Glastonbury based kart star Lando Norris took victory and runner-up spots in the latest rounds of the MSA Super One Championship at Rowrah in Cumbria at the weekend. The results move the 12 year-old into second place in the Rotax Mini Max series just before the half-way point in the season.
The ADD Motorsport supported driver went into the event in good form, following victory in the Formula Kart Stars Series just a week earlier. In qualifying he wasn't able to claim a front row place. However, he drove hard in his heats, claiming a fourth and third place, setting up a second row starting position for the first of the two point-scoring finals.
A superb start in the first race allowed him to move into the lead early. He managed to maintain control at the front until the closing stages, when he dropped back to second place. With just a couple of laps to go he dropped away from his leading rival even further, with his team not knowing why.
On the final lap he went into the final series of corners and made an outstanding move at the last corner to take the lead and another fantastic victory. When he got back to the pits his team found out why he had dropped back and made his move late, he had lost his brakes.
A mechanical failure had broken the main link from the pedal to the brake system. With just a couple of laps to go Lando had managed to work out how much stopping power he still had left in the emergency cable and decided to go for one final move at the last corner.
“It's hard to keep the lead at Rowrah and I knew when I was leading that it would be tough to hold it all the way to the flag,” he said afterwards. “Dropping to second wasn't a bad thing, but losing my brakes was. I took a lap to see if I had anything at all and knew I could get the kart slowed up enough to try for a pass, but I knew it would be all or nothing. So I went for it,” he grinned.
The result put him onto pole for the second final and he once again lead the field for almost the entire race. It was only on the final lap that he left a gap that was just too big to defend and dropped to second, taking the flag in that position.
Despite losing out on a double victory so close to the line Lando was pleased with his weekend and putting himself into title contention with four rounds left to run.
“It has been a good weekend really,” he said. “We didn't have the best outright pace, but everything worked well and I was able to pick up points right through the weekend. It was good that I was able to take points off the guys who were ahead of me in the championship too.”
“To be coming away from here lying second in the championship is brilliant and it gives me a second national title to aim for in the second half of the season. I know that I have the support to go for them both, so I'm definitely going to keep on aiming for the top step of the podium,” he added.
credit Raceography for images used.
Adam Proctor
Magpie PR
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