Ben, Sam, Jaydan and Freddie @ CKC Final Round

A cold but dry day greeted the team as we entered the final round of the summer championships at the historic surrey circuit, With James on his final novice race, Ben on what could be his last CKC round and Sam looking for a win, this had plenty of potential to be a great day. In Bambino we had Freddie continuing his journey as potentially the smallest MSA licenced driver in the UK (is there a claim there I wonder?)

Jaydan on his 2nd meeting was keen to get on with it following his last round and is eager to take part in the winter series as well, Jaydan has certainly caught everyone on the ‘hop’ with his progress and a lot of drivers around him are becoming far more respectful now, Sam is looking for his first round win now and having been so close in recent months is ready, with the news that Neo was not racing as he has already sealed the championship Sam had the opportunity to get a result and was becoming very focussed on the work for the day. James of course has been developing over this last half season and is doing well, having been on the receiving end of too many ‘knocks’ his confidence has taken a little building but we are beginning to see a driver appear much as Jaydan did, hoping for the novice cup James was intent on seeing his novice plates out with a celebration by being the first rookie home.

Ben of course has been trying all year to win here, having been so close on many occasions he cannot be accused of a lack of effort, Ben and Nigel’s tenacious attitude toward the preparation of the kart and setups is second to none and as they progress it will hold them well in the future, Ben has been a tremendous asset to the team in 2016 and has been a true inspiration to our younger team members throughout the year, without a doubt our kind of driver. Freddie is the teams Bambino regular and just takes part at CKC, having watched Freddie for some time there is no doubt that in the future he is going to be a driver to look out for, looking to improve his lap times he is having a great time at CKC and that is all we wanted for him this year…nothing else.

With Sam and Ben winning their first heats business got underway really well, James oddly though was looking a little ‘distant’ on the dummy grid, his track times certainly did not reflect his recent performances but on return he seemed happy enough but admitted not hitting his marks, Jaydan just 4 tenths off was looking strong but also needed to hit those same marks! The heats were fairly straightforward overall, Ben grabbing 2 wins and a 4th, Sam getting a ‘1-2-3’ and James pulling of a magnificent 7th in H3

As we went into the lunch break James admitted to feeling unwell, with his colour starting fade he insisted on wanting to race the final so we told him to go and lie down until the grid was called, his jaded behaviours in the morning now made sense of course and considered the options. Ben stepped up for the Junior final, he had been squabbling with Zac all day for the front places and they both cleared off from the pack nose to tail, this is how it remained with the gap never getting any larger than 5 metres, both drivers deserved the win based on efforts and track behaviours but Bens determination saw him through and without launching into the ‘bus stop’ tyres! He took a great victory, Ben finishes 2nd in the summer Championship – well done Bandit!

Sam settled onto the grid with James and Jaydan, the attention was directed at our novice however and with just a minute to spare we made the heart-breaking call to remove him from the grid for being unwell, this was effort beyond but there has to be a point of course, we will hear plenty about James as he steps up during the winter (At the time of writing we hear James was suffering from a 24hr bug and is now up and running again – all good ) Sam by far was the quickest on track in the final and with Jaydan now driving well we had a great chance of trophies, once again nose to tail with Josh he tried every option but found the door closed, if he had got past then his pace during the day should have carried him away but we didn’t get to see that sadly, Sam finished in second place but it was a worthy achievement, he finishes 5th in the championship against far greater experience with James in 9th.

Thankfully James is fine now, Ben and Sam are celebrating great success again, Jaydan and Freddie have made improvements, and so it continues into the winter series!

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Without this support the team could not continue to operate on a low cost basis, the development of youngsters in karting at this early stage is vital to the continuity of our sport, Veneno will always be about the driver and is thankful for the generous support of its sponsors.