Jack Barlow underlined his quality with a blistering drive through the midfield to claim 2nd place at Larkhall (26 June) and extended his lead in the Super One Rotax Championship.
As England sizzled in temperatures that put Barbados in the shade, the Strawberry Racing driver turned up the heat on his rivals with another emphatic display of his speed and ability – despite rain and incurring a time penalty in one race.
After a solid performance in timed qualifying, in which he posted the 3rd fastest time in his group and 5th-quickest overall (out of 45 entrants), Jack made his rivals sweat with back-to-back victories in the preliminary heats and claimed pole position for the first of Sunday’s two points-scoring finals.
As he and his mechanic waited for the start of the afternoon’s first final, rain began to fall and quickly made the circuit very wet.
Despite his ability in such conditions, Barlow overshot the chicane. In scenes reminiscent of the new documentary SENNA (in which when the late, great Brazilian failed to turn round and renegotiate a chicane) Jack continued, although after sportingly ceding the lead to his team-mate Nathan Harrison and finished the race in 2nd - but was demoted to 12th when officials applied the letter of the law. documentary SENNA (in which when the late, great Brazilian failed to turn round and renegotiate a chicane) Jack continued, although after sportingly ceding the lead to his team-mate Nathan Harrison and finished the race in 2nd - but was demoted to 12th when officials applied the letter of the law.
This meant that he would start the second final from the sixth row, but Barlow is a driver who never knows when he is beaten and duly delivered a sensational drive through the midfield to claim an eventual 2nd place.
“It was hard work,” he admitted afterwards. “At the start the leaders had got away cleanly but I didn’t. I’d left a gap to the driver ahead and lost ground at first - but soon moved up to 10th as other drivers made mistakes and slid off the track. I held the position for a few laps, but realised that I really needed to kick up a gear. I had to work, work, work and eventually passed the guys in 5th and 4th. From there I pushed hard and with two minutes to go had just got onto the back of the leaders. In just one corner I launched a move on the drivers in 2nd and 3rd and managed to pull it off.”
On the very last corner of the last lap, Jack had reeled in the leader - his team-mate, Nathan Harrison - setting-up a nail-biting last few moments.
“I put him under as much pressure as I could and had the race been two corners longer, I think I could have gone for the win.”
As it was, 2nd place was sufficient to give Barlow another generous haul of points and see him open a gap over Harrison in the Championship table. “It’s going to be close for the last three rounds!” he observed.
The first of which is in four weeks time (23/24 July) at the renowned Buckmore Park circuit where British F1 stars Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Paul Di Resta all cut their teeth in karting.
