May 2026
May looked to be an exciting month, with the first round of Wera Tools British Kart Championship taking place at Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire and then round 5 of the Shenington Kart Club championship.
I’ve chosen to compete at 3 rounds in the British championship. I have to be realistic; some of the rounds are at venues quite a distance from home, where I don’t have any experience. I use it as a barometer to judge how well I drive against some of the best in Europe but also for exposure, experience and the competition, this includes having a full grid, sometimes up to 36 drivers.
Waterswift is suffering a little at the moment, grids are impacted by rising costs of fuel and energy, the increasing costs to venues and the additional costs that all the wonderful volunteers must endure when they work at the events, we are forced to chose from the many events to choose from, getting a good race is getting harder at other venues.
At the moment we are still pushing forward with all the events we offered at the start of the year whilst trying to attract some more sponsorship investment from new partners, of course, not at the expense of our current fantastic sponsors.
WERA Tools British Kart Championship Round 1 & 2 - Whilton Mill
The first round of the IAME British Kart Championship would be a double header at Whilton Mill, so Friday would commence with a full day's practice, Saturday (Round1) Qualifying, 2 heats and a final, and then a repeat (Round 2) of qualifying, 2 heats and a final on the Sunday.
My target for the event was to get into the top 15. We know the top 15 drivers are some of the best in the world, we would be in a grid of around 20 drivers, being realistic helps things become more achievable.
Friday Practice
There would be 5 practice sessions, each around 10 minutes. Everyone was forced to use new tyres from practice 3 as this would allow us to get some idea of our pace. I have done some significant practice time during April to learn and improve at the track.
After first practice our times were looking ok, 16th, so still some time to work on lap times and improve the setup to aid my driving, the fastest time was 1.1s quicker, so we had to work on that deficit.
Even after the full day, I was still a second off the leader, with a best lap time on the day putting me a disappointing 16th .
Saturday Round 1
Qualifying
As the highest number, 199, I was on pole position for qualifying, this would prove to be an advantage as I could get out and do the maximum number of laps in the short session, happily I managed to qualify 15th but the gap to the front was only slightly improved.
Heat 1
I struggled a little at the start, the front row made the run to the line very slow, I dropped 17th but with time I finally started to push back to P15 by the end of the race. The pace was very fast, I managed to get my best laps of the weekend so far my best lap just 0.6s from the leader's laps. With penalties I managed to place in 13th.
Heat 2
I got a better start this time, managed to hold P15 and briefly got up to 14th but towards the end of the race, my lap times started to drop a little, but I managed to maintain my starting position and cross the line back in my original P15.
Final
Following all the penalties, I ended up taking P16 on the final grid, that top 15 was looking like a possibility. The race was long, 15 minutes, so with a full tank of fuel we walked out onto the grid with nothing to lose.
I got a great start; there was an incident at turn one which I managed to avoid pushing up to P14 by the second corner, I was racing against my Shenington adversary Rudrah, so there was trust to race and we battled hard for the next 6 laps swapping times, attacking and defending, meanwhile on lap 10 Teddy Higgs took advantage of the battle and got between us both, he held me up for the remaining 6 laps, stopping me from moving up from P14 on the road
In the post race scrutineering, Teddy was disqualified, so I ended Round 1 in 13th place, I hit my goal, top 15, my lap times were better, just 0.5s off the leading times.
I was really happy with the result, top 15 good laps, no kart damage.
Round 2
Qualifying
For the second time in two events, I made the mistake of being complacent. I was tardy getting to the grid and dad was impatiently waiting as I was only just in time, I also realised I didn’t have my rib protector, but as it was qualifying, I didn’t really need it.
I was at the very back of the grid, the front row were holding up the whole grid, my kart struggled a bit with fouling and oiling , and I didn’t get a very good run and ended up qualifying in P17.
That was short lived, as in post qualifying scrutineering I was underweight by 1 gram, this meant all the effort was worthless and I was disqualified. The missing rib protector is what put me underweight. Dad was pretty mad, but the reality was it didn’t really matter, with the bad run I was on the back row anyway P19 for the heats.
With that behind us, we got ready for the first heat of the day.
Heat 3
With my ears ringing from dad's dissatisfaction I lined up on the grid P19, I really had to move forwards, so it was a case of just doing my best to get ahead of as many as possible.
