The Lewis Hamilton factor was in evidence at Kimbolton circuit on Sunday 13th January 2008, with novice drivers representing over 10% of the entrants to Hunts Kart Racing Club's Winter Championship round 1.

Half of these novices appeared in the Cadet classes and it was perhaps fitting then that of these, Lewis Taylor was highest placed on the grid for the A Final. The Cadets are a particular favourite of Race Commentator Jonathan Needham. "Kimbolton circuit with its long straights and flowing nature seems particularly suited to close Cadet racing", he said. "The number of position changes in 10 laps, particularly at the sharp end of the field has to be seen to be believed".

In the Comer Class, 2007 Club Champion Toby Sowery emerged victorious after a race long battle with George Russell, Tom Harvey and Charlie Savage. Russell had led for six laps until Sowery leapfrogged his way from third to first in the space of half a lap. Once in front, he forged ahead to win by over two seconds from Russell with Harvey snatching third from Savage on the last lap. As for the novices, it was Jake Sparkhall who took the honours, a day after passing his ARKS test!

The Honda Cadets may have been short on numbers, but Brad Shiner and Jack Partridge kept the crowd entertained with a ding-dong battle which saw them nose to tail throughout. In a thrilling finish Partridge just made it, edging past Shiner on the dash to the line by 0.05 seconds!

William Hillyard proved master of Junior Rotax with a lights-to-flag win.

Daniel Butcher-Lord could only slow Oliver Hodgson’s progress for a couple of laps and once ahead, Hodgson ended up a convincing Junior TKM winner.

Minimax driver Andy King looked like he might give Luke Gardiner a real challenge, but the former WTP driver couldn’t match Gardiner’s speed in the latter half of the race.

Tim Penstone-Smith was the early beneficiary of a first corner incident involving more than half the Rotax 177s. Fortunately all but one restarted. Also emerging unscathed if a little delayed, Tom Holland set about catching the leader, a process which took him till half distance. Meanwhile, Scott Clee really had the bit between his teeth and with a series of fastest laps caught Penstone-Smith on the last lap. Clee got a good run out of Kimbolton to pip Penstone-Smith to second on the line! Despite this disappointment, Penstone-Smith still had the honour of winning the first trophy in the newly formed 177 Veteran class.

Martin Goodliffe pulled off a superb move to pass Ron Stamp round the outside of Stow corner on his way to winning the 250 gearbox class. James and Jason Tucker squabbled over third until Jason spun out on lap five.

James Holman was always in command of the 125s, winning from Paul Lawson who, chasing valiantly, set fastest lap. 

In Senior Rotax, Paul Walsh shadowed Marc Dawson for nine laps giving him plenty of opportunity to work out a plan of attack. Plan formulated, it was duly executed on the last lap with a confident overtake under braking into Stow. Luke Caudle survived a late challenge by Josh Parker with the latter just missing out by 3 hundredths of a second.

A disappointing grid of just 9 TKM Extremes was reduced to 8 before the start as Ben Barker pulled off on the warming up lap. The upside of the low numbers was that they all made it round Stow without incident! Adam Jenkins was untouchable with a lights to flag win and fastest lap in the process. Scott Chaney followed and Jack Kemp rescued third for himself after dropping back on lap one.

HKRC Winter Championship Round 1 - Results: