David Sutton

One of our leading lights in motor-sport, David Sutton, a former British kart champion, accepted an offer to race in a round of the Euro Max karting championship this coming weekend, at Wackersdorf in Germany, using an Alonso Rotax powered kart.

Our Dutch contact in Germany, Bas Kaligis, reported just how quick David was in practice as he prepared for qualifying, where David had in fact set the fastest time of the week so far, until a fateful session yesterday.

On what is probably the slowest corner of the Wackersdorf track, David was struck by another driver as he overtook the slower kart, which pitched his own kart into a roll. David's mechanic Ben, who was out with him, felt if the accident had happened on a quicker part of the circuit, David would probably have been OK. As it was, the kart flipped on top of him and this has caused a lot of physical distress to the British ace.

Reports this morning from the hospital in Germany, would suggest that David is unlikely to be allowed to leave until Monday at the earliest. He has broken ribs on both sides of his body, what appears to be a fractured shoulder, a broken wrist, and air on one lung that is being monitored. For a lean, strong, and tough driver like David, who looks the 'racing driver' part, he no doubt owes his fitness to not being in worse shape.

Get well soon buddy!

Bas Lammers - Eurpean Champion

Ignore the fact that Swiss Airlines are incompetent when it comes to looking after your luggage, which was evident by the fact that they 'lost' my case on both the outbound and inbound flights to and from Nurnberg in Germany via Zurich. So if we ignore that sorry fact, then the European Formula KZ1 and KZ2 Championship at Wackersdorf over the weekend, was really quite an enjoyable event.

In Dutch ace Bas Lammers the Formula KZ1 class European title has gone to a truly worthy driver, which means the Intrepid team for whom Lammers drives, pulled off a major coup when they signed Bas to drive for them. In company with his young and promising 16-year old team-mate Norman Nato, who is clearly a future champion in the making, Intrepid is now perhaps 'the' major force in International gearbox karting.

Hot and humid over the whole weekend, the 80% chance of rain on Sunday failed to materialise, although it is unlikely Lammers would have been affected by the weather, as his skill in the wet is just as good as it is when it is dry.

The only pity, one of two, is that Lammers is not British.

And as for the other pity, where is my luggage please Mr Swiss Airlines..?