A double win at Whilton Mill had helped propel reigning MSA Cadet Champion George Russell into the lead of a very close Mini Max points race but with the strength of the Strawberry Racing outfit behind him, Russell’s rivals knew that they had to stem the tide quickly to prevent Russell from potentially running away with his second championship in two years.

In many respects Glan Y Gors was the perfect venue to bring Russell’s points lead down as few of the series frontrunners use the fast, rolling 1100-metre North Wales venue as a regular test and race venue. Unlike the centrally located Whilton Mill, a track that many of the competitors could drive around blindfolded, GYG was much more of a wildcard that rewarded a mixture of aggression and guile.

For instance, the first turn (Club Corner), the long Dragon Straight and the run up the hill towards Spoon Curve rewarded speed and guts. The second half of the lap comprising the fast but highly technical downhill sweepers towards the final corner (Paddock Bend), forced drivers to drive with their heads as well as their right foot as taking the correct line into the last turn was critical depending on whether you were defending from the driver behind or attacking the driver in front.

The Mini Max field comprised 26 drivers with Callum James, James Hughes and Frankie Kemp missing from Whilton Mill. Kemp’s absence was enforced after he underwent heart surgery at Great Ormond Street hospital and Formula Kart Stars had a get well soon card available for all to sign in race control. Hopefully Kemp will be back behind the wheel as soon as his health will let him.

Joining the fray was Connor Mills, who had moved up from Cadet after Whilton Mill and was enjoying one of his very first tastes of Mini Max racing with Evolution Racing. With the conditions warm and sunny Mills made an excellent impression in first qualifying, setting the ninth fastest time with a lap of 44.76-seconds to beat many more experienced drivers.

As good as Mills’ performance was, he was still four tenths shy of qualifying pacesetter Russell, whose mid-session lap of 44.34-seconds was good enough to take pole position for the two heats that were to follow. Second fastest was the Wavertree Motorsports kart of Russell’s closest title rival Adam Glear who, with brand new crash helmet livery, was just six hundredths shy of Russell’s mark and would start the two heats from the outside of the front row with a time of 44.41-seconds.

Behind the top two there was something of a gulf with Evolution’s Jay Goodwin third quickest with a time of 44.69-seconds, nearly three tenths slower than the top two, and Glear’s teammate Brett Ward a seasons-best fourth on 44.70-seconds. The tracks’ reputation as a bit of a leveller was further proved with the appearance of Panther Racing’s George Li Wright and Hobzie Motorsport driver Sam Marsh on row three, well ahead of several of the more consistent class frontrunners such as Oliver Myers (8^th), Bobby Thompson (11^th), Sam Oram Jones (14^th), Ryan Norris (18^th) and Josh White (21^st), all of whom were suffering either power or set-up related issues of varying degrees with a bent chassis for Oram Jones thrown in for good measure.

Russell and Glear’s respective advantages over the remainder of the field in qualifying were exacerbated in the first 18-lap heat as they dominated. Glear grabbed the lead from Russell at the start, holding his nerve around the outside of the first corner to leave the polesitter no choice but to tuck in behind on the first drag down the Dragon Straight and up the hill towards Spoon Curve.

But Russell wasn’t prepared to sit behind Glear for any longer than necessary and retook the lead on lap two. Even as Russell took the lead Glear was in no danger of losing second as Goodwin, already fighting a rearguard action in third place, was nearly two seconds adrift.

The gap between Russell and Glear, who made no attempt to retake the lead, remained just a kart length or two for the entire duration with the rest, now led by the Global Karting machine of Myers, steadily falling away until there was fully ten seconds between the front two and anybody else.

Try as he might Glear quite never quite get on terms with Russell despite pushing him all the way, leaving the championship leader to take just his second heat victory of the year by just fifteen hundredths of a second.

If the race for first was tense rather than spectacular then the fight for third place went some way towards making up for it as Goodwin narrowly held off Ward, Thompson and Myers, who was unlucky to lose several places in the final lap dust-up. Ward’s performance was particularly impressive after a poor start dropped him down to tenth.

