Gray overcomes misfortunes in battling performance

RUISLIP racer Thomas Gray picked up his first BSA Superkart Series trophy of the year at Donington. The gutsy driver had endured some rotten luck at the Derby circuit a month earlier but put that behind him with some dazzling performances. Those bad memories from the previous round were fresh in the memory for the team and they feared another poor weekend when the driver injured his back before race one.

Add to that a broken gearbox on the camper van used to transport the kart north and things were looking grim.

But the following morning brought fresh hope as Gray recovered in time to qualify and exceeded expectations despite having missed out on practice.

The newly-rebuilt Honda CR250 engine was unable to run at full race pace but somehow the petrol head managed to secure third place on the grid.

Reliability and engine management remained the order of the day for race one.

However, another strong showing yielded second place and only missed out on the fastest lap by a tenth of a second.

Victory was within reach in race two until a spin forced him to work his way back through the pack to claim third spot and a second podium.

With two trophies in the bag, Gray was in with a shout to win the overall meeting if results were favourable in the final race of the weekend.

But mechanical problems and an unwanted visit to the pits saw his dreams shattered but he still managed to limp home to eighth in class to end a good set of results in difficult circumstances.