Many people associate Kart racing or Karting with young drivers, but adults are also very active in karting. Karting is considered the first step in any serious racer’s career. It can prepare the driver for high-speed wheel-to-wheel racing by helping develop quick reflexes, precision car control, and decision-making skills.

In fact, some Formula One drivers grew up racing karts, most prominent among them Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Scott Speed.

A local go-kart aficionado, Rueben Mifsud, who is also the winner of various local Karting Championships was in Sicily last week where he participated in an official event (held at Pista Del Sole, Mellili, Provincia di Ragusa) which forms part of the Campionato Regionale – Sicilia Karting, organised by FIK (Federazione Italiana Karting).

In fact this was the fifth meeting of these regional championships out of a total of 12 seasonal meetings. The next two will be held in May in Agrigento (6 May) and Trapani (20 May).

In this meet in which Mifsud actually raced his go-kart, there was good participation from the Sicilian teams as well as teams from mainland Italy and even international teams.

Rueben Mifsud participated in the Classe Nazionale 100cc, that is a class made up of karts which are motored by a 100c water-cooled engine.

From a technical standpoint, one should state that Mifsud used a Maranello type kart with TM Engines (both the kart and engine supplied by RS Garage who is a sub-sponsor of this local much determined go-karter) and Le Cont Soft tyres.

Team Leotta was Mifsud’s support team during this Sicilian meet which was spread over four days. Mr. Leotta, the owner of this team, is a famous engine and kart tuner who has been operating with considerable success in the go-karting field for a very long time. In fact, some great kart and car drivers have started their career with the help of this karting “guru”.

The first day consisted in a number of tests, including physical, medical and hands-on tests. Mifsud passed all these requisite tests and thereby renewed his international Kart Driving Licence.

All the sessions during the second day as well as the morning session of the third day were dedicated to the setting up of both the engine and chassis so as to try to achieve the best subsequent performance on the 1.147 km Mellili track which is quite a fast and technical one.

The official timed session took place in the afternoon session of the third day. This determined Mifsud’s starting position in the pre-final races. In these sessions, Rueben Mifsud was consistently with the top 3 and his lap times where very close, at times even better or identical, to the regular circuit and championship drivers.

The pre-final and final races were held in the last day. The qualifying (pre-final) race resulted in a good performance by Mifsud as he qualified in the third place with 45.322 seconds just 0.03 seconds behind the second driver and 0.24 seconds away from the pole position.

There were high hopes for the official 20-lap race and Mifsud, despite his lack of experience in such professionally run races, did not disappoint as he had a good start and easily maintained, for the first part of the race, his 3rd position.

However he began being attacked from the driver behind as the race progressed and then momentarily was overtaken. However Mifsud, racing with the number 33 car, was quick to react and, just a few seconds later, regained back his starting position.

Boosted by this, Mifsud started an attack on the second placed driver and the gap began narrowing. Yet, Mifsud’s hopes became reality as the driver in front of him, Emmanuel Priulla, suddenly experienced problems with his tyres and had to withdraw from the race in the eleventh lap with Mifsud (who leads the 2007 local championship in the International Class 100cc water cooled engine category with 117 points after 4 meets) then maintaining the second spot out of 14 starters, within his class, till the end.

Mifsud’s time was 15 minutes and 22 seconds, 3 seconds behind winner Simone Lizzio and five seconds ahead third placed driver Giuseppe Cipolla. As regards lap times, Mifsud bets performance was in the 11th lap when he clocked 45.709 seconds.

Seven drivers out of the initial 14 completed the entire 20 laps. Amongst the others were locals Lawrence Vella and Trevor Muscat.

This positive result considerably raised Mifsud’s morale and he is now looking forward to participating again in the same regional championships in May, specifically in the Trapani meet.

This will not be Mifsud’s last seasonal adventure as he is planning also to compete in the 12th and last regional meet in Sicily on the last day of September.

If similar results, such as last week’s, are obtained, Mifsud is confident that he could sign some good sponsorship deals that would make it possible for him to participate in the whole 2008 championship.