The stunning Snowdonia mountain range provided a picturesque backdrop to rounds seven and eight of the 2012 Formula Kart Stars MSA British Cadet Championship as the series arrived at the rolling Glan Y Gors circuit in North Wales.

The British summer weather did its best to dampen proceedings and once again the MSA Cadet contenders in the Formula One Management backed Championship had to cope with rain on Saturday morning and a stiff breeze throughout Sunday as they attempt to emulate former Champions Lewis Hamilton and Paul Di Resta.

MSA British Cadet Championship

Following his complete domination of the previous two rounds at Larkhall Dean Macdonald (Shox Performance) continued his red hot streak in Saturday’s timed qualifying, taking pole position by one hundredth over Hugo Bentley-Ellis (Eclipse Motorsport) and then winning heat one on a slippery track by less than two tenths over his nearest title rival Enaam Ahmed (Fusion Motorsport). As the track continued to dry the other heat wins went to Ross Martin (Team Wright) and Oliver York (Fusion Motorsport) but thanks to a fourth place effort in his second heat Macdonald secured pole position for the final with Ahmed starting alongside him.

On a fully dry track Saturday’s final was a thrilling affair as Macdonald and Ahmed went toe to toe at the head of the field with the chasing pack, including Bentley-Ellis and Josh Smith (Fusion Motorsport) snapping at their heels. With three laps to go Ahmed and Macdonald made light contact as they raced out of the Carousel with Macdonald taking to the grass and losing several places. Ahmed led into the final corner with Smith on his heels but when Smith went to try the cutback Macdonald dived to his inside and forced them both wide allowing Bentley-Ellis to scramble past them both to snatch second place.

Second soon became first for Bentley-Ellis when officials docked Ahmed two places for the incident with Macdonald although Ahmed is appealing the decision to the MSA and therefore the results remain provisional.

The seemingly omnipresent rain thankfully decided to take the day off on Sunday although a stiff breeze and resulting wind chill factor made it feel more like mid March than mid July. Ahmed started proceedings off with pole position in qualifying as Macdonald suffered a rare ‘off’ and could only manage ninth fastest time.

Ahmed and Smith pulled away from the rest in the opening heat and Smith pulled off an audacious outside pass at the ultra fast turn six to seal the win. Macdonald fought back to take the second heat, outdueling Smith and Zak Fulk (Eclipse Motorsport) but the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for independent driver Alex McRoberts, who simply outdrove Macdonald, Ahmed, Fulk and Bentley-Ellis to score an emotional win for his ‘lad and dad’ team in the last heat.

Once again the final was a scorcher with seven karts fighting for the win. Poleman Smith took the lead with three laps to go although Ahmed looked well poised until Fulk dived to his inside half a lap from home and grabbed second. That gave Smith enough of a gap to breathe easily for the last couple of corners as he scored his maiden British Championship win to keep him in touch with Macdonald and Ahmed in the title chase. After falling to 15^th on the opening lap MacDonald fought back to fourth behind Fulk and Ahmed.

For race results and Championship tables following Glan-Y-Gors please click here