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WMKC Championship LGM National Championship PF International Round 8 WMKC Whilton Mill Round 9 LGM National Championship Rounds 6/7 WMKC Whilton Mill Round 5/6 LGM Round 5 Larkhall Scotland LGM Round 2 GYG WMKC Whilton Mill Round 4 LGM National Championship PF International Whilton Mill Whilton Mill PF International TVKC
Whilton Mill PF International Whilton Mill PF International Whilton Mill Whilton Mill PF International Whilton Mill
1st at TVKC Winter series Round 4. Changeable weather all day Saturday but managed to prove some pace in the wet. Sunday dawns and the weather men promise dry all day. Instead we had sun, rain, hail and snow! The early part of the day saw a dry qualifying and consistant pace put us on pole. Unfortunately a mechanics mix up - putting the tyres on the wrong way - had us excluded so we started the pre-final from the back. We were up to 6th by the 2nd lap and kept plugging away to finish a comfortable 2nd. The weather took a turn for the worse leading up to the final but appeared to be drying so went down to the grid wth a dry set up. Then it snowed and chaos prevailed. We managed to get wets on but some of our rivals managed to change to a wet set up. After some confusion regarding the closing of the gates at the grid we ended up starting almost at the back again. A brilliant start had us leading by the first hairpin. At this point we weren't optimistic about holding this position knowing that our set up was completely wrong for the conditions. However Piers pulled out all the stops and as 2nd place driver started closing on him he found another gear and started pulling away. Against all the odds he went on to win by 4.5 seconds. Thanks to Steve Armstrong and Vital Motorsport, and Dad (despite qualifying) and Mum for giving up Mother's Day. Whilton Mill Story from Vital Motorsport...
Sadly after 3 years With Kato Adams we have to take a break. A huge thank you is in order for all the help, coaching and support we have received in that time, in particular taking us to TVKC IAME Champion in 2014 and for taking on our first Superone Series. Unfortunately a forced move to Minimax means our schedules are very different with Katomotorsport (KMS) having an established and succesful Cadet team. We wish Kato and the team luck for the coming year.
We entered the final round of the British Championship with high hopes of finishing top Rookie and 10th or above. Three laps in and Piers was up to 9th postion and moving forward brilliantly. However another driver drove Piers off the track forcing him to fly up in the air and spin. He eventually carried on and made up about 10 places again to finish 15th but unfortunately that placed us 12th. A sad end to Piers' Iame Cadet career but it seemed to some it up. On to bigger and better things in Mini Max.
1st Rookie and 8th place at Super One British Championship Shennington. Poor practise day Friday. A few last minute adjustments worked and we came out 5th in Saturday practise. Unfortunately a mechanical issue caused us huge problems in qualifying ending up in 32nd. This left a lot of hard work to do in the 2 heats. Never to be put off by a challenge we got up to 19th in the first heat and made up an impressive 20 places to come 12th in the second heat. Our overnight classification for final 1 was 12th. A tough race with some power issues saw us finish 13th in Final 1. Final 2 was a tough one but we clung on putting us in the right place for some greats moves in the final lap. Final place 8th and 1st Rookie. Well done Piers! Thanks to Kato motorsport, Force engines, Zip chassis and Dad
Rather sooner than planned we are having to move to Minimax at the end of the season. So at the ripe old age of 10 we had our first test day last week. It may have been tipping down with rain most of the day but all went well, we had a lot of fun and learned a huge amount. We are now looking forward to our first dry session. Thanks to Bryony King for the use of her equipment and Kato Motorsport for the tuition.
TVKC PFI Club 4th round. Having missed practise day on Saturday we were happy with 10th fastest in 3 lap practise. It was a full grid of 36 with quite a few inexperienced drivers. We started 15th in the first heat but after a coming together with one of them finished 19th. It was also discovered that we hadn't had full throttle through this heat or 3 lap practise. Second heat started 4th, finished 3rd. Started the third heat 31st but it was red flagged on lap 4. The decision was made not to re-start and we had only made it up to 18th in the 3 laps that counted. So we started the final 13th on the grid. A good race followed with a comfortable 4th place finish. Well done to team mates Dylan and Josh and thanks to Katomotorsport and Dad.
SuperOne British Championship 3rd Round Buckmore Park. A good days testing on Friday so optimistic for Saturday. First practise session good, 8th fastest. Second practise session messy. A good qualifying session with a rapid final lap put us 2nd on the grid for the heats. Two great heats finishing 2nd and 4th put us 2nd on the grid for Final 1. Unfortunately a crash with a driver rejoining the track directly in front of us allowed other karts through and we finished 8th. The start of Final 2 was always going to be important from this position and we achieved a good one getting us up to 4th. It then became our job to push our teammate in front but was tagged from behind and lost out. We continued to push but then got caught up in someone else's crash causing us to be airborne and allowing others through. We quickly caught back up and started pushing again. Sadly the strategy didn't work in our favour and with karts catching from behind went into the final lap having to defend rather than attack. Final position 6th. Overall a great weekend with some excellent driving and good kart set up. Thanks to KMS, Performance Q for engine power. my sponsors Hayes + Storr and my Dad.
Piers is is 1st PF International TVKC Championship: Slow start to test day not helped by the strong winds but problems resolved by the end of the day. Race day was qualifying, pre-final and final format. Qualifying went well working with teammate Josh, placing us 2nd and 4th on the pre-final grid. Again went well working with Josh coming in 2nd for the final grid. Unfortunately being pushed out at the start took us 4th into the first corner. 3rd was quickly taken and shortly after we were back to 2nd. We then caught Josh in front and continued to push away from 3rd where we stayed until the last lap. Where in the past Piers may have been rattled by some strong defending, he kept his head to take a well deserved win, with a significant gap between 2nd and 3rd. Well done also to Joe Willoughly whose last lap move took him to 3rd. Great result for team mate Elliot too, taking 3rd in Junior X30. Thanks go to Kato Motorsport, Performance Q, my dad and my sponsors Hayes + Storr and TecTamers. Also well done to TVKC for using the event to raise money for Cancer Research.
SuperOne British Championship Round 2 Llandow: Following all our recent problems we went into the weekend with few expectations. Busy testing day Friday. Saturday started with timed qualifying. Not an easy track for qualifying as it's easy to get caught up in a pack. We finished 16th but with only 1 second separating 1st and 34th it was a very close contest. Starting both heats in 16th gave us plenty of work to do. We finished 13th in the first and 16th the second, placing us 14th on the grid for the pre-final. Sunday dawns foggy and damp - very different to the sun of the previous day. A superb start in the pre-final and a determined and mature drive throughout gave us 4th place and 4th on the grid for the final. Another good start and we held 4th into the first corner. We continued to push and made it up to 2nd. Then came a brief move into 1st place. The front of the pack soon became very busy and much jostling left us finishing 8th. It was good to be back at the front end and hope our luck is changing. Thanks to Kato motorsport, Jeremy and Alexander Walker, all the team and my Dad.
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1st Round of LGM National Championship at TVKC PF International. We only had a short test session on Saturday as the first 2 heats had to be run that day so had to use them to test each different engine. Our 1st heat was average going from 14th to finish 8th. Sunday morning we were in the first heat. We started 20th and made up 9 places to 11th. It was generally felt that this should have been more and was put down to kart set up . We went into the 3rd heat with a complete change of set up. Starting 3rd we came in 4th. A carburettor problem was discovered and fixed for the final where we started 14th on the grid. A good start put us up the field with team mate Abbi allowing us to start breaking away from the field. We started pushing our way up to the front overtaking a driver from another team who started fighting with us. He continued to fight with us slowing us down. This allowed the front pack to pull away. After the usual last lap battles Piers came in 7th, Abbi 8th and team mate Josh 11th. A good start to the Championship for all with a field of 52 karts. Sadly an early crash left Dylan with a tough job but he didn't give up. Thanks as always to , along with Performance Q for providing us with engine power, my sponsors Hayes + Storr and Tec Tamers, and Dad for his hard work throughout.
