Jack Hawksworth came close to stealing the show on his debut in the UK's foremost karting class, but having been denied glory by an engine issue, he is now determined to make amends next time out – by taking to the top step of the podium.
The Bradford ace may have only completed a handful of days testing on his new K
F1 mount prior to the opening winter series meeting at PF International in Lincolnshire, but he was certainly buoyed up ahead of the weekend, as he prepared to test his mettle against drivers of the calibre of Mark Litchfield, Jamie Croxford and Richard Bradley – highly experienced hands all.
“It was my first time in the class,” Jack acknowledged, “but it didn't go too badly overall. We were using a test engine on the Friday during practice, but we still weren't far off the pace – just two or three tenths of a second – and were confident of going faster on the Saturday with the race engine in.
“We had a really quick start on Saturday, but then gradually got slower with every session. In the evening we found a bit of a problem with the engine, but we just put it down to an error we had made in the knowledge that Sunday was another day…”
That engine concern, though, would return to haunt the 16-year-old the following day, when after a brace of up-and-down heats – a DNF in the first allied to fourth place in the second, despite being delayed at the start – he converted eighth on the starting grid into sixth spot at the close in the all-important final, admitting “we just weren't quick enough”.
“In the first heat we started tenth and got up into second behind the leader Bradley,” Jack recounted. “I made a pass on him into the second hairpin, but he then got the run on me coming out again. There was contact going into Spoon, and (Matt) Truelove behind made an ambitious move after we had both compromised our extra speed. There was a tangle and I ended up not finishing, but our speed had still been really good.”
![Jack Hawksworth in action on his KF1 debut at PF International during the 2007-08 winter series [pic credit: Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/397664.jpg)
