Summarize

South Africa’s former double Rotax Max African Open karting champion Aqil Alibhai enjoyed his best main circuit race weekend yet with a workmanlike showing in the four-race British Ginetta Junior championship round at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend. Alibhai has shown steady improvement in his rookie learning year in the series for 14-20 year olds and Saturday’s performance on the tight and challenging 2km track represents his biggest step forward so far.

The weekend was busier than ever, with the three scheduled Scottish rounds, plus an extra qualifying and a fourth race on Saturday evening to make up for the heat lost when the previous round was scratched when the meeting ran late. The weekend started on the front foot when Aqil qualified his Breakell Racing Ginetta eighth on the grid. Unfortunately his second quickest time was scratched for exceeding track limits.

The first race was pretty straightforward as Aqil made a decent start. “It was pretty wild out there on that little track,’ Aqil pointed out. “The first start was red flagged but I kept out of trouble both times and worked hard throughout to come home eighth and fourth among the rookies. “That was my best Ginetta Junior result to date."

The second race was the make-up heat from the previous race, where Aqil started at the back. “I had a decent race and made up seven positions — my pace was handy and I had fun making all those passes. “My track limits penalty put me to the back again for the third race and once again I had a good run as I made up ten places and also set my fastest lap of the weekend through all of that while keeping out of trouble!

“It was almost odd to start the final in the mid-pack and I had a great race again, but this one was a little harder fought and I was only able to make up a couple of positions. “All in all it was a great weekend — we scored in all four races and added double the amount of points we had scored until this weekend to our championship tally, to jump up the championship order. 

“Now I really cannot wait to get back to Thruxton in two weeks time. “We raced there in the first round so it’s going to be great to get to my first track where we have some good race data and a little experience to work with. “Special thanks to Breakell Racing for a great car, Max Coates my driver coach and to my dad for his incredible support!”