Alfie’s next race he competed in the 3rd round of the Shennington kart club championship, his second appearance to the track this year.

Saturdays practice was steady progress with Alfie getting better every session. The days racing started with 3 laps practice followed by 2 heats and a final, Alf showed good pace in practice but getting held up on the fastest lap didn’t result in a good position but after studying his data and seeing his theoretical time we was pretty confident we could keep within the top 10 when starting 9th for the first heat. With the heats being mixed grids Alfie was 9th on the grid ready to go, as the green flagged dropped Alfie’s kart failed to start meaning he was late out the pits and had to catch up and try make his places back. Unfortunately he didn’t manage to get to his grid slot and actually started 25 and had to make the rest up in the race. At the start he got tapped from behind from a new novice team mate nearly causing Alfie to spin but with his quick reactions he managed to keep it under control and move on. There was a lot of action on the first few laps which Alfie took advantage of by gaining places as they was battling, he showed some spectacular overtaking manoeuvres which gave him some forward momentum and confidence. He drove his way to 18th even gaining places on the last lap and beating his best lap time of the weekend.
The second heat Alfie started 25th and the same issue occurred with the kart not starting on the grid and Alfie not getting to his proper grid position. He ended up starting 28th and with the issue at the start not giving him confidence Alfie’s second heat wasn’t as strong as the first he was getting stuck behind competitors he was faster than and only gained a few places finishing 25th.

With the results calculated from the heats Alfie was on grid 23 for the start of the final. After the problems Alfie had starting the engine his mechanic changed it and also changed his carburettor. When the green flag dropped his kart started straight away but got stuck behind a kid that didn’t start resulting in him still being behind and not getting his normal grid slot. He actually started 25 and had an amazing start putting him all the up to 17th in the first lap. With the competition being very close mid pack Alfie was just hanging on to the group in front. After a few laps Alfie clicked and zoned in to the group in front setting his best lap time of the weekend by an amazing half a second which brought him straight to the back of that pack. As soon as He got to the pack and had a sniff of a tow he was on to overtaking and gained a couple places making his way to 15th with the last couple laps coming the group started defending and Alfie done the same not gaining or losing any places so crossing the line 15th after staring 25th and gaining 10 places. It was a great drive after a rocky second heat showing that he can bounce back from a bad performance, a spectacular drive in the final and another weekend of great experience and learning for young Alfie Slater

The next race shall see Alfie competing in the 3rd round of the Whilton Mill kart club championship hopefully keeping the good results up.