Colberts enjoying steep learning curve in England

MAGHERY lad Max Colbert has been enjoying a steep learning curve in England during the early spring as starts finding his feet at British Championship level.

Having achieved all he could in Irish and Ulster karting, winning provincial and Tullyvallen Championship crowns, Max and dad, Steve, decided the next logical step was to make their way to England and Scotland where they felt he could learn and develop much more quickly.

Having undertaken a couple of club races prior to last weekend’s first round of the Ultimate Karting Championship at Whilton Mill, Colbert has had to learn and he’s had to do so quickly.

Against some of the top drivers in the UK and beyond and massive grids of over 30 karts, the action is not for the feint of heart and the Drumglass High School pupil has discovered that there are no prisoners taken at this level in the sport, with Max ending one race with tyre rubber on his gloves!

“We started P6 in the Super Heat [at Whilton Mill], which is like a pre-final, and we got beat up,” Steve acknowledged. “We got the kart bent, the steering bent, there was a red flag and then the rest of the pack didn’t slow down so they drove over the top of him, but unfortunately that’s kind of normal.

“That’s the normal in juniors because it’s mental but the re-gridded us and trying to get through that pre-final with a bent kart wasn’t easy and he went from sixth to 15th, so then we started the final in P18 and again got beat up.

“He probably wasn’t strong and wasn’t smart enough for the first five laps and ended up 24th.”

And while it will take Max some time to get used to competing against such a massive number of opponents and adapt his race craft suitably, one thing he has been able to show immediately and importantly, is pace.

At Whilton Mill, the youngster qualified 13th, earning two top 10 finishes in the opening heats and previously at Dunkeswell Raceway near Bristol he qualified fourth an finished seventh, which are positive sides going forward.

“It’s a complete lack of experience and the hammering we need to get, but as long as we make progress from it because the speed is more or less there,” Steve observed.

“It’s now the race craft and he needs to be a lot more crafty, but there’s no way to fast-track that, you have to just keep pounding away.

“And [Dunkeswell] will be a round of our championship later in the year, so we were down doing that to learn the place and again that was fantastic, he qualified fourth.“