The Euro Max Challenge is set to go down to the wire, after Jack Barlow triumphed in yesterday’s (18 July) penultimate round at the appropriately named Speedworld circuit at Bruck, near Vienna. The Strawberry Racing star was in strong form throughout the event and signalled his intent with 3rd place in timed qualifying (out of 47 participants). In the following three heats, he took a brace of wins but was given a contentious time penalty in his second race after he was adjudged to have been a little too robust with a passing manoeuvre and classified in 17th position…

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When the Formula Kart Stars championship sparked back into life at Glan Y Gors last weekend (3/4 July), Jack Barlow was some 70 points adrift of early Junior Max leader, Ash Hand. By Sunday evening, as he helped to take the Strawberry Racing team’s awning down, he had closed the gap to just three points.

Jack hit a rich vein of form at the North Wales circuit and took back to back wins in Saturday’s two preliminary heats to secure pole for the final. Despite leading from pole he slotted into second place and shadowed the leader until the final lap. With the chequered flag being readied, Jack made his decisive move and from there held his advantage to the line….

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Imperious Barlow sweeps to double FKS victories. Just a week after scoring his first British Super 1 championship podium with his new team Strawberry Racing, Jack Barlow stunned his rivals with back to back victories in the 5th and 6th rounds of the Formula Kart Stars series at Glan Y Gors last weekend (3/4 July).

The Junior Max star opened his account on Saturday with a brace of wins in the preliminary heats, securing pole for the day’s main final. “Shortly after the start I allowed the 2nd placed driver through and followed him until the last lap. He looked over his shoulder at the moment I lunged him and pulled off the move. He attacked at the very last corner, but I defended and shut the door. It was close though, we were separated by just two one hundredths of a second.”

Strawberry team boss, Warwick Ringham was full of praise for his new signing: “Before the racing, I’d had a chat with him about overtaking. I told him to get in late and hard. In the races he was going in really hard, to the point where we were all going ‘Whoah, what’re you doing?!’ He did everything I asked and more. He was fantastic.”

Saturday’s hot, dry and sunny conditions gave way to rain on Sunday. Starting from 6th on the grid for his first heat, Jack made short work of clearing the karts ahead of him and delivered an assured drive in the tricky conditions to win comfortably…

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A mid season switch to reigning European and World title holders Strawberry Racing proved instantly fruitful for Jack Barlow last weekend (26/27 June). The British Super 1 championship reached its halfway point at the challenging Buckmore Park in Kent and saw the highly rated 15 year old deliver his best performance to date in the UK’s premier series.

Inspired by taking 3rd place in a club event at the same venue just a week beforehand, Jack built on this early promise with another fine performance during Saturday’s timed qualifying session by being fastest in his group and third-quickest overall. Despite enjoying pole position for the first of his two preliminary heats, he had to keep a cool head as a crash brought out the red flags and his engine temperature soared. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. We weren’t told where to stop on the circuit so we all just drove round slowly. Because the air was so warm and the low speed, I couldn’t cool the engine enough and the data logger showed that the temperature was over 60 degrees…

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Twin podiums move DHR driver into second in Formula Kart Stars driver standings. The old sporting maxim has it that form is temporary, class is permanent. This goes a long way to explain how, after the bitter disappointment of the opening round of the Formula Kart Stars Junior Max championship at Rowrah in Cumbria last month, Jack Barlow was able to bounce back into championship contention with a brace of runner-up finishes at Whilton Mill last weekend (15/16 May).

Nothing puts a title challenge on track better than a trophy - and on Saturday, Jack won his first of the domestic season after a strong run to 2nd place in the final. Throughout the day, he had been current series leader Ash Hand’s principal challenger – from Timed Qualifying to the two heats.

“Whilton Mill is Ash’s local track, so I expected him to do well,” said Jack. “He didn’t put a wheel wrong and I decided that after Rowrah, where I finished outside the top ten, taking 2nd place was actually a good result. I bagged a load of points, and of course championships are won over the course of a season, not just one or two races.”

Sunday morning presented the Freem UK-backed driver with fresh hope that he could further close the points-gap on his rivals. In qualifying Jack again recorded the second fastest time and duly converted his front-row starting position into 2nd-place finishes in the heats. This once again put him alongside Hand for the final.

A dramatic start saw Barlow clipped from behind, with the Jack Taylor momentarily snagging his kart on Jack’s exhaust. The pair quickly disentangled, but the short delay in doing so dropped the Dan Holland Racing driver down to 3rd.

With his kart’s set-up designed to come into effect later in the race, he simply had to keep tabs on the lead pair and put daylight between himself and the chasing pack. This he was able to do, but a situation of stalemate began to emerge. As the race wore on, his kart’s handling and overall pace improved, but then so did his opponents’. Barlow traded lap-times with the driver in 2nd place, Welshman Fraser O’Brien, but needed to find at least half a second in just one tour, if he was to be able to catch his quarry.

Rather than risk spinning off the circuit, Jack sensibly opted to take 3rd place and more valuable championship points. However during post-race checks, he was promoted to 2nd, after O’Brien fell foul of technical regulations. “It’s unfortunate what happened to Fraser, and I would have preferred to have beaten him on the track - but at the same time, I need the points! In fact, I’ve now moved from twelfth up to 2nd place and really think I can now build a challenge for the overall lead. It’s going to be tough but who enjoys winning when it’s easy?”

The next round of the championship, in July, takes the drivers to the picturesque Glan Y Gors track in North Wales. However, Jack will return to action long before then. At the end of this month, he will compete in the second round of the Euro Max Challenge, at Wackersdorf in Bavaria on 29/30 May.