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Brabham Shows Super One Calibre

press release

Sam Brabham proved his pace against the best of British Senior Rotax Max drivers during his Super One British Karting Championship debut at PFI International. Although the race results didn’t rightly reflect his potential, Sam qualified a stunning sixth in his group and continued to significantly improve his lap times throughout the weekend on par with the leaders.


pic by Graham Smith

Sam returned to the premier Lincolnshire circuit off the back of an impressive first showing at MSA Kart Masters 2012 last month, ready to test his talent for the first time against a 30-strong Super One field.

After solid progression in the practice sessions in mixed weather conditions on Friday and Saturday morning, the 18 year-old delivered his best qualifying performance of his fledgling career to classify sixth in his group and 16th overall.

Lining up 11th on the grid for the first heat, Sam was hopeful of scoring a top 10 result but the Henley College student was forced to focus on regaining lost time at the start and fought back by posting times on par with the top seven runners to finish 16th.


pic by Graham Smith

A 12th place followed in Heat 2, where the DHR driver did well to recover from being boxed-in behind a competitor who’s chain had fallen off, yet clocked-in his best personal lap of the weekend. At 57.53 seconds, he was nearly two tenths quicker than race winner Charlie Eastwood.

His impressive pace evident, Sam was hopeful of a top 15 result in the finals but was denied any opportunity to fulfil his aim. Although pushed wide at the first start, he immediately got back in the battle, but when another competitor rode over the rear of his Alonso Kart, the exhaust was dislodged – ending his race at the first hairpin.

Fired up for the final race, Sam made his best ever start from 30th on the grid to storm past half the field by the end of lap one. The son of sportscar ace David Brabham continued to make-up places through the mid-field until a rival lunged down the inside at the second hairpin, hitting Sam wide and giving the #85 kart a slow puncture that would end its race on lap five.


pic by Graham Smith

Sam commented: “I’m really encouraged by my pace this weekend. Heading into my Super One debut, I didn’t think that I would be able to match the time of the top runners and that gives me a big confidence boost.

“I improved my lap times every session and was really pleased at qualifying sixth, as that’s something I’ve been working on recently. Now I just need to concentrate on being more assertive in my race craft and keeping a consistently high performance throughout the weekend. All-in-all, though, I can take a lot of positives away from this weekend.”


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