Summer 2026
It's been an incredibly hot summer, some 50 weeks of extreme weather, it has meant some impact on karting but mainly from driver fatigue and performance rather than the racing.
When I last wrote back in May, we had a round at Shenington, the SuperPrix followed by a test day at PF prior to the Kartmasters British GP. I’ve also been to Goodwood Festival of Speed, Arden Racing for a test in their sim and a trip to a Supercar show in Broadway.
I have successfully competed at all 3 races with some brief reports included.
I have however suffered some issues with my race engine, meaning its not been its best. Jade rebuilt it 2 times, all to no avail so most of the events were completed on my spare engine. Whilst good, it doesn't reflect my usual pace and some of the results have been directly affected, the Grand Prix especially, where I only had the one engine, however, hopefully we are beyond the problems as we head into the last quarter of the year, I hope to see better performance, another rebuild and a days testing at Silverstone will hope to see it back on top. A full test day was completed on Monday 24th August at Silverstone and the engine felt much better.
Shenington Round 6
The first of what would prove to be some very hot races as we progressed through the summer, another round at Shenington, a real chance to try and gain valuable championship points as Rudra was out in India racing. He is my biggest rival now as we get halfway through the season. .
Imternational driver Margiris Koveckis joined for this round as he continues to learn various circuits, although not a championship rival, it was going to be difficult to keep with him given his previous results across Europe.
Heat 1
From P6 I managed to push up to P3 but an incident between Travis and Theo meant I dropped back, finally crossing the line 4th
Heat 2
Starting P3, I immediately got pushed back to 6th, the outside line is always difficult to start from, pushing hard I managed to get back to 3rd setting several fastest laps..
Final
Starting P4 behind Kody and Theo was always going to be a challenge, I need to score more points than them, regardless of finishing position. A poor start saw me drop to 5th, another fight back up the grid meant in the final lap I made it up to P3, not too bad for the championship, I dropped to P3 but only on paper, with dropped scores I remained second in the club champtionship.
Shenington SuperPrix (Round 7)
The Shenington SuperPrix offers some unique opportunities to really show your skill, it offers some amazing prizes and the elusive ‘E’ Plate, effectively the best driver in the class in England. The downside can be massive grids and a lot of waiting around. The event is 3 days with practice on Friday and qualifying and heats spread over Saturday and Sunday, with finals late on the Sunday. It is often littered with controversial results and challenging races it’s a festival weekend.
This is where we really started to get a sense that our race engine wasn’t all that good, testing on Friday saw me running the engine in to get the hours up and bed in some new piston rings. On paper it looks strong, to me, it seems to be lacking top end power, Shenington is a power circuit with the long straights. Practice showed me 0.6s off the pace, an unusual situation for me at Shenington.
Qualifying
This proved my fears, qualifying in 6th it wasn’t a disaster but it felt like the start to a challenging weekend.
Heat 1
Starting P6, a brief trip up to 4th half way through the race but I couldn’t hold the pace and dropped back to 6th, more a case of damage limitation, we looked to change back to the spare engine for the Sunday to compare the two.
Heat 2
Fresh start to Sunday morning, second engine on and a positive view to the day ahead, everyone was quick, the cooler morning temperature suited the kart better, it was a difficult race, I manage to get up P4 but I still really didn’t have the power to stay there, over the line in P5.
Final
After all the penalties were applied, I ended up on P5 for the final. We also took the risk of changing the carburettor to see if that would help the speed, off the start I was immediately into 3rd and pushing hard behind Kody to chase down the leading Harry Chapman, that was until the last corner of lap two, I was hit in the rear by Rudra, (later to be penalised as deliberate) dropping me to 10th, so I had no choice but to get my head down, signal from dad.. PUSH.. So, I did, Lap 6 I caught Max, Lap 9 I had passed Oliver and Travis, P6 was as far as I got at the chequered flag. After the final we were summoned to the stewards to investigate the incident and the resulting penalties put me in P5, not showing the potential I had and missing out on a podium.
Kartmasters British GP
Kartmasters is a once-a-year experience, like no other. Its the British GP and the racing is fierce, over 4 days literally anyone can win, the racing is hard, damage is normal and days are long.
This is my second attempt, I always go in with zero expectations, even getting to the final is not a guarantee,
Arriving Wednesday evening the team where ready, just 3 in my class from Jade, the event also saw a shift to FIA status, meaning rather than Inter we fell under the Mini X30 class, the class is for anyone from 9-13 years. Mechanically and technically the same, it offers the opportunity for younger drivers to join the event and removes the IAME Waterswift restricted class.
Surprisingly, our class wasn’t full, an international grid of 26 drivers would start Thursday's test day.
I’ve said before PF is a challenging circuit, its renowned for being the hardest to learn in the UK, so practice was essential. Thursday was 6 sessions, I spent the day trying to run my rebuilt engine in, new crank and piston the day before wasn’t really what we needed, over the day, I ended up 22nd but it was mainly due to engine running in that I couldn’t go any better.
Day 2
After a short warm up, I wasn’t much better, P22. a change of engine and we were ready for qualifying, this went a lot better, I managed to push up to P15 and secure a decent start position for the heats, the engine also felt better.
Heat 1
It didn’t go very well, I lost out at the start and got shoved to the back, all the way to P23, to top that off I then got a penalty for a nosecone, +5 seconds.
Heat 2
I managed a better start but still and held P15 until lap 5, a small mistake meant I dropped to 19th, a bit more work and I managed to get back to 17th. My lap times had also improved, and we were finally only 0.6s off the front runners.
