use it again. We did one test day before, went to the race meeting and seemed to get onto the pace really well in practice.
“There were some extremely good drivers battling up at the front, and it all made for some really exciting racing. The competition was certainly tough, and there aren’t many people who know their way around PF as well as Michael Simpson and Mark Litchfield! It’s always good to race against those guys.”
In torrential conditions in qualifying, a problem with water getting into his kart’s airbox caused the engine to hesitate at full throttle, meaning third place – less than two tenths of a second shy of pole position – was a praiseworthy accomplishment indeed, and the issue was resolved in time for Jack’s opening heat race.
“I got a really good start, but the first lap was unbelievably hectic, absolutely crazy!” he recollected. “I think just about everybody went off the circuit to some extent as we all jostled for position. I managed to get into the lead and we were really fast in the wet – two or three tenths quicker than anybody else – and I was able to pull a gap on the guys behind me and go on to win. The kart was perfect.
“The second heat was the next day and I went more towards a dry set-up on the kart, but I soon realised the track was still a little bit too slippery for that. We were lacking something into the hairpins, but we managed to finish second in any case which was a good result.”
Anticipating a fraught three or four-way tussle in the finals but equally confident that he had the pace to successfully take the fight to his illustrious adversaries, the former Margutti Trophy winner should have begun the pre-final from pole, but disaster struck at the start of the rolling-up lap as his engine refused to fire into life.
It transpired that following the routine post-heats examination, a scrutineer had erroneously put the reeds back in the reed block the wrong way round. Fortuitously, a pile-up brought out the red flags and enabled Jack and his crew to rectify the situation, but he still had to take the re-start from some way down the field.
“I was 15th across the line at the start,” he revealed, “but the kart felt really good and the track had come more towards our set-up. I made my way through quite easily, and it was so much fun being able to actually race like that – we really had the pace, so I could make some good moves on people. It was initially disappointing not being able to start from pole like we should have done, but in truth it made the race a lot more exciting. Battling against other drivers wheel-to-wheel is what I love about racing!”
Third at the chequered flag was a superb effort, and one that hoisted the Yorkshire speed demon firmly back into the hunt, too, as he prepared to begin the grand final – what would turn out to be the most entertaining race of all – directly behind those two usual suspects, Litchfield and Simpson.
“I pushed Litchfield through the first corner to move into second at the start, and then got a run on him coming out of the second hairpin and managed to get past into the chicane,” he recounted. “I held the lead for the next lap, before Simpson overtook me into the first hairpin. I then quickly checked back to see who was behind me and saw a train of karts, so I knew I had to get past him again straightaway.
“We passed each other a few times and then went side-by-side into the chicane. In hindsight, I should have backed off and let him have the corner, but I tried to play the hero round the outside and keep the position. Being the experienced guy that he is, Mike didn’t give me any room and I had to cut across the grass. He was on the right line, I was on the wrong line and I should have let him through. It was a split-second decision, and it dropped me down to third.
“I was actually lucky not to lose more places, because I had a lot of grass on my tyres after that and I was sliding all over the place! That left me a couple of seconds down on the two leaders and it was so hard to make inroads back into them – I spent the rest of the race playing catch-up.
“With three laps to go I managed to pass Simpson for second, but by then Litchfield had pulled out too much of a gap. It was a really fun, exciting race, though, and I’m sure all the spectators loved it! I certainly enjoyed it and didn’t want it to stop. It was the most fun I’ve had in a kart for some time!”
With fastest lap to his name for good measure, it was, beyond doubt, a fitting send-off, and as he made a special point of thanking Rose, Gillard, Andy Cox and engine-builder Steve Ogden for all of their help over the weekend and for giving him the opportunity to race in the fledgling KGP class in the first place, Jack was left to look back upon what has become over the past seven years far more than just a hobby or even a career, but is in fact a way of life. Although, he does add one final caveat.
“I’m sure I will be out racing a kart again fairly soon, if only to keep sharp,” he concedes. “I love it! I can’t keep away...”
