Louis Harvey overcame mechanical setbacks this weekend to stand on the podium in third place in round four of the Motorsport UK British Karting championships.

Harvey, from Malmesbury, pushed as hard as he could in his timed qualifying session, but had to settle for 9th place after the two sessions were added together.

With the girds worked out, Harvey would compete in Heats two and three on the Sunday.

This gave the team time to strip and rebuild his kart and try and work out where he was losing time which they did well into Saturday night.

Sunday warm up and things were not looking good with Harvey only 11th fastest in his session.

Heat two looked promising as Harvey climbed two places from sixth to cross the line the fourth just losing out on third place. However, he was not so lucky in heat three where on the first lap his chain came lose and he had to pull into the repair area eventually completing the heat two laps down and dead last.

This meant starting from 17th on the grid in final 1 out of the 37 drivers.

After a fantastic drive through the field he crossed the line eighth making up nine places in a very competitive field of drivers.

The results from final one awarded him a starting position of eighth for final two.

After two failed starts the race was underway and by lap seven Harvey was up to fourth with Kidd hot on his tail. The gap to the front three karts was considerable but with the kart now performing better Harvey and Kidd pushed together and started to close the gap. As the leading drivers battled in the last two laps Harvey and Kidd where able to finish closing the gap and put themselves into potential podium positions. On the last corner Harvey saw his opportunity as Stewart in third left the door open and both Harvey and Kidd were able to pass, with Harvey crossing the line third.

Harvey and the Klaassen Motorsport Team were delighted with the final and hope to take the lessons learned into the next round at Fullbeck on June 22-23.

Harvey will be back in action at the Rissington track to defend his lead in the club championship on June 1-2.