After all the penalties, I ended the day P20th overall, a little bit better than where I finished on day 1.
Day 3
A repeat of day 2, so qualifying and two heats, all of the races score points with 1st getting zero and then going up to the last place so 26th gets 26 points, the aim is to get to the final with the smallest number of points, realistically you had to be in the top 10 of each heat to get a real go at the final.
Qualifying went ok, ended up P15, I think I just didn’t go out at the right point and didn’t get a great on track position. The track was a little slower due to all the rubber, but I was still within a second of 1st.
Heat 1
I got a good run this time I did drop to 17th in a fierce battle with Frank Morris and teammate Theo. I got past them both and finish where I started back in 15th.
Heat 2
the same battle really, back racing against Theo, an incident at the start also saw me beat some of the quicker drivers, I finished 16th.
After all the heats, I had finished in 18th for the final, better than I expected whilst running on a less powerful engine.
Day 4
No warmup just straight into a superheat, it was just another heat, except I started in 19th, I gained in the first couple of corners, up to 18th and determined to push hard. It was again a battle with Frank and Theo but Travis had joined the fun, an incident (which I caused ) at the first hairpin put Frank off the road and caused mass chaos. We kept racing and crossed the line 17th.
I was immediately called to the stewards, a five second penalty was unavoidable, I took it on the chin and we agreed it was really all my fault.
Final
After 4 days we started the final P19, I was pleasantly surprised to be that far up the grid. With nothing to lose I just decided to go for it and see what happened. I got spun out on lap 3 by an unnecessary overtake in a very unusual part of the track, I was almost last After 16 laps, many incidents and accidents I crossed the line P16, very happy to have missed all the drama and raced well. A lot of penalties were given after the event but didn’t have an effect on my final position.
I always love Kartmasters, this was no exception, a great weekend but not quite the result I wanted. 16th In a international grid was an improvement on last years 23rd.
Arden Motorsport
A chance meeting with the owner of Arden motorsport led to an invite to their team site in Banbury, Richard Dent, general manager and all around very nice guy, invited me in to look at their GB4 and GB3 championship cars along with the chance to try their exclusive racing simulator.
It was a truly unique experience, and they gave their time so freely, it was great fun to drive the GB4 car on the sim, although ive never driven either the car or the Silverstone circuit, I was really happy to just be 10 seconds of the pace of the usual drivers.
I then had a tour of the workshop looking at various cars and components and we talked about the costs and requirements, we also spoke about their previous drivers included Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Danil Kvyat and Bruno Senna, it was truly an honour to see such a historic and well run team and to look at the machinery.
Championships
Following the summer, I head into the last 3 races at Shenington in 2nd place, I still have an opportunity to get closer to 1st as dropped scores (blue highlights) will come into play. I get to drop my 3 worse scores at the end of the year to determine the positions.
I still need to be aware of both Kody and Theo as we continue, the gap is small at the moment so I need to keep beating them.
Although we are an entrant in the British Championship I haven’t completed all the rounds, we felt he round at PF was not going to benefit me as we hadn’t run our engine in.
We will compete the last round at Silverstone, this will let me come up the order a little but with only 1 round completed im 21st.
I currently also feature on the FIA ranking list, this is for drivers who score world ranking points, although P24. This is due to only competing in one ranking event and Kartmasters running the X30 Mini class.
New Partners
As you all know I am extremely thankful for all the support that you give me, I couldn’t compete at the level I do without your input and funding. I am forever thankful.
However, it doesn’t mean I don’t continue to seek opportunities to raise more, so I can do more, represent more brands and broaden the possibilities.
I would like to introduce two new sponsors,
Michael Boniface and Gavin Beardmore representing Boniface Engineering Ltd have joined us for the remainder of 2026, I doubt they need introduction, they are the No 1 UK manufacturers of recovery vehicles, based in Thetford, they are best know for supplying heavy recovery vehicles, the type you see recovering trucks and busses all over the UK, Europe and beyond. Thank you for your valuable input , I really look forward to working together.
Secondly, a chance meeting and conversation with Rob Verner of Durite Limited has led to a blossoming partnership.
Durite is the UK’s leading brand in Vehicle Safety, Lighting, and Electrical parts, servicing the UK Transport industry, end-user fleets & manufacturers.
For over 80 years, Durite has built an impeccable reputation supplying high quality parts to the commercial vehicle market. From DVR and 4G DVR kits, FORS compliant kits and DVS Safe Systems, to the 1000s of core reliable components that keep your vehicles going, Durite will always have the perfect solution for you, your fleet, and your business. Durite is a FORS Associate, SMMT, Logistics UK, CEA, and an AVI member with ISO 9001:2015 certification.
They sell via the TRP UK and DAF dealer brands, and we are really happy to be working with them on some special product reviews and installations.
Expect to see some targeted adverts on our socials soon.
Please contact me if we can do the same for your brand, we want to give a return on your investment.
Goodwood Festival of Speed
I haven’t been to Goodwood before a few years ago, but it was nice to spend the day there, dad had some tickets from work and I was really looking forward to a day out looking at some of the great cars and famous drivers. Here are some of my favourite pictures from the day, thanks DAF Trucks Ltd
Up Next
After the quiet of August, we head not only back to school but back to the hot seat. A very busy week with overlapping events, we will go from Silverstone straight to Shenington.
September 17th to 19th - Round 5 British Kart Championship Silverstone. Spectators very welcome, please contact me for more details.
September 19th-20th - Shenington Round 8