Whilton Mill Club round. Good day's practise on Saturday. A damp start to Sunday which later turned into torrential rain. Fastest in 3 lap practise. Started 1st heat in second and finished 2nd (under instruction) nose to tail with the leader and taking fastest lap of the day. Started 16th in the 2nd heat. Knocked off on the first lap down to the back of the pack. Started making our way back up only to come round a bend and encounter a group of stationary novices, allowing the gap to the main pack to stretch again. Still managed to finish 16th. Started the final heat in 25th, finished 5th. This put us 6th on the final grid. Unfortunately that's where we stayed as the meeting was cancelled with no finals due to the weather and a powercut. A disappointing end as the final looked set to be a good one. Well done to all the team for taking 5 places in the top 11 of the final grid of 42 drivers. Thanks to Kato motorsport.
1st at Buckmore Park Kent. On Piers' return to Buckmore Park he makes it two wins in succession. A slow start on Saturday practice day but after the second session Piers was fastest for the rest of the day. Race day was timed qualifying and although we had the pace Piers' throttle cable snapped on lap four, despite this he held fastest lap until the last lap of the session and still managed to finish 4th. From 4th up to 1st in the
Prefinal only to lose it on the last lap and came in third. The race didn't start well with Piers being pushed wide at the start. A great recovery coming through the field to take the lead with three laps to go. Up to the last lap it was a KMS 1,2, 3. Piers pulled away with the fastest lap of the day and left the others to fight it out. Thanks to Kato Motorsport
1st at Rowrah Cumbria. Good day's practise on Saturday with lots of track time. Once the fog lifted on Sunday we had a great race day. Fastest in 3 lap practise. Won all 3 heats with fastest lap in each. Pole for the final and won with fastest lap too. A long way to travel but worth the trip. Thanks to Kato
Motorsport.
PF Winter series 3rd Round. Bitterly cold practise day with snow flurries on and off throughout. Good pace despite the conditions. Race day was just qualifying, pre-final and final. Qualified 5th in our group. Finished 5th in our pre-final. The set up seemed to have just that little bit missing to keep us with the front runners. Started 10th on the final grid. A great start had us up to 3rd but that little bit was still missing and had to settle for a disappointing 9th out of the 53 on the grid. Thanks to Kato motorsport.
Kimbolton Club. Practise day was a day of 2 halves. Seemed to be struggling throughout the early part of the day but turned out the throttle cable was loose. Once this was sorted we found the pace. Race day dawns. 3 lap practise was good. First heat ended up a disappointing 7th after a final lap coming together whilst running 3rd. Second heat went better and some great team work with Abbi Pulling brought them home a safe 4th and 5th. Final grid position starting 8th. Went into the final optimistic as holding the fastest lap of the day at that point. Unfortunately the race was over on the rolling lap when the plug failed. Thanks to Kato motorsport.
PF Winter series Round 2. Practise day was wet! We had the pace throughout and went into race day happy. The start was delayed by nearly 3 hours due to freezing conditions. When it did get under way it was limited to timed qualifying and a final. The qualifying went well despite the slightly unpredictable conditions, finishing 3rd in our group. When merged with the second group this placed us 6th on the grid for the final. The race was red flagged after a big pile up on the first bend. The restart went well moving up to 3rd. We spent the rest of the 15 minute race swapping between 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. The front runners were backed up halfway through the final lap due to a back marker getting in the way. Unfortunately this lead to an aggressive challenge from another driver resulting in us being pushed off the track and having to re-join in 9th. A disappointing end to a great race. Thanks as always to Kato motorsport - next stop Kimbolton this weekend.
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TVKC PF International IAME Cadet Champion 2014. Piers has experienced the highs and lows but throughout has driven with skill, maturity and determination. No more so than the last few rounds, which he as driven without his race engine. Finally he is over the line and at the age of 10 years and one month he is Champion and joins other notable winners such as Lewis Hamilton age 11.
This weekend was a tough decision - standing 12th in the LGM National championship with a strong chance of a top 10 finish, or the TVKC PF International Club Championship which we are currently leading. The decision was made to drop our chances in LGM so it was PF International Club round 6 for us. Saturday practise was literally a washout with the rain starting at 9am and pretty much going on for the rest of the day. We battled on regardless but didn't really learn much for Sunday as it was forecast dry. We woke to a bright but cold race day. The 1st heat gave us the first real opportunity to test the newly built engine. Started 11th. The heat came down to a battle between 2 drivers and we came out 1st. Second heat we started 11th again. This time a similar battle resulted in a 2nd place finish. Third heat started 4th. Another kart joined the party for this one, unfortunately our re-built engine didn't. We struggled throughout but managed to come in 3rd. This put us 2nd on the grid for the final on a borrowed engine! A nail-biting few minutes ensued due to an issue on the grid! Finally we got out well behind the back of the pack. By this time the pole sitter had had to pull up due to mechanical problems. A false start enabled us to get back up to the front of the grid. The final came down to a straight fight between us and one other. Despite many changes of position on the final lap we had to settle for second by 2/100ths of a second. On to Kimbolton next weekend.
Shenington LGM - a challenging weekend for us! All sorts of mechanical issues. Testing was a struggle as we still tried to identify the ongoing problems. Of 5 heats we had our first 2 on Saturday evening. Started 21st in the first one to finish 16th. Started the 2nd 18th and finished 14th. We then had to wait until 2pm Sunday for our final heat. The driver managed to stay focused despite this. We started 5th and with our problems expected to see a rapid fall to the back of the pack, but a great start allowed us to stick with the first place kart for a lap and a half giving us enough space to finish a very credible 6th. This was enough to get us into the A final at 19th. A determined drive with some great defending instead of the usual attack got us to a 14th place finish out of 45 drivers. A huge well done for achieving far better than we could have hoped for under the circumstances. Unfortunately we still finished 2 places shy of that elusive LGM trophy! Thanks to Kato motorsport and all the team Dad's for their help and support.
Round 5 of PF International Club Championship. Good practise on Saturday morning. On pace throughout. Developed kart problems in the afternoon which remained unresolved. Went into race day with a number of question marks. Started 28th in heat 1 and made our way up to finish 12th. Had a good run in heat 2 from 12th to finish 5th. Final heat started 8th, made our way up to 4th for most of the heat but a tangle on the last lap gave us a finish of 7th. Combined results placed us a good 7th on the grid for the final race. Had a great start moving up to 4th. Unfortunately the kart problems became evident very quickly and we struggled to maintain position for the rest of the race. Final finishing position an unlucky 13th out of 44.
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Another busy weekend, this time at Whilton Mill. Good practise day Saturday. Sunday dawned promising to be a long day as the grids were split. First heat went well. Started 10th. Finished 3rd. Second heat started 20th and picked our way through the pack to finish 5th. 3rd heat started 8th but got knocked down to 28th on the start. Re-joined with a good few seconds gap to the back of the pack but managed to catch up quickly and finish 10th. Final grid position a strong 5th. A good start got us up to 3rd. It was a tough race at the front throughout with the top 7 regularly jostling for position. Following a coming together of 2 other karts in front of us we went into the final few laps in 7th. Got back to 5th when an inexplicable battenburg flag was brought out for an even more inexplicable length of time. The pack closed to single file for the last 2 - 3 laps. Instead of re-starting for one final lap the race was stopped in those positions losing the opportunity to get back to the front. A disappointing end to an overall good weekend at a track we hadn't raced at before, up against drivers fighting for Championship position. Thanks to Kato motorsport and well done to the rest of the team for their good results in the final.
2nd at Shenington - Shenington Club meeting. Bad start to Saturday practise, only completing half a lap before being piled into the barrier and unable to continue. The rest of the day was a bit up and down. Sunday started well. Excellent drive in the rain for practise. First heat started 22nd. Got up to 10th with the likelihood of more as we were in the pack and moving up quickly before a red flag halted the race. On restart the plug went and we didn't finish. On the back foot for position on the final grid. Started 5th in heat 2. Good solid drive and won heat 2. Started 10th in the 3rd heat. Finished 6th after some lengthy defensive driving from the kart in front. Still managed 8th on the final grid. A shunt from behind on the first hairpin pushed us into another driver forcing us both of the track. Regained in 12th. Worked our way up and went into the last lap in 5th. Caught 4th 3 corners from the finish. The usual never give up attitude saw a 2nd place finish within a whisker of a win.
