An award for awesome Alfie on his British Championship debut

Alfie Garford in action at the British Youth Championships.

The 11 year-old from Maxey finished eighth in the opening round of the competition after suffering much misfortune at the start of the race at Kimbolton.

And he was so impressive as he fought his way from the back of the field he registered the fastest lap time of the race.

Alfie is the youngest competitor in the field of elite young drivers some of whom are 16.

Alfie said: “It’s a shame I didn’t get the chance to battle at the front as I was confident of a top five finish, but we came away with a good haul of points towards the championship, and gained some experience of the challenge of competing at the top level in British karting.”

Alfie excelled in practice for the race finishing in fifth place just 0.05 seconds off pole.

And after good results in two more heats Alfie was classified in third place for the main race, a stunning performance on his debut.

Unfortunately Alfie was sandwiched on the first corner and lost ground on the leaders. He continued to struggle and found himself outside the top 10 before launching a fantastic recovery passing several cars to finish eighth.

The second round of the Championship takes place at Fulbeck Kart Club near Grantham between October 9-11.

* Former Formula One star Jenson Button is a former winner of the British Junior Karting Championships.

Other F1 stars to compete in karting include Lewis Hamilton,David Coulthard, Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon. All bar Coulthard and Button are competing in the current F1 season.