Richard Gittings Wins the Monoposto 2016 Championship Title

Richard Gittings the owner of JDR Karting in Gloucester wins the 2016 Monoposto Championship in his 1000cc Suzuki powered Jedi. Richard finished on the podium every race this season with 9 wins, 1 second and 1 third place. Richard also achieved 9 fastest laps and 4 lap records at Cadwell Park, Brands Hatch GP,  Oulton Park Fosters & Snetterton 300. Richard would like to thank his sponsors HS motorsport who prepared and provided the car, Romero Insurance for their continued support and JDR Karting (Indoor Karting, Lasertag & Segway Arena in Gloucester)

Richard’s finest race was at Brands Hatch GP having had a mechanical issue in qualifying resulting in 18th and 30th on the grid, but managed to charge through the field and take a win on the last corner with just 0.2s separating the top 3 cars. The highlights of this manoeuvre can be seen in the video below. In the second race Richard finished a fine 2nd place behind fellow JDR Karting team mate Craig Hurran, albeit with a win insight only to have the race finish 2 laps early due to a car crashing in the gravel trap. 

Silverstone GP saw a healthy grid of 46 cars but on the Saturday the rain was torrential resulting in no visibility and with the nature of the Jedi race car it was not well suited to these conditions which resulted in 2 cars flown in from Dubai managing to beat him to 1st and 2nd place. On Sunday the weather was dry and Richard took the victory from a well fought fight with Cato Pulsan in his formula Gulf.

The last round was held at Snetterton with Richard going in with a 16pt lead and potentially could drop from 1st to 3rd if he failed to finish. He managed to win both races and set a new lap record for the class therefore securing his championship victory on the Saturday. HS Motorsport Team mate Richard Morecroft finished an excellent 2nd on Sunday. The weekend was televised on freeview and you can see both races below.

To summarise the results  - Oulton Park fosters race 1 cancelled due to too many crashes, Richard was in 1st place when it was stopped, race 2 finished 1st. Cadwell Park 2 wins. Brands Indy and Silverstone National didn't enter and consequently saw his lead diminish and be overtaken by team mate Craig Hurran who became championship leader. Brands GP 1st place for race 1 then 2nd for race 2. Donington GP saw 2 wins which were very hard fought battles with Zach Anderton, who had several wins in Formula Jedi this year and also with James McClaughlan who is the Brands hatch Indy Lap record holder (Richard holds the Brands Hatch GP lap record). Silverstone GP resulted in 3rd place in torrential rain on Saturday but managed a fine1st place on Sunday just ahead of the Dubai team driver Cato Pulsen. Snetterton was the deciding round where he won the championship on Saturday with a win and also took a win on the Sunday just for fun.

Team mate Craig Hurran (Renault Formula 1 employee) from Cheltenham in his JDR Karting Sponsored Jedi which is an identical car finished a fine second in the championship. Well done team JDR Karting! Sponsorship packages available for 2017 contact richard@jdrkarting.co.uk to discuss your requirements. Packages can include, photos from various events for you to promote your own company, TV coverage, youtube links for you to use on your website, hospitality for your clients or staff rewards at the circuit with the team etc. Something for all budgets.

JDR Karting Race Team

Richard Gittings owner of JDR Karting - Starts the 2016 season off with a flying start. The first round of the Monoposto Championship @ Oulton Park saw Richard Qualify 3rd just behind the bigger class Dallara 1400cc Hyabusa powered cars but pole for the 1000cc class, which Richard is in using a 1000cc Suzuki powered Suzuki engined Jedi kindly provided by Ian of HS motorsport. Special thanks to Romero Insurance specialists in adventure activities and motorsport for their generous ongoing Sponsorship support.

During the morning practice which was very wet Richard was 4 seconds faster than anyone. Race 1 had several restarts and was abandoned due to lack of time. Richard managed to get to the front each time due to great starts. Race 2 - Richard managed to take the lead and hold onto outright 1st place for 6 laps when the Dallara of Jeremy Timms passed but this was a hard fought battle between Jeremy and Richard providing great action for Spectators. Richard finished 1st in class and also set a new class lap record.

Click here for the full story from Oulton Park

Round 2 was at Cadwell Park and the weather just held off making a dry meeting. Richard qualified 2nd for both races just 0.1 second off pole behind the formidable Dallara. After a great start in race 1 Richard took the lead but near the end he got boxed in by a back marker and Jeremy Timms managed to make an excellent pass, but then broke a chain and Richard finished 1st overall and another class win. Race 2 saw Jonathan Reed make a blistering start pulling along side Richard on turn 1 but Richard managed to hold on to the lead and pull away wining by 36 seconds. He also took a new lap record on lap 2. Richard is now the championship leader with maximum points.

Richard also featured in a very complimenting article in Autosport magazine.

Please click on this link for the full story of Cadwell Park 

Craig Hurran - JDR Karting Team Mate suffered from some teething problems with his new car for this season but managed a mighty fine 3rd place at Oulton Park on his first shake down since fully rebuilding the car. Caldwell park resulted in 4th place for race 1 just missing out on the podium. Race 2 resulted in a DNF due to a puncture on lap 1.

Craig was very dominant at Round 3 @ Brands Hatch taking 2 class wins. Richard Gittings was not at Brands which has resulted in his championship lead having been eroded and thus demoting him to 3rd place in the championship. Brands Hatch was filmed and you can see it here