British drivers James Owen and Jorge Edgar have secured Team UK’s first gold medals of the 2024 Motorsport Games, in Single Make GT and Karting Sprint Jr on Sunday respectively.
Owen, fresh from triumphing in the Ferrari world finals at Imola the previous weekend, started second on the grid behind Spain’s Ivan Velasco Sanchez and briefly held the lead, having overtaken around the outside and off the track at the first corner.
Sanchez reclaimed the position on the second lap, and from there started to build a gap to Owen as the Briton fell backwards and towards Venezuela’s Angelo Carlo Fontana Oliveiro in third.
Oliveiro followed close behind Owen for most of the race, but the latter found time and started to build a gap to the Venezuelan with 10 minutes to go.
Closing the 2.5-second gap to Sanchez to just under a car’s length with a minute to go, the Spaniard caught some oversteer on the final corner of the penultimate lap – giving Owen a chance heading onto the straight.
He used this slight mistake to draw level with Sanchez in the first corner, taking the inside line and with it the lead with a little over one minute remaining.
The move gave Owen a small lead on track, but that on-track lead soon became irrelevant as Sanchez, along with five other cars – the entire left side of the grid - were handed 25s penalties for a starting procedure infringement.
The Welshman’s on-track lead was also lost on the final lap as, heading into the first corner, Sanchez made contact with the rear of Owen – sending the Briton wide and down to second.
Both were able to continue and, while Sanchez was the first over the line, he was demoted to third following the penalty. Owen therefore took the win, and Christophe Hurni secured Switzerland’s second medal of the games.
Owen’s gold was the second of Team UK’s games, with Edgar winning moments earlier in Karting Mini Jr.
Edgar, the 14-year-old brother of F1 Academy driver Jess and cousin of former F3 driver Jonny, started the final in seventh, and moved up four places by the end of the first lap.
From there, he passed both Dutchman Mats Van Rooijen and Turkish driver Iskender Zulfikari on lap six of 18, and continued in the lead to win from Zulfikari in second and Spain’s Bosco Arias in third.
