Malmesbury's Louis Harvey put on a great performance at this weekend’s Motorsport UK’s British Karting Championship.

Harvey came second in timed qualifying and battled hard in the heats to put his kart on pole position for the start of the finals, making this his best qualifying of the series in 2019. He was also lucky enough to meet Nic Hamilton who races in the BTCC and was at the track for the day.

Saturday practises went well and Harvey was pleased with his second place time for qualifying with just over half a second separating the top 28 drivers of the 32 strong grid.

As Harvey lined up on the front row for heat one he knew the first corner was crucial as he was on the outside line. A nice late braking manoeuvre put him straight into the lead which he held until lap 6 of the 15 laps. The second half of the race saw 4 drivers battle to the line with numerous overtakes with Harvey taking 3rd place.

Heat two saw Harvey again late brake into the first corner and into the lead. But had to settle for second place for the majority of the race as the top three drivers tried to out think each other’s tactics.

With the points added Harvey was on pole for the first of the two finals and he was feeling positive for good results.

Despite a clean start from pole it was clear after the first few laps of Final one that Harvey was struggling with power having dropped to 6th mid race on lap 10. He battled on to still cross the line in the top 10 securing 7th place.

The Kart was checked and a few adjustments made but the lack of power was not obvious. Having to start from 7th for final two due to the results from final one Harvey had his work cut out for a podium finish. It was clear to see from the early stages of the race that it was going to be hard with everyone’s times being so close all weekend and everyone wanting points with just the final rounds to go in October.

Harvey battled hard but a very unexpected defensive move by one of the drivers in Kimbolton corner caused Harvey to clip the back of his kart, displacing Harvey’s nose cone which would cost him a 5 second penalty at the end of the race. Harvey still struggling for performance battled on crossing the line in 6th place, but was dropped to 15th with the penalty added on.

Harvey sits 3rd in the Championship but with the points between the top 10 drivers being so close he know he needs some good results in the last two round at Wilton Mill circuit on the 19th / 20th October.