8th at the British Kart Grand Prix - Kartmasters at PF International. Good practise day Thursday. Friday/Saturday were both formatted practise, qualifier and 2 heats with the 4 heats counting to pre-final grid position on Sunday. 5th fasted in practise on Friday. Strategy back-fired during qualifying leaving us starting both heats in 22nd. Finished 1st heat in 18th. The rain started during the race in heat 2. Our driver kept it on the track where many couldn't and finished 12th. This gave us position 12 overall into day 2. Qualifying went better so started both heats in 5th. Knocked off near the start in heat 1 but climbed back up to finish 12th. Wet race for heat 2. Finished 10th. The combined results qualified us for 10th on the pre-final starting grid. A good start to the race held 10th place until a battenburg flag allowed the grid to close up. Knocked off again just after restart and struggled to recover. Finished a disappointing 18th. Went into the final with a lot of work to do. A good start, making the most of other drivers tows and great confident driving gave us an amazing 8th place finish making Piers the youngest driver in the top 15 of "35 of the top cadet drivers in the country". Thanks to my parents and Kato motorsport for all their continued help and 4 days hard work.
TVKC Championship 4th round. Good practise day Saturday. Fast all day so went into race day happy that we were on pace. Good first practise session. Started heat 1 4th on grid, finished 2nd. Started 2nd heat 15th and made our way up to 5th. Started 17th in 3rd heat and with an absolutely awesome drive finished 1st! This put us on pole for the final. A blatant false start with loading from behind pushing 2nd on grid to be a full kart length in front over the line put us to 4th. Great race. Many tussles but kept getting that first place back. Went into the final lap in 1st and stayed there until the second to last corner. Textbook defence meant the only way those behind could win was to shove us off the racing line. A mix of anger and determination kept us in 3rd into the last bend. A rapid run to the finish line didn't quite pay off - finishing 2/100ths of a second off 2nd place and just 8/100ths off getting that 1st place back. So, disappointed that the top place was gained by a clearly intentional move to have us off the track but a valiant effort to recover so well. Final place 3rd. Disappointed that no further action was taken on either the false start or the final maneouvre. Further proof that 3rd was an injustice comes from having fastest lap of the weekend in a heat where we had to pass 17 karts. Thanks to Kato motorsport for providing Kato Adams as mechanic for the weekend!
5th round of the LGM Championship at Buckmore Park. Rather more successful than the previous one. Saturday was encouraging with no mechanical issues and good pace. We go into race day a little nervous that this won't continue. First practise not great but stuck in traffic for most of it. 1st heat saw us 23rd on the grid. After a solid drive on a circuit that is challenging for that
amount karts, we finished 11th. 2nd heat started 10th. Despite being flipped up in the air at the start and losing some ground we kept up the pace and finished 8th. 3rd heat started 7th and finished 4th. These results put us 14th on the final grid. A great start but being spun round by one of the usual suspects on the first hairpin put us down to 21st. Grit and the determination not to be totally disadvantaged by this produced an amazing drive and a final place of 13th. One place out of the trophies unfortunately but 13th out of 54. We also held fastest lap in the final until the last lap when it was stolen by a team-mate by 5/1000ths of a second! Next time..... Thanks to Katomotorsport and the rest of the team for the help and support over the weekend.
PF for testing with the team on Friday. Another good day. Fastest on track. Saturday practise day. Good start. Great lap times. Very positive. Took a bit of a downturn in the afternoon so some changes made to the kart. Unfortunately a mechanical issue meant only one full lap was completed in the final session so race day started with a few unknowns. Things began well. Started 2nd in heat 1 and finished 2nd plus fastest lap. Started 20 in heat 2 and finished 5th. Fastest lap again. Started 13th in heat 3 only to be knocked down to 24th on the 2nd hairpin. Despite it looking like little could be salvaged some great driving moved us up to 12th. On this occasion the new track cameras didn't help in taking action against the culprit. Started a surprising 4th on the final grid. It was also noticed that lap times had dropped significantly so many changes were made. We weren't permitted to change tyres and that turned out to be our downfall as the track became "grippy". Finished a rather disappointing 5th despite Piers doing his utmost to achieve the impossible and stay in touch with the front of the field.
1st at PF International TVKC and fastest lap. A faultless weekend for Piers. Heat one 1st, Heat two 2nd by 0.08 seconds, Heat three 1st. Pole position. Lead from start to finish, lap 15, slowed down on the last lap to bring it home and still finished 3 seconds ahead of the second placed driver.
Another busy weekend starting with 2nd round of the LGM Championship in Larkhall. Practise on Saturday on pace. 1st heat Sunday turned into a battle field with many drivers choosing to use their "muscle" rather than their skill to gain places so despite moving up to around 17th from 28th we finished 23rd. 2nd heat we started 11th. A challenging race where we stood 5th at one point ended 10th after a driver error. 3rd heat started 6th. got to 3rd early on retaining the place for most of the race dropping to 4th with 2 laps to go. This looked a safe finish until being knocked off at the finish line! final place 8th and a gutted driver. Sadly the early poor finish and the finish line incident put us in pole in the B final. Some great work with Jessica Heppenstall got us both through to the A final. This saw a better end to the day even though starting 28th. A solid move up to 15th and the front runners well within reach was undone by yet another driver shoving us out of the way. Despite this we managed 17th out of 60. All team drivers through to the B final and 3 of 5 through to the A final. From there we moved to a strangely sunny Rowrah. A good testing day for the whole team with lots of track time and lots of learning. Big thanks to Kato Motorsport.
1st at Kimbolton. Not for the first time Piers was flying all weekend at Kimbolton. Race day Heat 1, inevitably fired off on the first bend, yet again Piers comes from
the back, to finish 11h, 2nd heat - races his way to start 3rd on the grid. A fantastic race sees Piers break away from the pack to finish 1st and take fastest lap of the weekend.
Over 90 entries for this years national championship LGM. 68 on the grid for the opening round. Piers fast all day Saturday and fouth fastest in practice on Sunday. First Heat fired off on the second bend, restarts at the back, a fantatsic drive and Piers finishes 7th. Second Heat 6th and 3rd heat 6th. Started top ten in the grid, second corner fired off, yet another fight from the back and Piers manages to claw back to 18th. Another great effort!
