THOMAS Issa, 2013 Abe Zaidie Championship winner, walked away with lessons learnt after participating in the recently concluded final round of the CIK-FIA European KF Championship at the PFI Circuit, United Kingdom.

“This year the series allowed wild-card entries for those interested in just a one-off race,” Christopher Issa, Thomas’s father, explained.

What was normally a Jamaican advantage, sunshine, became a drawback as the circuit experienced rain.

“Europe has a lot of rain, so they’re used to racing in it. Our local circuit floods when it rains heavily so we don’t have the exposure to wet weather competition as they do,” he continued.

The lack of wet-weather racing, especially at the level of the event, meant it was a hard fight for Thomas in a pack that averaged 30 drivers. More drama hit the small Jamaican team as contact from behind during qualifying damaged the kart’s steering leading to a bad session, which Issa struggled to recover from.

“We had some good times in the heats, and it was still a very good experience at that very high level,” he said.

— Rory Daley