Grice wins at Essay

This weekend Basildon kart racer Tom Grice went one better than his successes in the British and German Championships with a win at the European Championship Qualifier in France on Sunday 15th June.

The qualifier brings together drivers from the west of Europe, and the competition was tight with 70+ drivers chasing 25 places in the European Championship final in Italy in September. Here they will come up against their rivals from the Northern and Eastern European Zones.

Qualification for the next stage is based on average finishing position in the two main races, and Tom was already on course with a fourth place starting position after two heat wins. After some spectacular crashes earlier in the day, surprisingly everyone got round the first corner with last year’s British Champion Jack Harvey in the lead and Tom in second.

Oliver Rowland, another British driver, passed Tom on the second lap on one of the tight twisty track’s three hairpins, but Tom knew that a third place would be enough to guarantee his trip to Italy so he stuck with this position to the flag.

In the second race it was a different story, and as soon as the lights went green Tom was up into second and pressuring Harvey for the lead. Within half a lap he was past and pulling away. After that he was never seriously challenged, and must now go into the European Championship final as a favourite for the title.

Before that Tom has the remaining rounds of the British, Italian and German Championships to contend with and is expecting to win at least one title from those. He is in good hands as his kart, made by Gillard, has won several major international championships over the
last couple of years. His race engineer, Mark Rose, has several Formula One drivers on his CV.

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