X-Kart Race Across Two Events at Le Mans and Hooton Park
X-Kart drivers were in action across two separate events last weekend, with Riley Bishop heading to Le Mans for the IAME Euro Cup and Zac Cain competing at Hooton Park for Round 9 of the IndiKart Championship.
IAME Euro Cup, Le Mans
Senior X30
Riley Bishop
Riley Bishop spent the week at Le Mans racing from Wednesday through to Sunday in one of the most demanding formats in European karting. The pace built session by session across the week, and by the latter stages of the event Riley was consistently racing at the sharp end of the field and leading heats outright.
Qualifying P21 overall and P7 in group set the tone for a week of strong running on an international field. Heat 1 saw him start P7 and finish P14, but the improvement from there was clear and consistent. Heat 2 brought a P7 finish from P7 on the grid, holding position in a competitive pack. Heat 3 started with the same P7 grid slot and he was running strongly before a DNF ended the session early. Heat 4 was one of the performances of his week, climbing from P7 to P4 and showing the kind of front-running pace that had been building all week. Heat 5 was the clearest statement yet – starting P7 and leading the heat outright before finishing P2, a result that underlined how quickly the package had come together. The Super Heat followed, with Riley again starting P7 leading for a good portion of the race before a DSQ that was entirely outside his control dropped him out of the results.
The combination of the DNF and DSQ left him starting P34 from 36 in the final, but the response was exactly what the week had pointed towards. He gained 21 places across the race to cross the line P13, a recovery drive that reflected the pace he had been building from the opening sessions. A solid week with big what-ifs, and the experience of racing at that level across five days will sharpen what comes next.
Hooton Park IndiKart Championship — Round 9
Senior Rotax
Zac Cain
Zac Cain arrived at Hooton Park with the pace to match from the very first session. Saturday testing saw him running in the top three throughout mixed conditions, and that form carried directly into Sunday. Fastest in practice, he qualified P3 before winning Heat 1 from P3 on the grid and Heat 2 from the front, both controlled and composed performances in a competitive field.
The final was more of the same. Starting P1, Zac led throughout and crossed the line first to complete a clean sweep across every session of the day. Practice, qualifying, two heat wins, and the final – a complete and dominant performance that stands as one of the strongest individual results of his season.