We entered the weekend hoping to resolve our previous issues. Throughout Saturday practice and in to Sunday the Kart performed better and better. Q1 27th to 11th and still improvements to be made. Q2 5th, right on the pace and still more improvments to make. Unusual weekend at PF. Some serious, repetitious throttle problems including getting stuck in first heat and cable snapping in another. Race day long and drawn out due to both ambulances having to leave the track at the same time. This resulted in all classes being limited to a qualifying session. Slightly disappointing in our case as the heat that had been completed went better than qualifying. Final race position 14/42. 4th in Practice, 4th in Qualifying session 2 - Brilliant! After a good session in Q1, we were optimistic going into Q3. I quote a recent line from Martin Brundle "if he didn't have bad luck, he would have no luck at all"after being caught up in a tussle at the first hairpin Piers has his back bumper knocked off and received a black and orange flag from the Marshalls, ordering him off the track for repairs. By the time he rejoined he was 2 laps down and had no way back. 24th on the grid for the A final. A poor start by Piers standards gives him too much to do, finishing 23rd out of 48. Piers finishes 8th at PF International but what a struggle! The weekend really didn't go well,the kart was just not performing no matter what we seemed to do to it and absolutely everything was done to it. The driver then started to over drive to compensate for the issues and that just compounded the problem. The mechanic has to hold his hands up, lubricating the chain on Saturday with oil penerator didn't help. It was only Kato and Piers determination and help from our fellow team mates that we actually made it out on track. So the race, a starting postion of 14th, not what we were hoping for at the start of the weekend but we settled forthat. Yet another blistering start from Piers puts him up to 10th before the first hairpin and he drove the backside off the kart to finish 8th, However we go into next weekend's National Championship still not knowing what the underlying problem is.. Great expectaions going to Kimbolton. Qualifying Heat 1 starting position 24th finished 12th excellent start. Heat 2 starting 7th up to 6th pushed off the track with 3 laps to go, finished 19th. Heat 3 started 10th, driven off the track by the kart behind on the 1st corner, down to 26th fought his way back to finish 14th. Starting 23rd in the A final but with Piers determination to race from the back to the front we still feel the weekend is not over. At the start of the race approaching the 1st corner Piers is forced off the racing line to the middle of the pack, hit left, right and centre and finally pushed in to the barrier, race over. 14th in the British Kart Grand Prix at the age of 8!!! Our luck has to change soon - but not on this occasion: Fired off in the formation lap of one heat (race not started), mechanical failure in another (race not finished), started at the back of the grid due to the kart not starting in another, flash rain storm making the track like skid row in another. So Piers starts on the back row in the Grand Final. Piers showed maturity in putting that behind him, getting a fantastic start and methodically picking his way through the pack with determination to the last lap. Bad luck continues at Shenington: First heat starter cord broke, so started last, a brilliant drive through the field puts Piers up to top 10 until he was knocked off, still managed 17th; second heat good strong drive finished 10th; third heat great start from 14th knocked off again, finished last. That put Piers on pole in his first ever B final. A good focussed drive got him safely into the A final starting 28th. Bad start but determination after that had him finish 19th out of 48. He didn't come home empty handed - he won the raffle! Another new track. After a couple of sessions getting used to the track Piers got up to speed. Race day started well with a rapid practice session, 6th fatest. Hung out to dry in qualifying puts him way down the field for the 1st heat. Started the pre-final 14th and things started looking up, finishing 10th and determining his final grid position. A great start and an awesome drive from there gave him a final position of 6th. Not bad for an 8 year on his first time at the track. Practice day sees Piers challenging at the front. The day continues to go really well until the second from last session. Piers again challeging at the front splits two drivers from an opposing team. They seemed to take exception, sandwiched him and sent him flying in to the air. When the kart came down thankfully Piers was shaken but not stirred, however the kart didn't fare so well. Following that we had mechanical issues all race day and the best Piers could manage through no fault of his was a place in the A final.. Piers committment and staying power has to be admired. He drove well all weekend. Race day he started 7th on the grid and made his way up to 1st, then a lap from the end his engine seized - race over!. Unfortunately his second engine had just been rebullt and was not run in so he did his best for the rest of the day but was never going to make it back. Started 24th on the final grid and finished 15th. Then in the position of racing the following weekend without a race ready engine he undertook to run them in. Round and round, hour after hour. By the end of the day he was ready to drop but didn't give in. Big pat on the back Piers! Thanks to JM Racing and Kato for their support and looking after us. What a very long day. First practice 8.15am, last race 6.30pm. Three great perofmances in the heats, coming 8th in one, put Piers 17th on the final grid. A bit of inexperience caused this to slip but he showed some great racing. So we take away a few lessons learnt and 22nd out of 52. A beautiful weekend in Wales and Piers seems to be on form, 10th in qualifying sets him up for a good race.Unfortunately the heats didn't go as planned. However a brilliant start in the race, Piers flies through the field, then disaster, fired off the track at the first chicane - race over! Oh dear! It all got off to such a good start, Piers was fatest on track for most of the weekend. He broke the reigning lap record early on and held on to it until the last race - when it was stolen from him by 100th of a second. Sadly he ran out of steam by the last race and had to settle for 3rd when 1st was well within his sites. After missing practice day Piers started well finishing 6th in the first heat after being nudged off by the same driver 4 times, 4th in the senod heat and 1st in the third heat. Second on the grid for the final race where he satyed until the last lap, a mistake took him down to forth and a bold, but commendable, move to get third back didn't quite pay off, left him fifth and one place out of the trophies. A sunny practise day at last. Piers drove with amazing speed, confidence and determination, just getting faster and faster with every session, despite not having been to the track for 3 months. Remarks from innocent bystanders included "awesome" and "drove like a man possessed". He knocked the lap record out of the water, beating it by over a second - it didn't count though as it wasn't a race day! Sadly it was only practise day and Piers couldn't take it with him into race day due to a prior commitment to a rugby match! Another long journey found us back at Rowrah for the 2nd round of the Little Green Man National Championship. Piers had a disappointing Saturday and first heat on race day but then he upped his game, found the pace and showed he likes the Rowrah track. In the third heat he managed to take 1st place for a very brief time after an impressive start, only to be knocked off by 2nd place holder and have to rejoin at the back of the pack. He still managed to pull it back to 15th. More misfortune in the final race had him caught up in a multiple pile up - partly due to no-one being able to see for the water and fog! He finished 23 out of 48 with some cracking lap times thrown in, showing he truly deserves to be driving with the best. All this he achieved in the worst wet weather we experienced, using every piece of dry clothing available to us over the course of the weekend. Great weekend's driving. On the pace throughout. Started 10th on final grid but sadly Piers' race was over on first bend when he got caught up in a big pile up. he was hit once, 180 degree spin, then a flying lesson, then hit again, and again, and again...... kart badly injured (declared a right off 2 days later) but fortunately Piers was not. He certainly deserved a better end to the day. Piers' first venture into National Kart Championships with the first round of the Little Green Man. Saturday practise was dogged by mechanical problems. Fortunately the root of the problem was found in the last session so we moved into race day hoping for more consistency. Piers was up against SuperOne drivers who finished in the top 10 of last year's British Championship. He held his own but we realised how much he has to learn in true race craft. He made it into the A final, a great achievement in itself, and finished 25th out of 45. Not bad for a first timer! Another new track, this time in North Wales. Piers has a great time learning the track and with Kato's help picks it up really quickly again. The last few sessions the heavens open but it doesn't deter Piers and his team mate. Kato put them both out on the wet track with slick tyres. Time for the old boy of 11 to show Piers a few things. To Piers credit he stays out long after everyone has finished to master the art and at the end is flying. We later comment to Piers how we used to watch Thomas Turner doing the same thing at PFI and be in awe of him. Great day! Bring on the Nationals! Great Saturday practise with Piers totally on the pace, even managing to battle it out to see the chequered flag first with the Scottish Champion. Sunday didn't start quite so well when Piers was knocked off in the formation lap of the first heat! He managed to make his way back from 34th to 18th but his final grid position was already compromised. However he continues to out perform himself through the day breaking his own personal best time 3 times. He made it conclusively and consistently into the 1.07 club. After 2 further heats went well, finishing 6th in the third, he started the final grid 12th. Piers drove a very strong, determined race and finished 11th out of 34. More practice for the National Championship which starts at Larkhall in April 2013. Piers arrives at another new track for him . Piers and his team mate take straight to the track. Piers again shows very good pace immediately. Thankfully there are quite a few extremely good, young, Scottish drivers on track and Piers starts mixing it with them from the second session. He is particularly pleased with himself when he beats last years British Champion - albeit not in his own kart. He shows great pace all day and enjoys the practice with JM racing. Piers turns up at Rowrah for the very first time late on Friday afternoon. A chance to get a few laps in before close. On Lap three Piers seems to have the hang of what is a very technical track. He is flying past the other half a dozen drivers. Great start; his team manger, Kato, comments on how quickly he has picked it up. The locals need to watch out. Practice on Saturday goes just as well. Sunday race day. Qualifying 1, knocked off on the first bend, fights his way back from 22nd to 13th. A stranger came over to commend his performance. Q2 & 3 go much better. Piers starts the race and is soon up to 4th looking like he has loads of race pace pulling the leaders in. Suddenly he starts dropping back to finally finish 7th. When asked what happened, he casually says "my throttle was stuck fully open." What an incredible effort . A frustrating time during the qualifying and the race. We didn't seem