THIRTEEN year old teenager, Harry Burgoyne Jnr, is at present living the dream in the ultra competitive Kart scene, having been snapped up by the Fernando Alonso/Kart Republic team at the beginning of the year, writes Jim Turner.

Falkirk based Harry Jnr, part of an intensely competitive racing family who are well known at the Cowdenbeath Racewall, will be racing in Europe this season in the FIA and WSK series, and he is at present in Italy being schooled in the intricacies of his new OKJ Kart.

There are two categories in the FIA and WSK scene, the OK and the OKJ Karts, the only difference being that the OK Karts have a power valve which can give them an extra power boost at times!

Karting is a very competitive sport and Harry Jnr will be pitting his skills against big fields of Karts, which include professional teams and youngsters much older than his tender thirteen years. Not only does the Falkirk youngster have competition on the track but there is the language barrier that needs to be overcome.

There are around fields of one hundred youngsters who start the qualifying heats at events, and these are whittled down to thirty six who qualify for the final.

His first outing in Adria didn’t go exactly to plan for Harry Jr when another competitor rode over the back of his Kart, which sustained damage and loss of power. Despite losing ground he carried on, making up over ten places but finished outwith the top ten.

In his second outing he picked up a series of good results in his heats but in the pre-final he had been running as high as sixth only to suffer an engine problem and with the resulting power loss dropping to twelfth place at the end.

This meant that he started the final in twenty fourth place, and whilst he drove hard and made up ground, in the end had to settle for nineteenth out of the thirty six drivers who had started.

Over the past two and a half years Harry Jnr has driven for the Oliver Rowlands Motorsport team, picking up many successes. Over the 2020 season he raced mainly in England, but towards the end of the season headed to Portugal for the World Championship where he finished a creditable third.

It just shows that all Harry Jnr’s hard work and obvious talent has paid off with his performances being noted by prospective team sponsors.

Harry Jnr is no stranger to motorsport with his family having raced stock cars over the years with distinction, and his younger brother Charlie is now poised to start his Ministox career.