FOLLOWING a strong showing at the latest stage of the British Championship at Glan-y-Gors, Weymouth’s Sam Webster travelled to Genk in Belgium for the first round of the CIK FIA European Karting Championship.

Due to the number of classes and entries at the event, Webster’s track time was limited as he struggled during the testing to adjust to the balance of the kart on the different tyres used for European championship meetings.

He was able to finish 10th in his qualifying group and 24th overall.

Three 10th places and a 13th place finish in his heats gave the Weymouth karter a bit more hope, though he had suffered a few problems while in the top-six.

Starting ninth on the grid for the pre-final meant Webster had what looked to be an easy route to the final.

However, he was to be an innocent victim of a first corner incident and dropped to 16th in the race, with the top-17 making the final.

Ploughing his way through a group of karts, the speedster kept his cool and calmly made his way up to 10th – this gave him a grid spot of 19th for the main final.

Webster was the only Brit, and only driver on the ART chassis to make the final, which was a feat in itself.

After a strong opening lap saw him climb the order, bad luck caught up with Webster again, as he was driven over from behind while chasing a group in front.

With a damaged kart and a significant amount of time lost, any chance of a decent finish was gone, although he did manage to climb from 25th to 22nd by the end of the race.

Webster’s next outing will be in the British Championship at Larkhall this weekend.

You can follow Webster’s go karting progress by logging on to samwebsterracing.com