Scarborough karter Joseph Yau ends Teesside Championship season with a podium finish

Having qualified in a respectable fifth on a dry Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning was a different story. After heavy rain overnight the track was very wet on Sunday morning and a switch to a wet set-up was required.

With only part worn wet tyres available to him he knew it was going to be a challenging day against other racers shod with new wet tyres. In heat one he kept out of trouble and finished in fourth place.

Although there was no more rain the track was still wet for heat two and three and using the same worn wet tyres on a drying track he finished fifth and then seventh respectively.

By the time of his final race of the day the track was dry in patches and he took the decision to run with a dry set up along with the majority of the other racers.

Starting from fifth place he dropped down a few places as the front pack broke away from him while he waited for his tyres to reach temperature.

Unfortunately his dad put too much air pressure in his tyres for the conditions and they didn’t reach optimum running temperature until lap five. The tyres started to switch on and his lap times started to tumble as he started to catch the early leaders.

He caught and overtook the third place runner by the last lap but the front two were too good and too far ahead to catch.

Joseph said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the step up and pushing myself with a great set of drivers.

"Setting a new lap record for the Rotax mini max at Teesside in my fourth race was my highlight and hopefully no one will beat it for a long while.

"I would like to thank my mum and dad and my sponsors, Colin Ellis Property Services, Aqua Solutions, Holy Cow, Thompson Homes, GK Steel Services, Asquith Accountants and The Salisbury aparthotel who have made this year possible.

"Hopefully I can get the budget to race again next year and possibly move up to the Rotax Junior series.”