Practice on Saturday was held in fine and cool conditions and the Team Green Racing kart performed well in its low grip configuration. We appeared to be on the pace with the regular senior national light runners and feeling pretty happy with ourselves we packed up for the night ready for Sunday's races.

This morning the track was wet when we arrived at the circuit and consequently we decided to give the carby session a miss. In hindsight this proved to be a costly mistake.

For the first race, Robert was drawn second on the grid. Our gamble to stay on dry tyres didn't look to be the right decision as the track was still damp and the majority of the field behind were on wets.

As it turned out the whole thing ended up being academic as the kart stalled leaving the dummy grid, and although it happily restarted with the external unit, it stopped again just past the push line. So, much to his dismay, Robert ended up watching the first race from the pits.

Race two, due to being reverse of the race one grid, was started from the rear of the field and Robert quickly gained a few places to latch on to the rear of a twelve kart freight train. It was a great spectacle, with first to twelfth nose to tail. The racing was fast and clean, with some moving forward and others being shuffled back.

The first twelve stayed nose to tail for the rest of the race and whilst Robert was unable to gain any more places, he was still happy to be able to stay with the pack.

After a DNS and a twelfth, Robert started race three from fourteenth on the grid. The only change made between races was a slight change to tyre pressures to try and gain better consistency over the race distance.

Everyone made a clean start, but into McDonalds for the first time Alex Carossi made a great move up the inside of the Team Green Racing kart to demote Robert a place. A bit of shuffling just ahead had left a gap between eight and ninth, and as the second group headed down into Tasman Alex, no doubt happy with his earlier move, decided to pull out in the braking zone to take a few more scalps. Robert was sitting just behind Alex, and had a sense of foreboding as soon as he saw the manoeuvre. Sure enough, Alex locked up and slid sideways through the pack ahead, taking both himself and Michael Jones out in the process.

Anticipating the carnage, Robert had moved to the inside of the corner and whilst he lost a bit of time managed to avoid the melee. He came out of Tasman in tenth place, and soon gained another place for ninth. By this stage, though, the leading group had pulled quite a gap and although Robert was able to slowly close in on the three karts in front he was unable to catch them prior to the race end.

The final was a fifteen lap event, and Robert again started from fourteenth on the grid. After a good start, he quickly passed two karts and set off after the two karts ahead, one being Nicolla Cramp.

They were both in a dice and this enabled the Team Green Racing kart to latch on behind. Robert sat behind them and watched the dicing. There was a large gap to ninth at this stage and Robert decided that it was not worth banging the kart trying to barge past. He bided his time and made a clean pass for eleventh and then with a lap and a half to go slipped up the inside of Nicola in the middle hairpin for tenth.

Nicola was not to be outdone and on the last lap returned the favour on the way into the middle hairpin. Robert was taken completely by surprise and lost his concentration, braked too hard whilst turning in to the corner and had an unforced half spin.

All the hard work was undone and the Team Green Racing kart crossed the line in fourteenth place. Luke Sapwell took out the win, followed home by Jackson Evans with Josh Saunders in third place.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable, if not particularly successful, first outing in the National class

Our next race meeting will be at Highclere on 23 September, which is the annual Masport Cup feature for the twin-engined karts.