5th September: 2026 Southern Championships

Alfie took part in the Southern Championships at Forest Edge Kart Club on Saturday 5 September 2026, marking another important step in his 2026 owner-driver karting development.

The day started very positively. In Practice 1, Alfie was immediately back around his previous personal best pace, despite his last visit to Forest Edge being two months earlier. That was a strong sign that the experience and learning from previous track days had carried forward.

For Practice 2, we switched to a fresh set of slick tyres. This was Alfie’s first fresh set since beginning owner-driver karting, with more than 400 laps completed on the previous set. The aim was to give the new tyres a short six-lap scrub-in ahead of qualifying, but the difference was clear straight away.

During Practice 2, Alfie improved by 2.14 seconds compared with the previous session, setting a new personal best at Forest Edge. He then went quicker again in qualifying, taking another 0.15 seconds off his personal best and qualifying P25 from 29 drivers.

For only his second time taking part in race conditions, this was a very positive result. The grid was large, competitive and full of drivers with far more race experience, so to qualify ahead of other drivers and show that level of progress was a real step forward.

Unfortunately, the races themselves brought a much tougher end to the day.

In the Pre-Final, Alfie was involved in an incident at the first corner after contact from behind at the start. This left him off the circuit and unable to continue, meaning he had to watch the rest of the race from the side of the track.

In the Final, Alfie was able to complete more laps, but an early spin left him chasing the back of the pack. Later in the race, while being caught by the leading drivers, Alfie was involved in a high-speed incident at the right-left-right bus stop section of the circuit. With no blue flag shown at that point, both karts entered the section at speed and contact resulted in Alfie being forced off into the barrier area.

The incident brought his race to an abrupt end and required an ambulance assessment at the circuit. Alfie suffered a painful injury to his left hand and wrist, along with bruising to his elbows and knees. Following medical advice, we travelled to Salisbury A&E for an X-ray before making the long journey back to South Devon.

Thankfully, the X-ray showed no broken bones. Alfie was advised that the injury may involve spraining or soft tissue damage around the hand and wrist, so the focus now is on rest and recovery.

It was a long and difficult end to the day. After leaving home at 4am, we finally arrived back in South Devon at around 1:10am the following morning.

Despite the difficult finish, there were still major positives to take from the event. Alfie showed clear pace improvement, adapted quickly to fresh tyres, improved his Forest Edge personal best by more than two seconds, and delivered a strong qualifying result in only his second experience of race conditions.

The next few days will now be about recovery and assessing whether Alfie will be ready for the British Indoor Karting Championship Local Finals at TeamSport Bristol next Monday.

For Fazepickle Racing, the day showed both sides of motorsport: rapid progress, strong development and improved performance, but also the reality of racing incidents, setbacks and resilience. Most importantly, Alfie is okay, and the performance gains from the day show another clear step forward in his development.