Haverfordwest karter Damien Holmes got his national Club 100 Series Championship bid off to a solid start in Buckmore Park, Maidstone.

In two Sprint 60 races, Holmes was fourth and third respectively and will head into the second round next month lying third overall.

Considering he hadn’t sat in a kart since November, Holmes started well in qualifying and posted a time of 47.076, meaning he would start second in the grid and ahead of his main Championship rivals from 2019.

In race one he was in a packed grid of 35 split class drivers.
He had a difficult start before the race was red flagged due to a driver hitting the wall at speed and needing medical attention.

The race was restarted and grid positions were reset and Holmes had a much better start second time around, actually going into the lead for two laps but then a driver behind him locked up and took him out, setting him back 14 places.

The remainder of the race was spent fighting back through the pack and he overtook eight cars to be 19th overall but fourth in class. He did manage to set the fastest class lap and notched the fastest individual sectors though.

Those finishing positions formed the grid for race two. It turned into a 39 lap battle between Holmes and third in class, but with four laps left the Pembrokeshire man went passed his rival and ultimately secured a top three place.

“My race pace felt good considering I hadn’t touched a kart since November.

“The race one restart gave me a real opportunity to position myself better during the first lap madness and I managed to gain a few positions,” said Holmes.

“That along with my consistent lap times meant I should have finished first in class but an unfortunate take out on lap two meant I spent the race of the race limiting the damage and fighting back through the pack.

“Race two was a long hard race. Obviously, I was delighted to be on the podium but a little gutted because I really believe I had the pace to finish first or second overall. My pace was good, if not better than my main rivals from 2019 so really looking forward to the next race and rest of the season.”

The next round is in Dorchester, on April 18.