CRESSING kart ace Tyrone Stansfield kept his push for the Easykart UK Junior Championship title going with a hat-trick of second-place finishes at the fifth round.

The 14-year-old Alex Hunter Academy pupil headed to Glan Y Gors in Wales with his sights set on overhauling title rival and current championship leader Toby Goodman and made a strong start.

Stansfield was pleased with his kart set-up in qualifying and managed to secure a fourth pole position of the season with a blistering lap.

That put him at the front of the grid for the opening heat race, but a fast-charging Goodman managed to squeeze past and although the Cressing youngster set the fastest lap of the race he had to be content with second behind his rival.

That put the championship battlers at the head of the pack for the pre-final race and they showed their pace by pulling clear of the rest of the field in a private duel, with Stansfield crossing the line just 0.417 seconds behind Goodman and more than four seconds ahead of the third-placed driver.

It was a similar story in the final as well, as the top two in the championship went head-to-head with Goodman once again taking the win by a fraction of a second.

While he lost ground on the leader in the overall points, Stansfield was happy with his three second places that kept him pressing for the title in his rookie season at junior level.

He said: "I was pleased with three seconds and opened my lead up from third place.

"I obviously lost points to first place, but it (the title) is still possible."

Stansfield is sponsored by G & B Finch of Great Leighs, K & B Tatam of Maldon and Kingwell Environmental of Long Green, Cressing and Martyn from BODYFIT4TRAINING in Witham.

Round six of the UK Championship is in August at Clay Pigeon in Dorset.