December was a busy month for Year 9 pupil Leo who took a trip to Oman to represent his maternal country, as the captain of the Algerian team, in the MENA karting championship at the Muscat International Raceway.

Leo had won the event in 2021 and started as the favourite. He was consistently among the fastest drivers in testing, and managed to qualify in pole position for the three heats. When the racing started, however, it became evident that Leo (using a borrowed engine) did not quite have the required straight line speed to be fully competitive in racing conditions.

Nevertheless, he competed well enough in the heats and pre-final to be among the leaders in the early laps of a very closely fought final. Unfortunately, Leo’s quest for victory was hampered when a wheel-to-wheel collision with another kart caused Leo to drop several positions.

Despite the collision, he fought back steadily and eventually crossed the line in 4th place, a few seconds behind the leaders!

Leo will be 14 later this year and old enough to progress to car racing. He has already started pre-season testing in Ginetta Junior GT class in the UK and aims to also compete in Formula 4 in Denmark, where single seater cars can be raced from the age of 14.