to have the pace all day. Taken out of the race on lap 4; a terrible end to a terrible day. We later find out that both cranks were bent on both engines, it just wasn't meant to be that day. Piers enters the race at Fulbeck with JM Racing. After missing Saturday practice due to testing a new kart, we are a little on the back foot. The first heat proves a little difficult, with Piers finishing 4th all be it from the back of the grid. Heat 2 and the team believe they now have the kart set up correctly. Piers again starts at the back of the grid. By the 3rd corner Piers remarkably is in 1st place, what an amazing start. Piers not only holds 1st place he pulls away from everyone else to finish a very comfortable 1st. The team give Piers the praise he deserves but suggest it may be more difficult in Heat 3 as the other drivers will be expecting him to do the same. Heat 3 starts, Piers again goes from back to front within the first 3 corners. Again pulling away to an unstoppable lead. Pole position for the Novice - Wow! Second on the grid for his team mate. Great for JM Racing. The two team mates have a great start slip streaming each other and pulling away from the others. Lap 7 Piers leads followed by his team mate as it was from the start. It looks as if 1st and 2nd are assured , then Piers is unfortuately clipped on rear and sent into a spin. He recovers but is now 7th., with another amazing drive Piers pulls back to finish 4th. A very upset driver. But a happy ending as Piers wins a rather nice trophy for finishing 1st Novice. On the track at PF international Piers tests his two new Iame race engines in preparation for the Trent Valley Kart Club Winter series. Over forty karts enter the race. This is the largest grid Piers has experienced. Rather than being daunted by the experience he is so excited (unlike his parents). In the heats Piers is amazing coming from the back of the grid picking off many very experienced drivers, earning him great praise from the team. We are extremely enthusiastic about his chances of finishing well in the final. Unfortuately before completing the first lap Piers pulls out of the race due to a mechanical problem. Piers is now working towards his first National Championship - The Little Green Man. This kicks off with the first round at Larkhall Scotland on 21st April, starting 6 months of travelling up and down the country. He also continues to take part in the Trent Valley Kart Club events and plenty of practise, practise, practise! Piers attracts the attention of the press. appearing on the back and inside page of the Lynn News, the front page and a full page article in the EDP and on the front page of Lynn Free Press.. He is also on the bill boards outside shops and newsagents selling the papers, great coverage. Piers suggests he feels a little embarressed by the attention. Piers joins JM Racing at the age of 8 years and 2 months. He kicks off his team membership with the first round of the TVKC winter series at PF International. An interesting weekend weather wise with temperatures dropping as low as -5c overnight. Saturday practise gives him chance to work with his team leader and adjust to driving on an icy track. Race day starts colder than practise delaying the start by an hour whilst the track was de-iced. Heat 1 proves challenging with the icy conditions and wrong gearing but Piers manages to look competitive. In Heat 2 he proves his place on the team by coming from the back of the grid to finish 3rd, a drive commended by the team as "awesome". The combined results place him 5th on the grid for the final race. He makes his way up to 3rd but got held up by a back marker on the penultimate lap. He finishes 5th, holding his original grid position, and wins the 1st novice trophy by a huge margin. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship Presentation evening. Piers attends this event and proudly takes the 2nd place trophy, earning him special mention as he only completed 9 of the 12 possible rounds! This couldn't have been achieved if he hadn't been given an exceptional pass to enter the competition at only 7 years old. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Piers is run by BAB motorsport for the day. They provided coaching in race techniques as well as looking after his kart. This great team work helped Piers finish the first heat nose-tail with a current S1 driver. In order to prove this wasn't a one-off he finishes ahead of the same driver in Heat 2. He starts the final race 2nd on the grid. A mistake at the first bend causes him to slip back to 4th, makes his way back to 2nd but by this time is too far back to challenge 1st place. PF International Club Championship. Piers' 2nd meeting of the weekend and first MSA race. Despite the size and nature of the event being a little daunting, Piers rises to the challenge and finishes 4th in practise although on wet tyres with everyone else on slicks. In Heat 1 he was knocked off on the first bend but still finishes mid field. In Heat 2 he pulls a phenomenal drive out of the bag. Starting from the back of the grid he works his way through the pack to start the final lap in 5th place. It seemed as though there wasn't time for him to catch the next driver but some raw speed, gritty moves and lots of determination had him finish in 3rd, just a second off 2nd place. This result received many plaudits including "amazing", "rapid", "great future in motorsport", to mention a few. This earned him 5th place on the grid for the final race which sadly ended prematurely when his chain came off. This couldn't take away from his incredible performance throughout the day at his first MSA meeting. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Piers gets off to a good start by making his own choice of intermediate tyres; a decision we questioned when he lined up on the grid with ALL the others on slicks. He was proved right when he romped in over 10 seconds ahead of the next kart. A consistant performance for the rest of the day results in a 2nd place trophy and places him in a strong position for finishing 2nd in the Championship at the end of the year. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Piers starts 2nd on the grid. By the first corner he takes 1st place, fourth corner back down to 2nd. A great tussle until lap three when Piers drops behind. It seems as if the kart chokes. We later discover the axle had come loose. Amazingly Piers holds on to 2nd place. Under the instruction of Gary Walker Piers passes his ARKS test. He still is unable to drive in MSA competitiions until October but is now on his way. A great day at PFI. Thomas & Jason Turner kindly offer Piers tuition for the day. Luckily we experience both a dry and wet track and Piers is shown how to cope with the conditions and given some great driving instruction. Thank you! Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Piers' pit crew struggled all day with the changing weather conditions. A combination of the wrong set up and being knocked off the track for the second time, Piers finishes 4th. Abu Dabi Yas Marina Kart Track. In 45 degree heat Piers tries out a Honda Cadet in a practice session, he says it handles really well. Organisers are so impressed he is invited to have another go for free but declines because of the heat. Great experience. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. After a difficult day in the rain Piers is 2nd on the grid. Unfortunately he is knocked off on the second corner of the final, race over. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Three qualifying sessions then the race equate to; three fastest laps, pole position, a new P.B, a 1st novice driver trophy and most importantly a 1st on the podium. Fantastic drive! Venue PFI practice session. On a warm May day Piers breaks his P.B. three times to finish with a very respectable 1.08.9. Not bad considering he is not old enough to race on this track for another 6 months. Red Lodge Club 2000 Championship. Piers starts well with a 2nd in class on the grid after qualifying. Unfortunately mechanical issues prevent Piers completing even one lap of the race. Piers enters his first Club 2000 Championship. The day consists of a practise session, 3 heats to determine grid position and the final race. An amazing result brings home his first Cadet trophies – 2nd place in class and also 1st novice. Additionally he earns his first Championship points and commits him and us to a monthly trip to Red Lodge!! What a day! Throughout Piers continues to do very well at PFI, thoroughly enjoying his time on track At the first Buttons meeting this month he comes 1st in that group, bringing home a very broad grin! The achievement continues later in the month with a 1st and 2nd in the same evening Back to Red Lodge. This time Piers is challenged to prove his overall driving ability to race in the Club 2000 Championship - a specific test required to race at age 7 in a Cadet race for 8 – 12 years olds. He passes with flying colours and is very excited to be on his way to his first Championship race! Piers tries out a new track – Red Lodge. He describes it as “difficult but fun”. Despite it being his first visit he meets the qualifying times to enter the Club 2000 Championship. Piers has continued to travel to PFI Brandon for practise and for Racing4Buttons. Since his 1st in the second group he has moved up to the first group and been convincing in his right to be there. PFI Brandon and Piers is clocked doing a massive 54mph. Not bad for a seven year old. Venue PFI Brandon. A new challenge, Piers attends a Buttons club session.Button's run Cadet carts. Piers is still only six, so there's a little apprehension. Gary Walker supervises Piers on his 1st time out. Following his efforts on track, Piers is advised to move out of Bambino immediately and in to Cadet karts (age group 8-12). Piers loves it, there's no going back. The end of the month Piers gets a Cadet kart for his 7th birthday and attends his first owner session at Buttons PFI. From here it’s practice for his ARKS until he can race at 8. Buttons run practice sessions, followed by a inter club race at the end of the session. Piers starts the race as a novice in Heat 2. Something new, a rolling start but Piers is away really well, then is knocked off track. He waits for 15 drivers to pass until he can rejoin the track. He fights his way through the pack to finish 3rd. Second race Piers starts 2nd, again in the novice group. Piers finishes 1st by quite a margin. Very proud parents. Venue Brands Hatch. Welcome to motorsports Piers. Issues with the kart all day. Venue Buckmore Park. Piers arrives back from Holiday abroad late in the evening but is extremely keen to go straight to the track early the following morning. Expectations are set accordingly. Piers wants to run both races in the day. First race 2nd on the podium. Well done Piers! It can’t get any better. It does, second race Piers finishes 1st and brakes the consecutive track record, the only club Bambino driver ever to go under 2m.30s around the track. A record that is still held at point of publication (April 2012). Venue Buckmore Park, two races. All expectations exceeded, first race 2nd on the podium, unbelievably second race 1st. What a drive! Piers arrives at Buckmore Park with hopes of improving on his 8th position, a tall order given such a great start. What a fantastic day! On his second ever days racing Piers Finishes 3rdon the Podium and wins his first Trophy. Piers starts the Bambino club at Buckmore Park and starts his first ever time trial race. It’s daunting for the parents with 24 other Bambino drivers, Piers could not be happier. What a great start 8th in his first ever race. Since the age of three Piers has dreamed of driving a kart on track, finally the dream comes true. Buckmore Park is the venue. At the age of six Piers passes his three lessons at Sisley Kart Racing School to enable him to go out on track. Immediately he seems to instinctively know where to put the kart.
