Junior British Karting Champion Riki Christodoulou failed to make the final of the Winter Garda Cup held this weekend in Italy after being punted off the track in a nasty collision that ended the 15 year old’s otherwise impressive campaign at the annual International.

'Christo' was nursing a bruised arm and wrist after another Kart mounted the rear of his machine while holding fourth place in the Qualification semi-final.

From the 115 entries for this year’s meeting Christo was tenth fastest overall in only his first serious outing in the senior ICA category. He placed third quickest in his Qualifying practice group and ranked 3rd and 4th in the two subsequent heats which meant he started from the 3rd row for the Semi-final that determined the entry to the Cup showdown.

It was on lap nine of fourteen while holding a comfortable fourth place and gaining on the three drivers ahead that the youngster was shunted out of the race. Christo’s helmet and rear section of the Kart was damaged as well as the steering wheel bent out of shape.

“I’m furious to be honest,” commented father and mentor Rick Christodoulou. “It was a dangerous scenario and Riki was lucky not to have been badly hurt. We are disappointed that the weekend finished like this especially as Riki was one of lead drivers with our testing and qualification times. We could have made a good race of the final.”

Team Christodoulou now have further testing planned for this week as well as a feature to film for local BBC television on Thursday. They still have to confirm their participation in the forthcoming round of the Italian Championships in a fortnight’s time.