Jason lived up to all predictions at Sunday’s opening rounds of the European Kart Championship with finishes of eighth and seventh in the points-scoring races, leaving him in fifth in the championship standings. The event, at Ugento in the heel of Italy, gave Jason the opportunity to show the top team bosses what he could do on limited financial resources and will help make his case for promotion to the ranks of professional kart racers. He also had the honour of finishing as the top British driver in the second race of the double-header.

Racing as a member of the privateer MGM Racing team on a Birel kart, Jason achieved his top ten finishes despite competing in only one other event since the World Championships in France last October and despite being the only English-speaking team-member.

During the two qualifying heats on Saturday Jason was off the pace and managed a 16th and an eighth place finish after qualifying 18th fastest in timed practice to put him 13th on the grid for the first final, but later in the evening it was found that there was some wear-and-tear on the engine slowing him down.

Once fixed Jason made a leap forward in Sunday morning’s warm-up, consistently posting the times that he had only been able to do occasionally the day before.

At the first corner he deftly avoided a spectacular first corner pile-up, immediately moving up four places and fighting tooth and nail to gain another position from fellow British driver James Calado and finish as top driver on a Birel kart. Jason was to start eighth in the second final and although he lost places to Calado and Italian driver Luca Giacomello at the start, by the middle of the race was up to speed and through to seventh. Another place further up the field looked possible but there just weren’t enough laps left for Jason to close the gap.

With more experience in the kart and a higher level of fitness Jason will head to the next round, at Varennes-sur-Allier in France, with more determination than ever. The race on June 24th will be Jason’s third out of five events in which to prove himself in 2007.