Independent driver Jack Mitchell enjoyed a good run to seventh place, overhauling the Wavertree–run kart of Seth James, Marsh and Norris in the closing laps. Josh White made up almost a dozen places en-route to eleventh in his RL Race Team run kart while Mills’ first Mini Max race ended in a creditable 13^th just behind the continually anonymous Zubair Hoque.

Russell and Glear continued to enjoy a sizeable advantage over the competition in heat two with Russell taking full advantage of pole position to establish an early cushion as Glear briefly slipped behind Goodwin and Li Wright. Glear fought back quickly to retake second spot but even as early as lap four Russell was moiré than a second up the road and in his rhythm.

Once again the majority of the race was a tense affair as Glear hovered about ten kart lengths behind Russell, unable to close the gap on the leader to a point where Russell would have to think about defending. Despite a mighty last lap effort that saw the gaop dip below one second Glear couldn’t prevent Russell from completing the double.

More than five seconds behind the leading pair Goodwin got the better of Ward and Li Wright in the scrap for third with Marsh passing James for sixth in the latter stages of what was a rare fairly processional outing for the Mini Max class in what has been a thrilling season thus far.

Hoque enjoyed a much more competitive outing in heat two and finished eighth but for his TMR Developments teammate Norris there was less to smile about as a mechanical problem put him out on lap two, meaning that for the second time in the last three finals Norris would be starting from the wrong end of the grid.

Thompson once again gained solid ground in the early laps and passed a fading Myers to secure ninth position with Mills completing the top ten.

Jack Bartholomew, the youngest driver in the field and almost certainly the only driver in the class still in primary school, led home a long line of karts in eleventh place just a couple of kart lengths ahead of heat one retiree Ethan Patterson, Oram Jones, White, Mitchell, Lemuel Pay and a disgruntled Myers, who later attributed his lowly 17^th place finish to a flexing chassis.

The days’ two main protagonists started the 21-lap final from the front row with Goodwin and Ward on row two and Thompson and James on row three but any thoughts harboured by Russell’s rivals of taking the lead were soon dashed when Russell made his customary exemplary getaway and took the lead.

Starting directly behind the poleman Goodwin seized the opportunity to grab second from Glear going through turn one but his joy was short-lived as Glear retook the place less than two laps later. For several laps Goodwin held on to Glear’s coat-tails as the top three circulated together but, as the laps wore on the status quo from the heats resumed and Russell and Glear pulled away.

After tailing Russell for the best part of 30 laps during the heats Glear now had the exact same view of the rear bumper of the number 63 kart as the final progressed. Russell continued to control the pace with alarming consistency and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 15. But Glear refused to be shaken and after matching Russell’s lap times to the hundredth he finally made a move as the pair came out of turn four and began the downhill run towards the Carousel on lap 18.

With three laps remaining most onlookers expected Russell to quickly regain top spot having led virtually every lap so far but Glear was able to keep Russell a kart length at bay for the final three laps, never once allowing his rival to attempt a passing move.

Going into the final corner Glear defended but didn’t drive in too deep, which in turn didn’t allow Russell to cut underneath him on the run to the line. After running second almost all day Glear ended up on the top step of the podium for the second time in 2010 while for Russell the situation was just the opposite as second place seemed scant reward for a day where he didn’t really put a wheel wrong.

Goodwin claimed the final podium position having held third for most of the race but it wasn’t a lonely drive as both Thompson and Ward were right on his bumper throughout. Ward, having the best day of his season, passed Thompson for fourth two laps from home but fifth for the Vital Motorsport driver was a solid result after a poor qualifying performance and some inconsistent results for several of the other title contenders.

Marsh ran a lonely sixth while Norris came from 19^th on the grid to finish seventh and minimise the damage done to his title aspirations. Hoque and White tagged along behind Norris in eighth and ninth places with Pay impressing many with some decisive overtaking moves en-route to the final top ten spot.

Mills’ first day as a Mini Max driver finished with a 13^th place finish while  RL Race Team’s new signing James Beumee scored his  best finish of the year in 15^th, one place ahead of Myers who, like everyone else, had plenty of work to do on Saturday night to get on terms with Glear and Russell.