17/08/2026
1st in class AND overall!!!
On Saturday I made the 3+ hour journey north to Silverstone for round 2 of the 2026 Racing Awareness Championship, this time in support of Cancer Research UK
I would again be racing in both classes, Drivers Cup (Pro) & Corporate Cup (Amateur) for my own team MAD DOG Racing .
The Corporate Cup team was 3rd in its championship after our 3rd in class at our home round at Sandown while the Drivers Cup team was 5th in points.
It was a busy event with a full grid of 40 teams (20 of each class) on track at the same time.
Practice (not qualifying as the grid is decided by fundraising) was a mixed session, the Drivers Cup team went 7th fastest while the Corporate Cup team struggled with what eventually turned out to be the choke being left on our engine. 🤦♂️😂
Both teams started towards the back as we didn’t do any fundraising before the event, I started for the Drivers Cup team, unfortunately on lap 1 I was forced onto the grass at turn 3 to avoid a pile up and navigated a massive dust cloud (others ahead were forced over the grass too) which dropped me to 40th and last, from there I just focused on overtaking as many karts as possible and by the end of my stint I’d got us all the way up to 8th!
I then handed over to Steve & Vivek for the rest of the race as they’re both lighter than me.
Zack also did well for the Corporate Cup team considering the kart was still at its worst on the first stint.
After a short break I went back out, this time taking over from David for the Corporate Cup team, the kart was gradually improving but still down on power, however it improved enough that even though I was losing some ground on the straights, I was able to get it back under braking and through the turns, one corner in particular I discovered a technique that allowed me to brake WAY later than anyone else and still make the apex to the point I’d be almost pushing a kart on exit that had gapped me on the straight before.
By the time I pitted and handed over to Diogo for the final stint, we’d made up some decent ground, then in the closing stages of the race, chaos happened as multiple teams were given penalties, the Corporate Cup team was now not only leading in class but was 2nd overall!
Then in the final 2 minutes, a miracle… the first place team were also given a penalty which promoted our AMATEUR division team to the OVERALL lead, at first I thought it was a glitch on the leaderboard but then heard on commentary that we had actually won overall!
🤯🏆🏆🏁🏎️
(Apparently the commentators & the live stream comments were going crazy! Even more hilarious is that one of the commentators was apparently also known as “Mad Dog”. 😂)
However, we then had to wait for nearly 2 hours as the result was being reviewed and apparently some were complaining (Respect to the commentator for saying “if you’re unhappy about it, try not being unhappy.” 🤣), at the end of the day it’s a charity race, not F1.
However, after what some compared to the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP 😂, it was confirmed that the result stood.
As the race was supporting a Cancer Charity, I would like to dedicate this result to my Uncle Ray who we lost to Cancer while I was racing in Canada 8 years ago as he also funded some of my early karting career. 🙏🏻
Also a first win at national level for MAD DOG Racing! (it might be a charity event but there were entries from all over the country)
🐶🏆🇬🇧🏁🏎️
Finally, something I thought I would NEVER get to say because of lacking the money to race cars… I’ve won a race at Silverstone!
Didn’t make it home until 2 AM but worth it, hopefully we can repeat this success at the Karting des 24 Heures Le Mans 24HR this weekend…
Sponsors:
MAD DOG Promotion
Monster Cookies & Bakes
Bee Graphics - Canada
