TROWBRIDGE racer Graham Harbud is set to embark on a slightly unusual season as he takes part in the Stoxkarts National Points Championship.

Based on a short oval format, the championship kick-starts on Saturday, April 1 in Birmingham and ends in the autumn.

The overall winner will be the driver who has accumulated the highest amount of points at the end of the campaign, with racers having the chance to add to their total at every meeting. This will be the 28-year-old’s first season in the competition as he looks to hit the ground running next month. “I’ll be going to pretty much every single meeting,” said Harbud.

“To be honest, I want to get quite high up in the national points, I’d hope to win the Birmingham track championship if I could. “I’ve come into it this year, it is a very competitive formula and people spend a lot of money on them.

“This year, I’ll be trying to find my feet, then next year, pushing it on a little bit and trying to beat some of the top teams.

“This kart that I bought actually won the world championship two years ago but there are slight differences in the way people set them up.” Harbud’s first experience of the karts, which can reach speeds up to 50mph, was when he hired one out of curiosity over a year ago.

With its affordable nature and simplicity, he wasted no time in getting his own and now the 28-year-old is itching to get out there after working on the kart over the winter.

“I went and hired one of these a year or so ago and got involved in it that way. I did a couple of meetings just to find my feet with it,” added Harbud, who is from Castlemead.

“Over the winter, it has been a case of rebuilding it, so I have stripped it down and rebuilt it ready for this year.

“My family have been involved with oval racing for a number of years and these karts have been around for a good 10 years, but it is only in the last two or three seasons where they have really taken off.

“I’m taking it all across the country, it is a fun formula. It is something you don’t have to have a lot of kit to do, I can’t wait to get started.”