Prima Racing’s pre-season preparations are increasingly gathering pace off the back of a second consecutive headline-grabbing appearance at PF International, as the newest arrival on the karting scene continues to establish itself as a bona fide front-runner.
For the second time in eight days, Prima utterly dominated the Super Cadet class, with Billy Monger replicating his earlier victory and team-mates Sean Gee and Gaby Weyer joining him up on the podium at the end of a race that concluded in dramatic style. Cory Stevens missed the rostrum by less than half-a-second in fourth, with Sam Brough taking the chequered flag a competitive sixth and Esmee Hawkey showing notable progress to come home eighth.
Notwithstanding his peerless form the previous weekend, Monger expected a stiff challenge from his fellow Prima stars – and that was precisely what he got. A brace of victories in two of his three heat races – in one of them pushed all the way by Gee – were mitigated by a tap from behind in the other, sending the 11-year-old spinning right the way down to the bottom of the order, from where he produced a brave recovery drive and set a comfortable fastest lap to show what might have been. And from there, he began the all-important final from P2.
“Second isn’t a good place to start at PF, because the first corner is a long, sweeping right-hander which allows the train on the inside to squeeze out the drivers on the outside,” revealed the Surrey-based ace, who is revving up for a full season of British and European competition following a hugely encouraging toe-in-the-water exercise on the international stage late last year.
“Luckily, I managed to slot in and hold onto second and then had a good battle with Sean. We swapped places a few times and were neck-and-neck going onto the last lap, but then he made a little mistake which relieved the pressure on me and meant I could just cruise to the flag.
“It was a really good result for the team, for me personally and for my family. I was ecstatic at having pulled off the double – and for Prima to start 2011 with two successive one-two-three-fours in Super Cadet is brilliant! They’ve been really supportive, and as a successful ex-driver himself, the team manager Jamie Croxford is really good at giving us all advice and tips. He’s able to tell us where we’re going wrong so we can improve – and even in the areas where we think we’re doing well, he makes us even better.”
That much was evinced by the performances of Prima’s remaining quintet of entrants, with the Comer competitors all displaying flashes of genuine promise, despite enduring varying degrees of fortune. Dan Zelos took eighth place at the end of a lively encounter, Alex Stott recovered impressively from an early contretemps, Tommy Weyer battled hard to finish 26th and Ethan Hawkey registered a personal breakthrough of his own. In WTP Cadet, meanwhile, Herbie Grout claimed a solid eighth place.
Given that both Super Cadet and Comer will return to PF for the opening round of the 2011 Super 1 Series next month, Croxford acknowledges that the past two weekends have provided invaluable experience – and a similar outcome in the national curtain-raiser in just over five weeks’ time would do just nicely, he admits.
“It was another very encouraging weekend,” underlined the former European factory Birel star. “In Super Cadet, Esmee made a big step forward compared to the previous weekend – she’s still learning, but she enjoyed a good battle with some other drivers – and Sam drove really well to take sixth place.
“Sean and Billy had a race-long battle for the lead, before a small mistake starting the last lap cost Sean his chance of going for victory. That dropped him back into the clutches of Gaby and Cory, and they went three-abreast into the last corner over second place, covered by literally a metre! It was a real heart-in-mouth moment, but it was certainly entertaining and demonstrates that all of our drivers are learning from each other and pushing each other to achieve their best.
“In Comer, Ethan won the ‘B’ final following a good battle between four drivers – that was a big step forward for him – and Tommy showed great pace to get straight through to the ‘A’ final and then went on to take a mid-pack finish, which was a real achievement for him.
“Alex was fast all weekend, but unfortunately he got caught up in a crash at the start of the ‘A’ final which left him stone last, from where he produced a good drive and showed strong racecraft to fight his way back through to 15th – that was very positive, even if the result obviously wasn’t what he had been hoping for. It’s important to remember, too, that he’s still a Comer newcomer – but he’s fast making a name for himself in the class.
“Dan’s race was very eventful, hampered by some bad luck. He set fastest lap by quite a margin, so his potential to win is more than clearly there – it’s just a case of stringing it all together now. It’s all falling into place nicely in Comer, and in WTP, finally, Herbie showed really good pace throughout Saturday and in some of his heats as well. He drove really well all weekend, and it was a big step forward for him in terms of performance.
“We now head off to the Winter Cup at Garda, with Jacob Nørtoft in KF2 and Jacob Stilp in KF3. We have no expectations as such, although hopes on the whole are fairly high. Nørtoft proved himself last year as a real force to be reckoned with in Europe. It will be his first race with us, but he is clearly a very naturally-gifted driver.
“Stilp hasn’t raced for three-quarters of a year, but he has shown good pace in testing. There’s no pressure at all on either of them to bring home a trophy – that’s not what we’re doing it for. As long as they both achieve their potential, we’ll be happy.”
Prima still has drives available in all classes, from WTP Cadet up to KF2, as well as Super Cadet engines to rent. For more information, please contact Jamie Croxford on 07889 981631 or at: crox2@hotmail.com