Debut weekend in the Mini Challenge trophy at Brands Hatch. With no previous experience of a race weekend Friday's test day was key. Unfortunately it poured with rain all day. Consequently we went into qualifying on Saturday morning with no practise in the dry. We turned in a reasonable result at 22nd in a grid of 33. We made our way up the field in the first race to finish 18th on track. Unfortunately a penalty for being out of position on the grid took us down to start at 27th. With a race under our belt and nothing to lose we entered the second race with determination. Good pace and some great overtakes gained us 15 places to finish 12th. Thanks to all at AReeve MotorSport, the mechanics particularly when putting the car back together after a race 1 incident, Jonathan Hoad for his fantastic coaching and the rest of the team for making it fun.
Race Results and Reports 2019
Racing is becoming more diificult due to Piers' school commitments. A rare outing to Whilton Mill and Piers is on pace immediately. A wet weekend with only one dry session but Piers is fighting at the front winning one of his heats and finishing 3rd on the podium with a good grid of 32 drivers. Five senior Strawberry drivers all of which fininshed in the top 12. Well done team and a big thanks to Piers' mechanic Scott.
Piers' first venture into Europe. With 62 other senior competitors on the track Piers was there for some fun and the experience. The aim was the make the A final. After some mixed results in the heats Piers made it to 20th postion for the pre-final. A great start, by lap three out of 12 Piers was up to 15th and moving forward quickly. Unfortunately an Estonian driver decided to plough into the side of Piers sending him up in the air and on to the next track. So last place start in the A final. After a great start and 19 grueling laps Piers finished 17th overall. Great effort for a part time novice in Europe.
Congratulations to the Strawberry Racing Team who had eight senior drivers all of which made it to the A final. With a clean sweep on the podium.
Race Results and Reports 2018
So a troublesome year ended with the LGM Awards Presentation dinner picking up 5th place in X30 Junior. Thank you to the organisers for a good evening. It was also our last outing as a Junior. Now we are looking forward to moving to X30 Senior from January and joining tyhe Strawberry Racing Team. Thanks to all those who have helped and supported us through the year including Tooley Motorsport, Grice Racing Engines, all team mates and families and Chris Walker for the great photos.
LGM National Championship Final Round: It was always going to be a big ask as we started off the back having missed qualifying. We were driven over as a result of a crash at the beginning of the race. We made our way up to 8th but damage had been done at the start that finally stopped the kart. 2nd heat finished 7th so started 14th for the final. Height and weight have been a problem all season and this was clear to see in a 15 minute final. Anything gained under braking in the corners was lost on the straight. We finished up 10th. This has given us a final Championship position of 5th. A little disappointing but a huge well done for Piers who has had to deal with the height and weight issues that are beyond his control. Also, well done for earning a place at The World Finals although sadly we couldn't take it up. Thank you to Andrew Tooley and Dave Tooley for lightening the load as much as possible, all at Tooley Motorsport including team mates, families, mechanics) for their help and support through the year, Grice Racing Engines for the power. And Dad for mechanicing (most of the time) And thanks to Chris Walker Kartpix for the great photos
A rainy weekend at Whilton Mill. We struggled in practice with engine and tyre issues all day, however the last session went very well. Heat one, a terrible start, lap three we are forced to come in with a mechanical issue. Heat 2 went much better, started 13th finished 4th. Heat three, started 23rd finished 6th. Piers started 6th on the grid but it could/should have been much better.
The Race. A great start and up to third by lap two and closing in on second place. Unfortunately Piers' tyres went off and he ended up defending when the pack caught him. Finished 4th Thanks to Dave Tooley and Tooley Motorsport , Grice Racing Engines.
Piers is currently running in 5th place in the championship. It has been a difficult year trying to contend with Piers' height. The Team have made some good progress towards the end of the year.He is competitive again
with a 4th place finish in Wales and he really should have won at Whilton but for a steering lock up. Despite still only being 13, we don't believe Piers will make another year in junior due to his height.
Race Results and Reports 2017
LGM National Championship 4th place and Vice Champion Whilton Mill Kart Club: Not a bad start to our run in Junior X30. Last weekend we attended the LGM Presentation evening to receive the 4th place trophy and unexpected prize of an Xbox One X! A great evening. Many thanks to the organisers. This weekend we took part in the final round of the Whilton Mill Club Championship. A mixed day due to some ongoing kart issues but ended up pole for the final. The kart still wasn't right so we took 2nd place but this was enough to give us 2nd place in the Championship overall. Thanks to Dave Tooley for nursing the kart through the weekend! Huge thanks to everyone who has helped us this year including Tooley Motorsport , Grice Racing Engines , all the team members and mechanics, my sponsors Thornham Deli and my family. Thanks to Stu Stretton, Ray Ward and Chris Walker for the photos. Bring on 2018!
LGM National Championship Final Round: A weekend of hard work for all. Good practise in the dry on Saturday but then it poured with rain just before qualifying. The wrong tyre choice made for a difficult run and we ended up 16th for the 2 heats on Sunday. The first was in the wet again but we got up to 8th only to incur a bumper penalty on the final lap. 2nd heat was dry and we finished 9th. We started 9th on the final grid. A solid race kept us in the front pack and a wicked move in the final sector landed a 3rd place finish. We knew we had gone into the round 9th in the Championship without drop rounds. After the sums were done we have finished an amazing 4th overall. Huge congratulations go to Piers in his first year in Junior X30, and just the day after his 13th birthday. Many thanks to Tooley Motorsport for all their support, training and help; to Grice Racing Engines for the power to get to the front; our sponsors Thornham Deli and dad for his hard work all year.
A good race day. First heat went from 11th to 2nd. Second heat up to 11th from 27th after a minute and a half. The race was then red flagged due to a crash and the heat re-run. We didn't have such a good start for this one but finished 7th. Third heat from 11th to 2nd again. These results put us on pole for the final. Although we ran 2nd for much of the race we took the lead back a lap from the end and continued over the line 1st. Unfortunately an incident on the final lap saw us penalised. The live screening shows this decision to be questionable but although this can be watched live worldwide it is not permitted to be used in the Clerks office to help with the decision making! We also took fastest lap.
Our best wishes go to team mate Kieron Jermey who was injured and unable to finish his day, and the driver hurt in heat 2. We wish them both a speedy recovery.
