Rob's going to the World Cup

Foster-Jones survives European crash fest to book place for Belgium

Angry that racing seemed to have given away to gladiatorial combat with karts, Robert hit out against the ‘desperate’ rivals who he felt resorted to rough tactics at the European championship in France (4 /5 August).

“I always knew that Salbris would be tough. There’s so much as stake that people do go a little bit mad and the silly stuff starts. If it’s the last corner of the last lap of the final and you’re fighting to become European champion, then okay, you could understand it but when people are doing it in the heats, that’s just desperate.”

And Foster-Jones’ mood had not been helped after a wrong set-up choice marred his Qualifying performance - “In Europe, the tyres we use are ultra-sticky and because it was hot, we set the kart up to cope with high levels of grip. I don’t know how, but the condition of the track was closer to what you’d find in Britain”.  This compromised the way his kart handled and the 16-year old found himself 12th in his group and 27th overall (out of 72 drivers).

“Given that we would start the heats mid-pack, our game-plan for the heats was to avoid the opening lap crashes and go for top ten finishes.”

This largely went to plan - as Rob notched up two 9th places, a 10th and a creditable 13th after one driver attempted to drive him off the circuit. As the officials posted the intermediate classification sheets, the teenager was relieved to find himself in 16th position. This would give him an 8th row grid position for the Pre-Final.

Avoiding the argy-bargy of the opening corners, the Ricky Flynn Motorsport star was running inside the top 20 and beginning to pick his way through the field when he collided with fellow 100cc PR client, Richard Bradley - “Richard had over-taken me in one of the corners but I’d been able to re-pass him at the next. But as I turned into the next corner, he suddenly hit me and we both went off the circuit. He apologised afterwards and explained why it happened.”

Starting from 29th place, any chance of victory had gone - but Rob knew a place at the World Cup was still up for grabs, “Only the top 34 drivers can go to Mariembourg. Salbris would have been a long way to go for nothing and I wanted to reward the team’s efforts.”

He certainly did that. As the lights flicked to green, he carved his way to a fine 12th place. “I passed 17 drivers in just 20 laps. If I’d had another 20, maybe I could’ve won it!” he joked afterwards.

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