Nathan Harrison gave it everything in pursuit of a second British Championship crown in the 2011 finale of the national Super 1 Series at Three Sisters near Wigan, only to be denied by the smallest of margins.
The Oxford karting star travelled to Three Sisters locked in a season-long, tooth-and-nail duel with arch-rival Jack Barlow for the fiercely-contested Junior Rotax class laurels, entering the meeting six points in arrears. He did, however, have prior experience of title showdowns, having successfully raced to glory in the Mini Max class two years earlier.
“I was a little bit nervous because the stakes were so high and the pressure was pretty intense,” Harrison admitted, “but I had been in a similar situation before when I won the British Championship in 2009, so that definitely helped in terms of knowing how to calm my nerves. I was trying not to think about the championship too much and just concentrating on enjoying the racing.”
Qualifying in third, the Botley-based driver would begin both of his heat races from the unenviable outside line in second place, and with a long run down the pit straight into a sharp right-hander at Wigan, those with even-numbered grid slots are invariably punished.
In the opening encounter, Harrison initially slipped down to fourth position, before battling his way back into second and proceeding to reel in the leader – only to see his valiant charge scuppered when he skated off-track on water deposited by a rival’s broken radiator. He recovered to reclaim fourth, just over a second adrift of the winner.
In a changeable heat two, the Cumnor Hill hotshot plumped for a wet set-up on his Evolution Racing kart, but with the handling not right, struggled for grip in the tricky conditions and gradually fell from the pace, doing well to limit the damage in the circumstances by bringing it home in sixth at the chequered flag.
“I was disappointed with the heat results, because they left me at a bit of a disadvantage heading into the pre-final,” he confessed. “I was only eighth on the grid for that, with my chief championship rival on pole position, but I was still optimistic I could move forward from there.
“I made a solid start and then picked the others off one-by-one until I was up to third. By that point, the two leaders had the length of nearly half the straight over me, but I closed them down and on the last lap managed to latch onto the back of them. I just needed one more lap.”
One more lap for the race and also for the championship, given that Nathan had to finish ahead of Barlow to keep his title hopes alive. Winding up six tenths of a second short, the big prize slipped from his grasp, with the grand final still to come.
“Even though the title had gone, I still had butterflies in my stomach,” the 15-year-old Matthew Arnold School pupil said. “I began second but got a really good start to move into the lead straightaway, and I stayed there for a couple of laps before being pushed back to third. When my kart came to me and I knew the time was right, though, I re-passed them both and was able to establish a small lead that I maintained all the way to the end. There was a little bit of pressure in the closing stages, but nothing to really worry about.
“It was a great feeling to win the last race of the season, it was another trophy for the cabinet, and it meant I won five of the 14 Super 1 rounds this year, which I think is a pretty decent statistic. It was a bit gutting to miss out on the title by such a small margin, but that’s racing and overall, it’s been a really good season. Despite the end disappointment, there are still a lot of positives to come out of this year.”