Well done to Tom Ward for a successful initiation into X30.
Thanks to Tooley Motorsport for all the support, Grice Racing Engines for the power, Ray Ward for the photo and Dad for great mechanicing.
LGM National Championship rounds 6 and 7 - Rowrah: A long journey took us to Rowrah for a double header. Saturday practise wasn't very encouraging. Qualifying on Sunday went very wrong due to a broken pressure gauge placing us 17th for the heats. We started the final 20th but a good solid drive gave us a 10th place finish. Monday promised some rain. Today heats rather than qualifying. We made up places in all but the last heat placing us 10th on the final grid. Just before we went out the downpour arrived. We were unsure how it would pan out having not raced Rowrah in the rain since cadets. Visibility was down to 2 metres due to spray but we avoided incidents and managed to make up places to finish 8th. Thanks to Tooley Motorsport and Grice Racing Engines
Two rounds in one weekend at Whilton Mill. First race was in torrential rain. Piers was off to a fantastic start. In first few laps he had made it to 2nd place by a huge margin and was pulling way and catching the leader. Unfortunately his visor had been treated (to stop it misting) by two seperate people with two seperate products. This resulted in his viser totally misting over halfwat through the race. His pace droped significantly because Piers could barely see and the third place driver caught him. Fortunately there was a big enough gap to retain 3rd. Brilliant drive under the circumstances. Heat 6 Piers started well down the grid due to a DNF but finished a respectable 5th. A 5th and 3rd for the weekend means we are 2nd in the Championship.
An eight hour journey to Scotland resulted in Piers finising second fastest. However during the race Piers was knocked off the track on the second lap, then knoocked off again two laps from the finish. Result last.
We set off on the long journey to North Wales knowing that it was going to be tough as we hadn't been to the track for 2 years and that was in a cadet kart. Saturday was a busy day with driver getting to grips with the track, kart set up being tested and changeable weather by the last 2 sessions. We did however feel by the end of the day that progress had been made. Sunday didn't begin well with the kart not starting on the grid for 3 lap practise. We only managed one lap once we got it going. We started our 1st heat 13th on the grid with nothing learned from practise. We managed to make up a couple of places to 11th. 2nd heat we started 3rd and finished 6th. 3rd heat we started 32nd and finished 20th, a few places short of what we had hoped for but a good drive nonetheless. All this gave us a starting grid of 13th for the final. As the pack broke up we remained with the front runners and moved up into the top 10. We managed a couple of fastest laps and finished 6th. A brilliant drive considering we were still learning the track during the heats! Unfortunately we missed out on the points for fastest lap by 2/100th of a second but this sits us 3rd in the Championship overall. Thanks to Tooley Motorsport for their support, Grice Racing Engines for the motor and great on-site support from Dean Panrucker and my Dad for faultless mechanicing.
This was our first outing for some time as Team Henderson. We went into it with a driver recovering from a wrist injury. Unfortunately during the 2nd practise session on Saturday another driver drove us sideways into the tyre wall putting the injury back to square one. This turned out to be indicative of the standard of driving all weekend. From this point on it became difficult to hold onto the kart from the 4th - 5th lap. So most of Saturday was spent trying to adjust the kart to accommodate the injury. We did manage to throw in a lap just two 10ths off the track record still. Race day we started 8th in the first heat. After being driven over on the 1st corner breaking radiator and exhaust brackets we went down to 28th but managed to get back to finish 8th. 2nd heat we went from 21st to 6th. 3rd heat we started 13th, and after having to go on the grass to avoid someone else's collision finished 5th. This put us 4th on the final grid. With the injury still a big cause for concern a 12 minute final seemed rather daunting. We made it up to 3rd on the first corner which we held for the first 4 laps and allowed us, with the 4th place driver, to pull away from 5th. So when we started fading we had some breathing space. Unfortunately 5th caught us on the last lap and made a bid for 4th but sheer determination got us the place back and we finished 4th on a day that could have gone so much worse. Thanks to Dad for great mechanicing, Grice Racing Engines for the power, Justin Byrne and Gary Rolfe for some inspired ideas and advice.
LGM National Championship Round1 PFI: Our first entry into a National Championship for 18 months. We spent much of Saturday practise running in a new engine. First heat was Saturday afternoon and we were starting off 18th so the goal was just to pass as many as possible as quickly as possible. This we did by 3 karts a lap for the first 4 laps. We then hovered around 6th/7th for 3 laps and finished 4th. We weren't then back on track again until late Sunday morning starting way back in 28th. Same target as the first heat - pass as many as possible as quickly as possible! 6 laps in we had climbed to 9th with a few more looking possible. Unfortunately we fell foul of someone else's incident and were driven over from behind. This put us right back down to 21st with far too big a gap to catch up again. 2 penalties in front made us 19th. The last heat was our best start at 4th. This we held for half the race then started climbing finally finishing 2nd. Due to the problem in our 2nd heat we didn't anticipate a great grid for the final but it turned out we made a very pleasing 5th. The final was a long 15 minutes. An enthusiastic swipe from the side put us down to 7th for the first lap but by lap 3 we were up to 4th. Then we started pulling away on each lap. Unfortunately there was too big a gap to 3rd so a long race followed out on our own. A mature drive, keeping focused despite having no company kept us the 4th place finish, a clear 6 seconds ahead of 5th place. Huge thanks to Tooley Motorsport, Grice Racing Engines and Dean for his track support, Ray Ward for the great photos and my Dad.
Great weekend. Good test day Saturday. Sunday 1st heat went from 14th to 4th despite being knocked in an early pile-up, gaining fastest lap and only 2 tenths off lap record. 2nd heat moved rapidly through the pack to go from 28th to 6th. 3rd heat started 2nd. Got to 1st and with a convincing lead looked sure to hold the position which would have had us on pole for the final until half way through when the gremlins hit. The fuel line came off showering driver in fuel so DNF. This placed us 12th for the final grid. A great race followed taking many fastest laps throughout to finish 3rd. Thanks to Tooley Motorsport, Grice Racing Engines, @Ray Ward for the photo and Matt Armstrong #19 for lending us a race suit for the final!
Piers on the podium in his second race in X30. Good practise day Saturday. On pace all day. Challenging 5 lap practise on Sunday due to new slicks on a damp track. Track dried for heat 1 where we started P2 and finished P2!. Second heat we started P17 and managed to pick off enough of the opposition to finish P6. Third heat we started P29 and worked our way up steadily to P21 only to be knocked off by a driver re-joining the track. Got back up again until the last lap when we lost a couple of places due to a mechanical issue. Finished P20 and gave us a starting grid position of P6 for the final. A level headed start kept our P6 position after the first bend giving us the chance to keep with the front runners and begin to pull away from the pack. Some good overtakes took us to 3rd which we held to the end. A great result for our first X30 race at Whilton Mill on a full grid of 34 karts. Thanks to Tooley Motorsport and Dean (Grice Racing Engines).
TVKC Winter Series Round 3. A great start for Piers in X30. Although we missed the first practise session on Saturday we went on to qualify well in 6th out of a grid of 52. Good starts coupled with determined drives had us finish 4th and 5th in each heat in a tough grid. This lead to a 6th place start for the final. A good solid race for the first X30J race in the dry, against a strong grid of 52 drivers gave us a top 10 finish. Thanks to Tooley Motorsport, Dean (Grice Racing engines) and Dad for all the support and hard work. And Chris Walker for the great photos.
Race Results & Reports 2016
Piers wins the 2016 Whilton Mill Club Championship by 100 points and picks up the Haas F1 trophy.
TVKC Championship Round 6. A good start to the weekend with a great practise day on Saturday. Sunday morning started in the same vein coming 2nd in practise. Unfortunately the wrong tyre choice on a drying track caused a 15th place in qualifying. This meant starting 15th in both heats. First heat a great start to the race put us up to 7th by the 3rd corner. Some great moves gave us a 4th place finish. 2nd heat didn't go quite so well with a slower driver holding us up by fighting for position mid race and finished 8th. So combined results put us 5th on the final grid. A good race ensued but lacked that little bit to keep with the front 2 and finished 4th. Thanks to Vital Motorsport, Tooleys for the motor and my dad for his continued hard work and support.
