Albon soon caught the leader and the two proceeded to work as one, successfully pulling a substantial lead over their pursuers. With no threat from behind the final laps was a classic battle of wits as Albon repeatedly tested the waters into the turn seven hairpin and the final corner with Wykes repealing the attack on each occasion. And then, on the final lap Albon made his lunge heading into the fast right hand turn six, perhaps where Wykes wasn’t expecting it, and kept his nose in front to take the chequered flag by sixteen hundredths of a second.
While it had been a case of perfect timing for Albon, Wykes also leaves Larkhall with many reasons to feel confident for the rest of the season after a near-perfect set of heat results guaranteed that his championship lead is still intact.
Behind the top two Alex Walker emerged from a titanic tussle to claim third place from Truelove two laps from home while Jake Dalton waited until the final few metres before he snatched fifth spot from Byrne. Roy Johnson and Daniel Sweeney rounded out the six-kart train in seventh and eighth places with the unfortunate Skriczka recovering from a minor ‘off’ to claim ninth place from Handford.
Millar’s day wasn’t to have a fairytale ending as he slipped to 20th while countryman Dalgleish was similarly disappointed with 16th. B Final winner Thorne only progressed as high as 22nd and of the four B Final qualifier it was Stirling who enjoyed the best run, finishing 17th.
MINI MAX
Although the 30 contenders required four heats to decide final grid positions there would be no need for a B Final on this occasion but with a more than acceptable 22 karts per heat there was no shortage of action and incident.
Patrick Fletcher controlled heat one, taking the lead from polesitter Macaulay Walsh on the opening lap and never looking back. Callum Bowyer made it past Walsh at mid distance and chased Fletcher hard in the closing laps but came up seven tenths short with a rapidly gaining Ashley Sutton closing in on the pair of them in third place.
