18/08/2026
π British Kart Championship Round 4 - Whilton Mill π
ππ ππππ πππ π
ππππ!
After three rounds of getting closer and closer, Round 4 at Whilton Mill was the weekend we finally made it happen.
Whilton is a track I really like and we've raced here several times before, so we already had a good starting point when we arrived.
Friday was a really positive day. We made changes throughout the sessions, found more pace and kept improving every time we went out.
Saturday qualifying was a different story.
Qualifying at this level can become a bit of a game of attrition. Everyone waits in the pits until the last possible moment, then heads out trying to get the perfect flying lap and the all-important tow.
We decided not to play that game.
The plan was to go out earlier, get a banker lap and hopefully pick up a tow when the rest of the field came through.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
We got caught up in the traffic as everyone rolled over and our flying lap was compromised. The result was a lap over a second slower than we'd managed in practice and P23 on the grid for Heat 1.
Then things got worse.
As I came out for the warm-up lap, the engine started spluttering. Halfway around the lap it cut out completely and I had no option but to pull off.
Heat over before it had even started, all down to a 50cm length of hose!
Somehow, post-race penalties and disqualifications meant I was classified P24, so it wasn't quite the disaster it could have been.
Heat 2 started from P24 and this time we had a serious advantage.
Because I hadn't completed a lap in Heat 1, my tyres were virtually untouched while everyone else had already put a heat cycle through theirs.
By lap 6 I was up to P18 and comfortably moving through the pack.
Then I tried a little too hard.
Going for P17, I outbraked myself and sent the kart into a drift that even Ken Block would've been proud of! π
Unfortunately, the train of karts we'd already passed came back through and all that hard work disappeared.
I kept pushing and crossed the line P23, which became P21 after penalties.
Going into Sunday, we'd learned something important. You're often so focused on your own race that you don't realise what is happening elsewhere on the grid.
Despite everything that had gone wrong for us, plenty of other drivers had experienced even more problems.
When the Saturday classifications came out, we were P36 overall.
Right on the cusp of the Final.
Sunday's Super Heat was going to be huge.
Starting P18, I made a good start and gained a couple of places, but then an incident ahead caused chaos. I ended up driving over the front of another kart that was facing the wrong way.
We managed to separate the karts, but I was now more than 20 seconds behind the field with a damaged nosecone dragging along the floor.
We considered pitting.
I decided to stay out.
The tyres were still good, the pace was there and there was nothing to lose.
It turned out to be the right decision.
A mixture of retirements, incidents and a technical flag for one of the drivers around me meant that, after everything had been sorted, I was classified P16.
Then came the wait.
Dad's maths suggested we'd made it.
But you never know until the official classifications are published.
And then it appeared.
P36.
WE HAD MADE THE FINAL.
Dead last on the grid, but we were in.
The Final plan was simple: stay out of trouble, don't get involved in the first-corner chaos, use the tyre advantage, be patient and make the moves when they were there.
And it worked.
Lap by lap I moved forward.
By lap 12 I was up to P27 and closing in on the group ahead.
Then, with two laps remaining, another driver decided my kart would make a better brake than their left foot.
I was sent sideways into the corner, producing another Ken Block-style drift.
The train of karts came past.
All that work was undone.
I crossed the line P35.
Was it the result we wanted? Absolutely not.
Was it the result the pace deserved? Probably not.
But that's motorsport.
We made the Final.
After three rounds of getting closer, we finally got there.
And now we know we can do it.
π Biggest Positive
My first British Championship Final.
π€ Biggest Lesson
Keep fighting. This weekend looked finished more than once, but it wasn't.
π― Next Mission
Make the Final again β and finish further up the order.
Thanks to everyone who has supported me through the season so far. This one means a lot. ππ
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