Malmesbury's Harvey finishes second at Shenington Winter Series

Malmesbury's Louis Harvey finished second in the first round of the Shenington Winter Series.

The race saw some of the top drivers from 2018 looking to get as much racing in as possible ahead of the 2019 Motorsport UK British Karting Championship.

Louis' team mate Ben Watson just pipped him to the post as it was a Klaassen Motorsport lockout at the top.

Saturday testing went very well with Louis being the quickest on track in a number of sessions.

He was also privileged to be asked to run in and test a new engine for another class being launched in the UK this year.

The ROK engine has more than twice the power of his current racing engine.

After assessing the engine, Louis said: “The acceleration and speed is just something else.”

Race day on Sunday was two heat and a final with Louis starting from 18th on the grid.

He drove a fantastic race to cross the line fourth only to have picked up a five second penalty for a dislodged nose cone during the hectic start in the damp conditions. This pushing him back to sixth.

Heat two he started in third and without having to battle through the traffic all he needed to do was make up a few places and control the race, this he did by taking the lead in the first lap which he held until crossing the finishing line for the win.

The final saw the top four drivers form the 2018 British Karting championships locking out the from two rows with Louis in fourth.

What followed was a demonstration of excellent kart racing with them all swapping places from start to finish.

The race could have been won by either driver but with grit and determination, Louis crossed the line in second place with only 400th of a second separating him from his team mate.

His next racing event will be at PFI International for another practise round ahead of the British Championship.

Louis is looking for additional sponsorship in 2019 and encourages anyone who wants to sponsor to download sponsorship opportunities from louisharvey.com/Sponsorship.pdf as he relies on local sponsorship to race at such high a level.