Craig sets sights on a faster new year (From Penarth Times)

Craig sets sights on a faster new year

LLANDOUGH-based kart racer Craig Llewellyn managed to salvage a top ten championship position, despite struggling for pace throughout the 2004 season at Llandow Kart Club.

After missing the opening round of the year, owing to a clashing commitment, Llewellyn made a solid start to his 2004 campaign, but it was consistent appearances rather than success on the track that ensured a second consecutive top ten season.

While rivals came and went through the year, the Little Egypt-backed Maverick Motorsport kart was a permanent fixture in the paddock at Llandow, with Llewellyn picking up points in virtually every heat between March and November. Only a handful of niggling mechanical problems and an awkward habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, when other drivers had accidents, prevented a 100 percent finishing record, and possibly a better final placing.

The biggest frustration, however, was a lack of pace that appeared to have no cure. New regulations, introduced over the winter, required all competitors in the Senior Honda class to buy new engines for 2004, but Llewellyn's kart never seemed to be able to match the pace produced with the units used in his 2003 debut season.

"It's a mystery," the motorsport journalist says, "Both the kart and myself went on a diet for this season, but we never managed to match the sort of lap times that were achievable last year.

"It didn't matter what we tried, we couldn't find an improvement. As a result, drivers I should have been competing with were disappearing into the distance.

"It was a real pity, as I was looking forward to another competitive season after last year, but we'll have to knuckle down over the winter and see if we can turn things around for 2005."

Llewellyn fully intends to be back on track in the Llandow Kart Club series from next February, and knows he will have no shortage of support as he aims to get himself back in the fight.