Colbert produces best drive ever

MAX Colbert produced one of the best drives of his career at round three of the Ultimate Karting Championships, which took place at Dunkeswell in Devon.

The Drumglass High School pupil was in and around the top 10 from start to finish, qualifying sixth before finishing sixth and eighth in the heats. He then improved upon that during the pre-final, which took place in torrential rain and despite being on slicks in the wet, the Maghery lad finished a stunning fourth.

And he finished his weekend with a ninth placed finish in the Junior Rotax final, which didn’t go entirely to plan after an opponent clattered into him at turn one.

“It’s nice to see that bit of progress because the round before up at Larkhall was a real tough weekend,” Max’s dad Steve said. “But we still made the A final and again had a real tough final, which was a tough one to overcome.

“So this was a good one because we were top six in every session basically. And we even had slicks in the rain, which was the sort of stuff we hadn’t done before and it’s the sort of stuff we need to be doing.

“It’s more pleasing about the adaption and the progress which was starting to show through this weekend.”

On the back of Max’s success at Dunkeswell, the Colberts are looking forward to round four of the Ultimate Karting Championship at Rowrah at the end of next month when Steve is hoping his son can continue to show the undoubted progress he has made already this season.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, that was the best I’ve ever seen him drive,” Steve beamed. “He had good confidence right from Friday morning. The overtaking and the way he attacked the weekend, hopefully, that’s a sign of things to come.

“But it doesn’t really matter this season because it’s a different level of championships and driving. It’s about getting our eyes into it, get an idea of where we’re at and if we can look at it next year and have a good run at the British Championship, that would be the aim.

“Yes, you want to do well. When you go across, all the time and effort you put it, you want to get results, but it’s more about learning.”