Sayell picks up big points haul in Wales

Kart racer Jenson Sayell put a nasty accident behind him with some excellent drives in the third round of the Champions Kart Club InterMAX Championship.The Marshland St James driver picked up plenty of race points – a fortnight after a nasty incident on the same circuit at Glam-Y-Gors in Wales.Sayell, 11, was running a brand new Pantano Kart for the event, with testing on Friday, qualifying and two heats on Saturday, then two Super Heats and a Final on Sunday with a maximum of 200 championship points available.Testing went well. Sayell was third in qualifying 0.06 seconds from pole, the top 14 karts separated by just 0.5 seconds.In Heat One, Sayell dropped to fourth at the start. Despite a race-long battle, he eventually made a pass on the final lap to take third and was promoted to second after penalties.In Heat Two, he dropped to seventh over the first three laps. As the grip came in, the youngster made up places rapidly, taking the fastest lap of the race on lap eight to finish fourth.Based on the heat results, Sayell qualified second for Sunday’s Superheats. Super Heat One was a closely fought race with the race ace retaining his second place throughout. Super Heat Two saw Sayell beaten on the start with teammates in first and second. The youngster was held up whilst the leader pulled out a gap, but with a fastest lap on lap four and a brave overtake on lap seven managed to move into second.The Super Heat results placed Sayell second on the grid for the big points final.Having made a good start, Sayell was hit wide with some force on lap one, dropping him to sixth. He took the fastest lap and made his first overtake and moved into fourth a lap later.Second and third place karts collided on lap five with Sayell avoiding them to take second but 1.5 seconds away from the leader. With two more fastest laps and several personal bests, Sayell was reducing the gap on every lap but ran out of time before the flag, taking a well-deserved second and 95 points after a great comeback drive.Dad and mechanic Rob Sayell said: “I am super proud of Jenson this weekend. After rolling the kart two weeks ago at the same track, I wasn’t sure how he would drive with that on his mind and I definitely kept reliving the crash.”However, he was flying, taking the second highest score in each of the three scoring categories to total 190. “Jenson and I are definitely getting on top of the Pantano kart and the Final win is coming.”Sayell thanks TWRacing for another drive to Italy in the week to collect his new karts and spares; Pantano for their support; Force Motorsport for the engine power and all of his sponsors, including local businesses JLK Vehicle Solutions, Ark East Anglia Ltd, Sun Lounge Tanning Studio, and Hall Clean.His next outing is back to the Super One series for Rounds 5 and 6 at the Clay Pigeon circuit in Dorset.