Challenge 30 Open Karting Race - 31/1/2026

With racing off season feeling like it had lasted forever it was time to do some racing again. With the Clio tucked away for the winter and track days few and far between I decided to do the Benjamin Button of racing... I went back to karts.

I say 'back to' karts, but I'd never really driven karts in earnest before, only at work in some overly competitive competitions agains the stunt team. I started to think about it last year when I was struggling to overtake and the guy I was struggling to overtake telling me after that I was broadcasting what I was going to do - not ideal! With racing not having started for the year, and also being very expensive, I started looking more into arrive and drive karting as a way of honing a bit of race craft - with the added benefit of no big bills if the overtake doesn't quite go to plan!

I signed up to Jamie Chadwick's karting series at Daytona in the DMAX category - again, nothing like jumping in the deep end, I'd driven the DMAX karts once before in an open session at Sandown. Anyway, I digress, I'll do another post about that later. But in anticipation for it, I decided to sign up to one of my local kart centres Challenge 30 races, a 10min qualifying followed by a 20min race.

It's always a bit hit and miss there about the level of talent in the session, sometimes you turn up and you're against a lot of seasoned karters, sometimes not! This day was obviously more a case of 'not', but after qualifying pole it gave me the chance to get a bit more 'racing' under my belt and a lot of overtaking practice as I lapped my way through the grid.

Although Sodi's are nothing like DMAXs and the open races are nothing like Jamie Chadwick Series level of racing, it was a nice intro and some good practice - and if nothing else I got a bit of education on the podium about how to open a champagne bottle, apparently I've managed to get to 33 without ever opening one myself!