It was another tough day in the office for Phoenix FM karting Champion Lochlan Bearman.

Currently leading the Hunts Kart Racing Club Championship in his Minimax kart the 13 year old endured a day full of problems.

Starting from 5th in Heat one Bearman made good progress during the race and whilst briefly getting into the lead eventually had to settle for 2nd at the finish.

“I had no power at the end of the straights and poor speed coming out of the slow corners which was not helped by the handling with the rear of the kart hopping” explained Bearman.

In Heat 2 he started 3rd and again having briefly led slipped back to 3rd at the finish, again relaying similar engine and handling issues to the team.

In Heat 3 he started 10th and after making a great start eventually got himself into second through some great overtaking moves but was being forced to defend during the final 5 laps of the race and ultimate was powerless to prevent being overtaken and pushed back to 4th.

All this left him third for the final. The CooperMotorsport team making many changes to the set-up in the hope of fixing the issues.

At the start Bearman slotted into 2nd place and was looking as if he was biding his time before making a move. However, he was in fact still struggling and was essentially just hanging on. With 4 laps to go he was passed and demoted to 3rd. The momentum was broken and he finished about 7 karts lengths behind the second placed driver.

“In the end this was damage limitation and given the problems quite a good result” explained Bearman senior. We will now have to spend some time to understand if we have an engine problem and also determine what is causing the handling problems.

Lochlan added “always good to be on the podium, but we have had issues for the past few races so we need to resolve them very soon”.

Bearman continues to fly the Phoenix FM flag by leading both the Hunts Kart Racing Club and Whilton Mill Racing Club Minimax championships.