From the Archives

How karts have changed over the years..?

Whilst looking through some archived images I came across the above pic of yours truly, when I made my race debut at Fulbeck in Lincolnshire on novice plates (or what is now more commonly accepted as being a 'rookie'), in the 100 National class.

It was a scorching hot June day in 1984, and the kart was my brothers' (Andrew and Kieran) Premier chassis (from the late Brian Wilson stable) using a Parilla TT27 engine on Bridgestone tyres, and which was fresh from a race win at Wombwell the previous month in Andrew's hands.

It was a traumatic day as I had only been able to get in five laps practice the previous weekend at Lindholme before an engine problem intervened on the older TT22 motor. The problem remained on the TT22 for first practice when the engine refused to start, and so we switched to the race-winning TT27 for the second session, only for one of the more experienced green plates to spin on the first lap and wipe me out! I was able to re-start, and with the grand total of three laps to learn the track, plus the five laps from Lindholme a week earlier, I was into my first race!

Starting 29th I finished 11th, and then in the second heat after starting on grid 30 (all novices had to start at the back of the grid), I finsihed in 10th place. With no experience, but with two good results against the class opposition of the time, I was on a high, until Andrew found a fracture in the chassis that we could not repair.

The fracture obviously came from the earlier 'hit' at the chicane in practice, but unknown to me it had also kinked the rear axle. When Kieran subsequently drove the kart at Wombwell the following week he declared it undriveable. He asked me if I had felt a vibration at Fulbeck, which of course I had, as I remembered how my blurred eyes had watered from the vibration, but I thought that was normal..! No experience remember, I just thought that was what karters put up with. I'm pleased to say young bruv was quite impressed by my latent prowess!

Fun days.