Race Debut

The track is Fulbeck in Lincolnshire, and it was possibly the hottest day of the year on one Sunday in June 1984.


The occasional look through the archives brought this pic to light, which took me back just over 28 years to my 'rookie' debut in 100 National, against the likes of several top flight karters of that era, including the 'great man' himself, Paul Fletcher.


The race actually came about courtesy of my two brothers, Andrew and Kieran, who thought it would be a good idea to throw me in the deep end with an early birthday present!  My sole experience up to the Fulbeck race had been just six laps of Lindholme two weeks earlier, which could hardly be considered suitable preparation.  The chassis was a Premier from the late Brian Wilson's stable in Wombwell, and after the regular Parilla TT22 failed to start in the three lap practice, hampering my preparation even further, Andrew mounted his new Parilla TT27 HKA from Brian's son, multiple World Kart Champ, Mike Wilson for the race.


For the 2nd three lap practice the new engine fired up first time of asking, only for one of the regular green plate runners to spin at the chicane on cold tyres, after which he then he hit my right rear wheel as he lost control and pitched my kart into a spin!  Cool... first heat on the cards from grid 30, and with just a couple of flying laps to my name..!  To then finish 10th was considered quite impressive at the time, and from grid 29 in the second heat, I worked my way up to 11th by the flag.  It was hard work though as the vibration was intense.  Andrew then located a chassis fracture, the after effects of the earlier shunt when I was hit at the chicane, so an early retirement ensued.


One week later at Wombwell, Kieran did one lap on the repaired chassis, drove straight back into the pits and pronounced the kart undriveable.  It seems the Fulbeck spin had also bent the axle and my two 'impressive' (sic) heats from the back of the grid had been done on an undriveable kart...  


But then what did I know - six laps at Lindholme and those two laps at Fulbeck before the heats, meant I did not know any better.  I just thought kart racing was that intense... period!


Solid experience though, eh..?