ASHBOURNE kart racer Sam Randon has withdrawn from the 2012 Junior TKM National Championship after being disqualified from the latest round at Larkhall in Scotland.
The teenager from Sutton-on-the-Hill had just completed an incredible comeback in the first final of the race to finish in second place at the Summerlee Raceway circuit near Glasgow.
However, he failed a post-race scrutineer-ing check on a technicality, resulting in an immediate exclusion and was awarded zero championship points.
To make matters worse, the championship is decided from the best six results of the seven rounds raced, but Sam’s zeropoint exclusion has to be included.
Because of that, Sam’s title hopes were effectively over, and so he took the decision to withdraw from the championship to focus on preparing for next season.
He said: “After a difficult qualifying and heats due to the changeable weather, I finished the first final in second place and went into scrutineering as usual.
“They checked the exhaust port of our engine and they found it did not comply with fiche [rule book].”Father and mechanic Neil said: “I really feel for Sam, this has ruined his year through no fault of his own.
“The engine in question is owned and maintained by Litchfield Motorsport, who appear to have made a misjudgement when preparing the engine.
“The irony is that Sam had just driven the race of his life, recovering from a dreadful weather-affected qualifying position of 22nd to finish second.
“If that wasn’t impressive enough, he did that on slick tyres in the rain!” “While we accept the decision of the clerk of the course, the penalty is just too severe and we are not prepared to put in the time and money to finish the season without a realistic chance of a championship challenge.” Every cloud has a silver lining however, and Litchfield Motorsport have offered Sam some great opportunities for the remainder of the year, including a guest drive in the UK’s premier junior category, the 75mph KF3 class, competing against world class opposition before moving up into a senior class, yet to be decided, for the rest of the year.
Sam said: “Despite the obvious disappointment, we have a couple of big events coming up and a point to prove.
“I’m very excited about the opportunities on offer.
“We are committed to the Litchfield Motorsport team and look forward to a future racing with the orange stripe.” EARLIER this month, Sam had had a better time of things north of the border, when he picked up a fantastic victory at Summerlee in preparation for the championship race
