The newlook and newly named Formula Kart Stars saw it's opening two rounds at Kimbolton (11-12/04/09) in this double headed meeting. (Also See Ash's report at FormulaKartStars.com)

Saturday saw a miserably wet day, with persistant light rain for most of the day. Round 1 was a bit of learning curve for all the drivers concerned. In main the qualifying heats were gone, replaced by a qualifying session more in keeping with that of F1 in so much as it was against the clock. Parc Ferme was another concept which all the teams had to come to terms with, fuel and tyres not being available until the karts were on the dummy grid.

Some of the drivers had difficulty with the concept that in qualifying that it was all about speed and not racing against the kart in front. Ash had a good Qualy 'A'  session finishing second behind Derosa by .24 of a second. This put him on P3 for the Pre Final behind McGee and Derosa. The Pre final got underway after a couple of 'Go Arounds', into the first bend and all three leaders were fired off the track by an over enthusiastic pack. By the time Ash regained the track most of the pack had past him leaving him trailing in 22nd from 24. In the succesive laps Ash was able to get his head down and managed to regain 8 places to bring him home in 14th. Not an ideal situation for the final as the incident on the first bend had cost him his grid position for the final.

The line up for the final saw Ash take off from P14 during the 13 lap race he was only able to make up three places to finish at 11th. The only consolation was taking fastest lap in the final at 50.32 seconds, but that would give him a few more points on the championship table.

Sunday morning saw an improvement in the weather conditions. A shorter race day than Saturday. Ash went off from P6 in 'Qualy A'. First lap he managed to drop 2 places and then rapidly got into his stride and by lap 2 he had the lead. Ash stayed ahead of the chasing pack for the remainer of the 14 lap session to take the chequered flag 3.77 seconds ahead of Varney, and again recorded the fastest lap. The preformance was sufficient to guarentee Ash P1 for the final.

Ash P1, Hunter(W) P2, Varney P4 and King P4 was the line up for the first two rows of the grid for the final. Ash put in a smooth consitant drive, slowly pulling away from the chasing pack. He managed to retain the lead without any significant challange for the gruelling 23 lap race to take the win a full 4.76 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

A sound weekends racing and a good start to his championship bid. Ash reflected ' It would have been nice to have finished higher up on Saturday, but I guess that's the name of the game.'