I got a good start, but it took me 5 laps to get past teammate Theo Tyack and on to the back of Hugo T and then another 6 laps to get past him and Hugo Williamson. We have battled before but this time I got them both and crossed the line P13 which helped the temperature a little in the paddock.
Heat 4
My last chance to get a good start position for the final, again starting P19 I got a good start, immediately up to 12th but with some quick drivers around me, it was a battle every lap, I made a few mistakes, eventually crossing the line in P16, jumping up 2 places to 14 after penalties.
Final
So after all the heats, all the hard work and some disappointment I lined up for the last race of the weekend on P14, a realistic placing given my pace and ability, happily in front of some of those I struggled to pass earlier in the day.
I got an ok start but dropped 2 places avoiding a turn one collision that’s saw karts spinning, and moving forward 3 places and up to 15th on lap 2. I ran wide on the exit of the downhill left hand, caught the kerb and suddenly I was airborne, I came to a rest astride the curb, beached, at this point I had to get out of the kart to move it, the marshal wouldn’t let me restart, so that was the end of the race, I finally got back to the pits after the race, placed last.
Despite all this, we had a great time, and being so close to some of these great drivers who surely have bright futures really helped me to focus a little harder and drive better.
We did achieve our aim, finishing rounds 1 and 2 in 15th in the British Championship, although we wont compete in rounds 3 or 4 as they are too far away, it still meant we did quite well.
Shenington Round 5
Saturday Practice
Back to the welcome familiarity, I was back at Shenington for round 5 of the club championship
Due the event being a round of the British Kart Championship for the KZ gearbox karts our weekend has a slightly different layout to the previous rounds.
Saturday would mean less practice sessions with a heat in the afternoon, 2 further heats and a final on the Sunday,
My practice sessions were good, as usual at Shenington I was still trying to get the same pace as Rudrah Gokulnath, I was just 0.3 seconds off him in Practice 1 and 2 and 0.1s off of him in practice 3, the weather was ok for most of the day but typically it rained for the start if the heat.
Heat 1
With instructions from the pits not to push too hard, starting from P4 I did push very hard and was leading by some margin by lap 3, but that advice from the pits would come back to bite me, a spin out braking myself into the first hairpin meant I dropped to last, back on track I went back to driving hard, I am quick in the wet and gained places, making it back to 7th before taking another spin and crossing the line in 8th.
There was of course no question over what happened, my fault, didn’t listen and a poor performance put me in a difficult spot already for the final.
The Sunday morning 5 lap warm up went well, I posted quickest time in the slightly damp conditions.
Heat 2
Starting off P2 was welcome considering I needed a good result, Kody and my teammate Rudras did a good job of holding me back to allow Rudrah to catch and eventually pass, I got stuck in P3 behind Felix, but he was driving very defensively and allowing Rudrah to gain a gap whilst holding me up, I eventually came across the line in P4, I then got a penalty for the start +5s because I was on the wrong side of the grid despite following the on track marshals instructions, after all that I ended up a disappointing P7. we raised the issue with the stewards, and enquired why other out of place drivers were not penalised but this didn’t result in any changes
Heat 3
Starting this one from P7, we had 3 false starts and my engine fouled, it took two laps to clear and then I ended up not making up any places, finally finishing P6.
It was all a bit of a disaster really and didn’t look like I would get a good start in the final.
Final
After everything I place P8 out of the 9 starters. The plan was to beat Theo and Felix to maintain good championship position and not worry about the finish position.
I got a great start, and made it up to P6 off the start, pushing hard. By lap 4 I was up to 5th, lap 9, I was 4th. Unfortunately a collision for Felix pushed him off track and unable to recover, so just Theo to catch who was in P2.
At this point penalties start to come in for some of the ones in front, they all picked up 3 second penalties for start line infringements, if I could get within 3 seconds of Rudrah I could win.
Rather than race, I pushed Theo to go faster, to try and close the gap to Rudrah. We crossed the line 4.5 seconds behind Rudrah giving me P2 and some hard earned championship points. That result moved me up into second place in the championship!
Up Next
Shenington Round 6 - June 20th-21st
June will be a quiet month with just one round at Shenington before we head into a very busy July and August, they will feature some important big events
The current plan though is to test a junior X30, the next level of kart, a full size adult kart with a much more powerful engine, which will help decide what we do in 2027.
I’m really excited for this but physically its very demanding and I only plan to do the test if the weather is good, will report back next month.
