After a break from Kart Racing last week, our young compatriot, Stefanos Charalambous, got back to business at the Buckmore Park circuit in Kent – and gave us another eventful day’s racing!
Friday and Saturday practices were largely dominated by the wet weather that has blighted the country this winter. But for Stef these are perfect conditions! He thrives in the rain, and he was setting an impressive pace on a track that his rivals struggled to cope with. However, the rain died out and as the track dried throughout Sunday’s race heats, performances started to even out amongst the drivers.
In the first heat, Stef started from 10th place, and impressively made his way through the pack to finish 2nd. In heat 2, Stef started from 1st, and some thrilling racing between the top drivers saw him edged out to another 2nd place finish.
The real fun started in the 3rd heat of the day. Stef started in 18th place, and duly began skilfully weaving past several drivers, pushing himself up to 7th place, and looking to overtake again, when he hit a patch of standing water on the track and found himself careering towards a tyre wall. Needless to say, once he had dusted himself down and rejoined the race, his chances of a good starting position in the final were severely curtailed as he finished 18th in the heat.
As it was, he started from 4 th place on the grid for the day’s final, and in a very tight and hard fought race, he managed to work his way up to 3rd place by the final lap. But then, with 2 corners of the race left to negotiate, Stef suddenly and inexplicably found himself in 5th, as, seemingly from nowhere, he was hit in the rear by the kart behind him! Needless to say, Stef was absolutely furious that this injustice had robbed him of a fourth straight podium finish, and he didn’t waste any time in setting off on the journey back home.
However, unbeknown to him, and in his absence, the drama then continued off the track as the two drivers behind him who benefited from Stef being bumped back two places were disqualified for seeking to gain an unfair advantage at his expense. So, eventually, he was reinstated to a deserved 3rd place podium finish.
These are now becoming a bit of a habit for Stef. But sometimes they’re not as straightforward as he’d like!