Our young compatriot, Stefanos Charalambous, endured another challenging weekend of Kart Racing as he makes his mark in the Junior Rotax division following his conquest of the Minimax category. As well as having to deal with some strange decisions by the marshals, engine problems frustrated him in two of his three races at the Kimbolton circuit.

In the day’s first qualifying heat Stef was harshly adjudged to have driven over the white line and then warming up his tyres in a manner outside the rules, and had to withdraw from the race after only 5 laps. This was particularly frustrating since Stef had started the race from the back of the grid and had risen to 3^rd position.

In the second heat, Stef was in the process of overtaking an opponent to take him from 3^rd to 2^nd spot, when his engine chain snapped, prompting his retirement from the race after only 3 laps.

He was thus forced to start from last place on the grid for the Final, and his now trademark blistering race getaway was thwarted, this time by an engine misfire, which left him spluttering along for a lap nearly 6 seconds behind his rivals before this cleared itself and he was able to start making his way through the pack.

Within a few laps he had steadily fought through to 5^th place, not only getting faster with each lap, but also clocking the day’s fastest lap on several occasions, as he made up for lost time. Eventually, time ran out for Stef just as he was poised to make his move into the top three. He thus only just missed just out on a podium finish, ending up in 4^th place.

All in all, a hugely frustrating day, but one that finished on a high as Stef again showed flashes of great technique, and which will also have his older rivals looking over their shoulders at his progress.