20/10/2025
Get ready to like and scroll past or read my drivel for the next few minutes.
DRT was started almost off of the back of a joke - a friend was buying an old kart when we first re-kindled our interest in karting over 5 years ago, and Dougie was grumpily giving advice on how to run and do the basics on it, when our friend said "this is like Dougie's Race Team", and thus the idea was born.
The logo was designed by Graham Ramage , and from there stickers, suits, tents etc started appearing, and as always a more than generous helping hand was given by Dougie, with the aim to making us faster. Steven started to get the bug harder and harder each year, and it seemed more people seemed to be interested in what we were doing and whether they could park up beside us in case assistance was needed, because there was very little we couldn't find a fix for.
Fast forward to the end of last year, and Steven was always answering questions and calls on how to do things, and whether he would driver coach younger drivers, with the possibility of doing this at events we were competing at. I was in the process of purchasing Seedhill Service Station, and both myself and Steven realised that as Dougie moved to retirement, neither of us could rely on him to help fund our passion any more. So Steven took the bold step of purchasing a much larger tent, updating teamwear and racesuits, and in general taking the team to a whole new level.
This has meant a lot of up and downs through the year, but never once any regrets at making the jump.
The biggest challenge for Steven, though he will never admit it, is trying to give every person in the tent the attention they deserve, whilst not detracting from his own racing career, and he always makes sure the people in the tent come before him.
The weekend of the Scottish Championships at Larkhall has been one of the greatest we have had. A tough weekend in terms of tough conditions and even tougher competition to beat. I don't know if the Senior Max 162 final seemed boring to watch, but from a team perspective it was absolutely nerve racking watching Steven lead from start to finish line, especially as Tristan Rennie was never more than 1 second from his rear bumper and had no intention of giving up what had been a fantastic drive for him all day.
But Steven did cross the line first, and a title that had eluded him for all these years was now his.
We could have gone home quite happy at this point, but there was still the small point of the Senior Max 177's which DRT had both Aaron Mackay and Chris Waddell in. And they didn't fail to impress. They drove smart, and made sure that the track limits that were getting other competitors numerous penalties were not going to be a problem, and crossed the finish line in an incredible 1-2.
The weekend in the tent was upbeat, everybody trying their upmost, even if a result hadn't gone their way. This is the team that we built.
And to finish off in a true tribute to Dougie with his bad jokes, Steven will be called the Snail now, because when he passes we will ask "Did you see that S-kart-go”
