Malmesbury's Louis Harvey drove like a true champion and secured his place in the karting history books by winning the 2020 Motorsport UK British Karting Championship in the Junior TKM Class.

After several setbacks in this year’s British Karting Championships, Harvey entered the final rounds at the PFI International Kart Circuit with a mountain to climb.

He still had his heart firmly still set on clinching the title for Klaassen Motorsport and he did not disappoint.

Consistent driving in some difficult conditions saw Harvey score enough points throughout the weekend to secure the title, ten points clear of second place.

Harvey set the fastest times in official practise one and three and was hoping for a great result in timed qualifying.

This was not to be as he picked up a nose cone penalty on the last lap meaning his quickest lap was voided dropping him to 12th for the start of his two heats and well behind the championship leader Cresswell.

Heat one saw a damp but drying track and a tricky decision on tyres.

Harvey opted for slicks as did most of the drivers with only three opting for a wet setup.

As the karts crossed the start line a fresh sprinkling of rain played into the hands of the drivers on wet tyres and left the majority of the grid struggling for grip.

Harvey kept his cool and crossed the line 15 seconds clear of the chasing pack and championship contenders, but a whole 45 seconds off teammate Higgins who had opted for the wets and won the heat.

Heat two and Harvey once again started from 12th on the grid.

He got a good start and commenced his challenge for the front.

By lap five he was up into 3rd place and after a short battle with teammate Lomax crossed the line 3rd again ahead of his main contenders and moving him into the lead of the championship.

Points added and Harvey would start 2nd in the pre-final with Cole 4th and Cresswell 7th.

Harvey knew he had to drive hard to push away and maintain a hold on the championship.

By lap six Harvey, Cole and Cresswell were all in the mix and battling for supremacy with Harvey finally crossing the line for the win, Cresswell in 2nd and Cole in 4th.

Cole was given two five second penalties dropping him to 16th and out of contention for the championship.

It was down to the final race to see who would be crowned Junior TKM British Champion for 2020 as Harvey lined up on pole with Cresswell in second place on the front row.

The two drivers entered the fastest part of the track going under the bridge on lap one side by side with Harvey just keeping his foot in long enough to take the lead with teammate Lomax making a move on Cresswell a few corners later.

On Lap three Lomax took the lead and Harvey knew he just needed to finish ahead of Cresswell to win the championship.

Harvey pushed with Lomax to try and get away but were slowly being caught with Cresswell still trying to move back up, but was now down in 5th place.

The final four laps had everyone holding their breath as the leading three karts battled for the win and Harvey was caught in the middle just trying to keep out of trouble.

Any penalty at this point could have cost him the championship.

Harvey crossed the line 4th and secured the championship and in a twist of fate was promoted to 2nd as two of the battling karts had received five second penalties.

Harvey said: “I could see by mid race that all I needed to do was finish without tangling with anyone and I would win the championship, but it was honestly really hard to stay out of trouble as everyone around me was battling to win the final round.”

Louis Harvey and Klaassen Motorsport were announced the Junior TKM British Champions winners for 2020 at the trophy presentation as Harvey collected his second-place trophy.

Cresswell came second overall with Saunders beating Cole to take third.

Harvey is hoping that the Motorsport UK Awards evening will be able to go ahead in the near future where he will be able to collect his championship winning trophy, and would like to thank everyone who has made his journey to the top of British Karting possible.

The Junior TKM races can be seen here on the live stream from race day https://youtu.be/vUuxu9ptmtI