Whilton Mill Club Round 9. The weekend started well. A fast practise day despite 2 ruined sessions due to technical problems. Race day started damp but we were running dry by the first heat. A calm first heat, starting pole and finishing 1st with a 4.5 second gap to 2nd. Second heat started 4th and finished 1st. There was a massive downpour just before heat 3 but we decided to stick with slicks. We started 8th. The mayhem started straight away with others on slicks not managing to stay on the track. Dodging the trouble we made it to the front. From then on the race was a mix of light showers and bright sunshine keeping the track greasy throughout. A faultless drive brought us in 1st with a 5.5 second lead. So pole for the final. Again the rain came but this time as we sat on the grid. Further chaos as some decided to change tyres. In the end no-one did but everyone had to be re-gridded for leaving. So again we started on slicks on a wet track. Another faultless drive, remaining on track at all times, gave us a win with an 8.5 second gap to 2nd place and fastest lap. A big thank you to Steve Armstrong for making some great set up calls, Vital Motorsport and Tooleys for the motor.
TVKC Club Championship Round 4. First time for ages that we have run as privateers so we were all a bit nervous. Saturday was good but we knew we just lacked a little somethng. New tyres Sunday and we seemed to find it. Qualifying wasn't great, compromised by being mixed in with the Juniors but still made 3rd on the grid. A blistering start in heat 1 had us straight into 1st which was held for all but one lap to take 1st. Great start gain in heat 2 but this time slipped back to 3rd mid race. As we took 2nd on the last lap we were pushed onto the grass by the 2nd place driver so finished 3rd. The combined results put us on pole for the final. This turned out to be a race of 2. Although close at all times we hadn't quite got enough to hold the lead so finished 2nd wth a 3 second gap to 3rd place. Thanks to Mark Snell for some valuable advice and to Team Henderson for all the hard work.
Whilton Mill Club Round 6. First challenge of the weekend was to give the Compkart it's first Minimax run in the UK so Saturday involved lots of changes to get the set up right. By the end of the day - through many changes of weather - we were ready to race. Sunday went well. Won all 3 heats having lead every lap. So started the final in pole. We held on to the lead until the lap before last when the 2nd place driver took over for a short time. Unfortunately having taken 1st place back we were spun from behind resulting in a last place finish. A very sorry end to a good day. Thanks to Steve Armstrong, Vital Motorsport and my dad.
Whilton Mill 4th round. Good test day with plenty of track time. Race day was great. Won every heat (3rd one by nearly 6 seconds when the rain came down with slick tyres), led every lap, won the final and got fastest lap of the day. Thanks to Steve Armstrong and Vital Motorsport, and my Dad.
Victory snatched by the gremlins. TVKC Summer Club Championship: Another good weekend's driving, again proving we can cope with ever changing weather. We had the added challenge of being on track with the JuniorMax drivers. Sunday practise was wet but drying by qualifying. The decision was made to go with an intermediate set up which proved to be right. Unfortunately we were held up by the slower juniors on our final lap so had to settle for second. To compound the outcome we came in with a questionable drop down bumper. After some deliberation by the scrutineers it was decided we should be penalised. We therefore had to drop to our second fastest lap putting us 4th for the pre-final. A good race got us to 2nd on the final grid, despite a later discovered cracked rear axle causing vibration throughout. The final was played out well staying 2nd through the initial Junior traffic. Once this was achieved, the move was made on 1st place driver. We quickly lost the last of the juinior back markers so with a clear track ahead settled down for the win. Having pulled out a 2 second lead and lapping 4/10ths faster than the next placed driver the gremlins hit - the fuel pipe split and our race was over. Thanks to ALL the Vital team for their help and support especially in changing the cracked rear axle discovered with minutes to spare to the final.
1st at Whilton Mill Club: Good practise day despite very changeable weather. Sunday starts dry. First heat started 3rd, finished 1st by nearly 3 seconds.Second heat started 7th. We were quickly at the front with another win looking promising. Unfortunately a stub broke in the rear wheel and we had to come into the pits at the end of lap 8. Heat 3 started pole and retained the lead to finish 1st. Started 3rd in the final due to the DNF in heat 2. Took the lead at the start of lap 3 and retained it to finish 1st by 2 seconds. Unfortunately we had to take a 10 secs penalty for a drop down bumper having clipped another kart whilst trying to dodge a crash in front. So we took home 2nd and fastest lap of the day. Great driving all weekend. Thanks to Jamie and Vital Motorsport, Dad for having to work extra hard in the changeable weather conditions and my sponsors TecTamers for their support. Well done to the rest of the team for some great results at Whilton and in Europe.
We arrived at Whilton Mill with little expectation. Piers has only driven there a few times and although he has always driven well we have left with very little. And so to practice, lots learn and only one day to Race day. Piers got his head down and improved throughout the day.
Race day and Piers finally finished in 3rd place, a fantastic effort, he had the fastest lap up to one lap from the end when he was just edged by the eventual winner.
**HENDERSON TAKES HUGE VICTORY**
Piers Henderson took the Mini Max win by 5 seconds at Kimbolton after missing Saturday testing - a fantastic effort and the team at Vital would like to say a big well done to Piers this follows up a strong P5 at PF last week in a bumper grid of the U.K.'s best Mini drivers.
Race Results and Reports 2015 - 2011
2015 News
Reasonable practise day Saturday. On the pace most of the day. Disappointing start to Sunday. First heat started 18th, moving up nicely when knocked off mid heat. Made some come back but only up to 12th. Second heat started 6th, finished 5th. Placed us 7th on the final grid. A good race lead to a 3rd place finish in a 26 kart grid. Great day for Kato motorsport with 5 drivers in the top 6 finishers. Thanks to Kato, Dad and team for a good end to the year's racing.
Piers was under instruction just to finish the final race which he did with an extremely mature drive. Well done to Taylor Barnard for securing second place and for winning the final race proving what a tough Championship it has been and to Frazier Fenwick for finishing third.
A big thanks to Jack Smith for loaning Piers his spare engine, the rest of Kato Motorsport for their huge support. Also thank you to Hayes & Storr Solicitors, Tec Tamers for their sponsorship
and Hoffhaus Design for the design of my helmet. The biggest thanks goes to Kato Adams who has been as determined as Piers throughout the year.
2014 News
Thanks to Kato motorsport and SHOX for their help.
Well done to team-mate James Taylor for his 1st, commiserations to Jack Smith for his early finish. The driver was black flagged but no consolation to Jack. Thanks to Kato Motorsport for all the help over the 4 days.
Report from TVKC - Piers Henderson was the class of the field – Pole for the Final, fastest lap and race win (after 15 gruelling laps!) showed his dominance.
A big thanks to KMS and well done to Jack Smith for finishing 10th and Bryony King for finishing 4th in Mini Max
Well done to team mates Bryony King for finishing 1st in X30, James Taylor finishing 3rd in Cadet and Jack Smith for a great first race at Kimbolton. A huge thank you to Kato Adams at KMS for all his advice and help over the weekend.
Seventh on the grid for the race and high expectations, although tempered by the fact that in the last three races at Kimbolton we have been knocked off on the first corner and no officials have seen the incident. It can't happen a fourth time! A great start from Piers, first corner fired off, thrown out of the kart and onto the track. Unbelievably not one official witnessed the incident again. Dad rushes off believing Piers to be in an ambulance only to see this little yellow helmet go by. Piers had jumped back in the kart got to the back of the main pack to finish 18th out of 29 starters. Determination and courage come to mind.
We do go away knowing Piers' is ok and after a tough six weeks we're back on pace. Well done to Piers' team mate Abbi Pulling for finishing forth.
2013 News
PF International LGM
2012 News
2011 News
However Piers nurses the kart around to finish 2nd. Frustrating but a good lesson.