The 2017 British Championship started at the Rowrah circuit in Cumbria. With a good points haul Freddie came out 2nd in the championship standings after what was a difficult weekend in the wet conditions. Friday practice the rain poured with a few competitors missing sessions due to the such terrible conditions. Despite this Freddie was the fastest all day in his group often posting lap times more than a second faster than his closest rival.
With qualifying on Saturday the team prepared everything the best they could as it was time to get down to business. All the pre season testing came to this. In the short 6 minute session Freddie didn’t quite get the best chase to achieve the best time. However 2nd was very good for his first British championship assault. Lining up 3rd for his heats he was fast enough to win. Pushing his team mate away in the first heat Freddie came a safe second to season favourite Taylor Barnard. The second heat Freddie wanted to win and enjoying these wet conditions at Rowrah came out on top of Barnard and took the chequered flag. An amazing result for an 8 year old at the highest level of karting in the U.K.
With joint maximum points Freddie and Barnard lined up on the front row for the pre-final. Loosing positions at the start from the outside starting place Freddie soon got back through the field and pushed Barnard away at the front. With good defensive driving from Barnard Freddie made a last ditch effort to go round the outside on the last corner. Detrimental to Freddie his lost two positions but his ambitious efforts showed the youngster wasn’t settling for second.
Starting the final 4th was difficult and Freddie lost ground on the front runners at the start. The track was drying and without the pace to get to the front he found himself in a battle with others. Staying strong Freddie finished 7th. Not the result he was hoping for after such a strong start to the weekend. However he remained 2nd in the championship and the good points scored gives him a strong platform to start the season from.
