As mentioned in the End of Year review for 2025, 2026 sees us taking on a new challenge in the form of the Super One Series. One of the key differences with this championship is the Saturday and Sunday are separate rounds of the championship. The second change for the 2026 season is a change in colours to fully joining the Joe Weaver Racing team. The first weekend was held at Rowrah in Cumbria – a long way from home! Being in the school holidays, we were able to make an early start on the Thursday to get there mid-afternoon.
Two big differences between Super One and the previous events we’ve taken part in. Number 1 – we are allowed to use our camera throughout so we should have more footage available. You will notice each session has been uploaded and embedded, so you can take a look if you wish. Number 2 – we can have new wet tyres at each round.
Friday
As with The Kart Championship, Fridays are reserved for testing. After a foggy start, there was a lot of rain. A tricky day as the wet tyres we were using had gone off since we last used them not long ago. We persevered and made a couple of small setup tweaks to overcome them and overall a decent day was had and times improved. That was until the second to last session, where one of the wheels worked loose. Although Riley completed the session with all 4 wheels on his kart, the one that came loose ended up elongating the mounting holes writing off the wheel and damaging the stud threads requiring a replacement. Although the final session of the day was dry, due to having to change the studs we didn’t quite make it out in time for the final session.
Saturday
On to Saturday, Round 1 of the championship. Our first race as a senior. The Saturday follows a familiar format of quick practice, followed by timed qualifying, 2 heats and a final. We borrowed a set of wet wheels for the practice as our remaining set of wheels were in Parc Ferme. For Saturday we also had the company of Grumps who came up to support and was getting involved cleaning the kart down after each session. Thank you Grumps.
Practice
Although practice was only short, with just 6 laps being completed, Riley set his best time of 58.718 on lap 6 which was good enough for 23rd. This was our first indication of where he would be sat on the grid. Given it’s his first Senior class race, we were happy with this.
Qualifying
On to qualifying and for this we got our first chance to run brand new wet tyres for the weekend. It was only a short qualifying session with again just 6 laps completed. Riley set his best time of 59.610 on lap 6 again which is good showing that he gets quicker through the session. This was good enough for 30th overall which was not last!
Heat 1
Riley got a decent start in heat one and by the end of the first lap was up to 27th. He dropped a place on lap 3 but gained a place a lap later and crossed the line 27th overall. Super One operate a 5-place penalty for a dropped nosecone (other championships do a 5-second penalty). After the penalties were applied, which Riley got one, he was 31st. He set his best time of 58.415 on lap 8 of 9.
Heat 2
Heat 2 use the same grid as the first heat, meaning Riley started 30th again. Once again, Riley got a reasonable start and at the end of the first lap, was up to 27th again. On lap 2 he lost a place but gained a couple of places the following lap. On laps 6 & 7 he picked up another handful of places, ending up crossing the line 22nd. Setting his best lap time of 57.383 on lap 7 of 9 is continuing to show consistency. Post race penalties granted a couple more positions leaving a 19th finish overall.
Final
The grid for the final is formed using the points gained from the heats. This meant Riley lined up 24th. The final is also slightly longer than the heats. At the end of the first lap he was up to 23rd. On lap 4 he lost a place and then an incident on lap 5 cost him heavily dropping him to 28th where he would cross the line. Riley set his best time of 58.433 on lap 7 of 11. Post race penalties bumped him up to 23rd overall. Not too bad for his first event as a senior.
Sunday
Sunday sees a new day, and a whole new round, this is Round 2. It’s worth noting that overnight we had Storm Dave land, which was 50+MPH wind, with gusts up to 65MPH. After a rough night holding the trailer in place, and watching the team awning perish in the winds, we were hoping for a dry day on slicks. On the Sunday, there wasn’t a warm up and it was straight in to racing with qualifying.
Qualifying
Qualifying in Super One is a random grid, and we were lining up in 26th place. Once you leave the grid you’re straight in to building up your speed and getting your lap times in. Before qualifying we had to switch from the wet set up over to a dry setup. Being on slicks the qualifying session managed 8 laps, and Riley set his best time of 48.031 on lap 7 which was his last lap. This was good enough for 23rd and where he would start his heats, directly behind his teammate Max Davies who was in 21st.
Heat 1
This heat would be a bit of a short one due to a red flag, non the less it did run. Lap 1 saw a fairly big incident in the chicane after the start. Riley managed to avoid the carnage, and only lost one place. He lost another place a couple of laps later, however on the next lap he gained a couple after another incident which resulted in a red flag. Riley finished 22nd, setting his best time of 47.613 on lap 3 (of 5 completed).
Heat 2
Not sure what happened between the heats but wow, heat 2 was a good one. A good start saw Riley gain a place on the first lap, then on lap 4 he gained 3. Gaining another place on lap 7 he crossed the line 18th. A good clean drive, and a top 20 finish. It might not seem much but to us he may well have just finished first. He set his best time of 46.554 on the final lap.
Final
On to the final, and this was a well fought session. Building on the fire of heat 2, Riley lined up 21st. Riley didn’t lose any positions at the start, and only lost a position on lap 3. On laps 6 & 7 a couple more places were gained, before disaster struck on lap 9 where a radiator broke and spilt water all over the track going in to the second hairpin. This caused many karts including Riley to go off in to the gravel. Riley managed to get out and continue on however many drivers were stuck. After all the drama, Riley crossed the line 21st. Post race penalties saw Riley promoted to 18th overall, setting his best time of 46.464 on lap 6.
Summary
Overall, our first weekend in Super One, with Joe Weaver Racing was a good one. Challenging at times with very wet, very windy weather. We both learned a lot, we need some new wheels and a few other bits. We are looking forward GYG at the start of May.
A huge thanks goes out to everyone within Joe Weaver Racing, especially Paul, Joe and Claire, however we were welcomed by all within the JWR team and for that we say thank you.
