Qualifying was held in atrocious conditions. The weather was cold and very wet. Unseasonale wweather has been experienced throughout the week giving the organisers a hige headache in trying to complete all raciing in both a timely and safe manner. An excellent job was done to to this today.

Today the team spent the day working on setting up all the Karts, ready for the 1st practice on Wednesday. The circuit is situated amongst the acres of Olive Groves in the Andalusian mountains of Southern Spain. Campillos is a famous historical town situated 540 meters above sea level and was the location of many fierce battles during the 12th century. Here again battles will be had for the honor of winning the European Winter Cup.

Today Matt had his last practise before heading to Europe for the Winter Cup, to be held in Malaga,Spain. The focus has been on buidling fitness, strength and also race disciplines with target lap times being controlled to maximum consistency.

The final day of the races, saw Matthew putting in some blistering starts and some very quick times. The Heats were well contested and he came in 5th. After again getting a good start in the 1st race, he was nudged off the track whilst running 3rd. After starting last in the 2nd race as result of the push off in the 1st, he fought hard to hold onto the class win. A great seasons finish winning his 1st Philippines National Championship

The final round of the Philippines National Championships, take place on the newly opened Clarke Race way. A purpose built state of the art complex in the Northern province of Pampanga, Philippines. The former American Airbase, once home to 15,000 permanent troops and numerous units on rotation, the 30sq km site now houses an economic zone along with numerous leisure facilities including the race tracks.

After a disappointing qualifying session on the Friday, Matthew fought hard throughout Saturday attempting to get back into the final group. Unfortunately he could not pull it off but managed to qualify 9th in the Bridgestone Cup Final. What should have been an easy challenge for Matt, turned out to be an unexpected fall in position and it wasn't until the last 3 laps that he got back onto pace and was reeling in the guys in front. With only 3 laps remaining he left his run too late. What turned out to be a tough lesson was however to be a happy experience and a great lesson learnt in the tough and competitive European environment. The consolation was to meet the 7 time F1 Champion Michael Schumacher on the Monday morning for a private viewing of his expertise behind the wheel of a Tony Kart.

The 3rd day came and early practices were in order for the afternoons qualifying sessions. In the morning Matt was running 12th from a field of 60+ drivers. An encouraging start to the day. By the time qualifying came about, top end engine speed became a problem with time being lost in the longer straights. Numerous attempts to rectify this issue persisted to no avail and the final qualifying session arrived and times started to slip. With new tires for the session, this caused much debate amongst the teams and mechanics, many whom volunteered their assistance as this issue was unclear to many. An overnight carburetor rebuild has taken place and the heats will see the result of these efforts.

The Heats came about quickly today. Matt was 2nd fastest in the morning's warm up nut it showed that the previous days problems had gone. Matt systematically climbed the order all day with a finish in 17th after qualifying 27th. A very strong drive that should have put him in the top 10.

Day 2 and the morning was chilly. Matthew focused on getting times down and my the end of the days many sessions, Matt's times were equal to the quickest. The afternoon saw rain come in and make for a slippery afternoon.

In his 1st ever World Finals, Matthew arrived in Italy after a 16 hour journey and set about learning a new track in cold and chilly conditions. A new experience for Matthew after competing in normally hot and humid conditions.

After terrible track conditions on Saturday, all races were canceled for the organizer to attempt to improve what was proving to be a dangerous race track. Sunday morning has arrived and conditions have deteriorated with 4-5 corners having been repaved overnight, giving an even more slippery surface. Early morning runs saw clouds of cement dust filling the sky's and affecting driver visibility. The final was held in terrible conditions where the track and cement turned to a concrete slush. Matts engine choked with cement and where in 5th place he lacked power and was demoted to 7th. A fantastic result in his 1st ever World Championship event.

Today was the 1st time that the World Championship Karters were able to practice. Conditions in the morning were horrible with a stormy sky and wet track drying. To make it more difficult the surface had been relaid overnight and turn 1 was slippery with water, dust and wet tarmac. After a wet practice Matt set off to the 1st run on drys but a wet and oily 1st corner saw him and others hit the wall. A total write-off of Kart resulted and a frantic team completed the rebuild of a new chassis to allow Matt to do the final practice session. This resulted in a time only 0.03 seconds off the fastest time. Tomorrow will be the day to get all settings organized.

On the 12th of September, Matthew changed chassis and engines to prepare himself for the World Championship round in Macau. The Arrow chassis has been selected for Macau and Matthew was putting in fast times at his home track in Hong Kong, in preparation for the forthcoming event.

A wet and miserable day greeted the racers with conditions varying from torrential downpours to lights drizzle and sunshine again. The team worked closely with Matthew to find the most suitable set up. In the 1st race this worked, with Matthew starting last and making into 5th overall. A clever crew managed to outsmart the rest of the teams to find a very good setting for the conditions. The final started in drying conditions with some treacherous places on the track still evident. Matthew managed a great start gaining two places to run in 3rd. This was short lived when on the 3rd lap, he hit a very wet part of the track ending up in the wall. After losing all places to restart in last, a very determined drive saw him finish 2nd in class. A tough weekend all in all.

Boomland is a highly technical track in Manila, Philippines. Saturdays practice was yet again a show of the fickle weather conditions in the tropics. Throughout the day, heavy rain, sunshine and drizzle came to play havoc on the setups. Times were all over the place and all drivers experienced disappointments in one session or another. Race day has heavy rain, forecast.

Race day came and concern was high over tire use. We had 1 new set and one set well worn. After discussing the strategy we decided to go to race 1 with a fresh set. Matthew was in 6th place on the grid and made a great start moving into 3rd by the 1st corner. The next 5 laps saw him hunt down the leaders finally overtaking the leader on lap 8. Matt finished the race in 1st place. He drove an exceptionally good tactical race. Race 2 Matt started on pole. After a hard push into the 1st corner he led the field for 3 laps after which the tire wear started to show and he was passed by the drivers on new rubber. He drove a string race to finish 5th and again showed that he was thinking tactically about the race.

Matthew arrived at Sentul late Thursday evening along with drivers participating in the Asian festival of speed, in Porsches, Ferraris and Formual BMW. Fridays practise was spent ensuring the setup was correct. Satursday saw Matthew putiing in some very fast laps to start the qualifying session in 6th place. After moving into 3rd on the final session, a brake caliper jammed stopping Matthew from fighting with the leaders. He managed to hold onto 5th place but after the strong finishes in the first 2 sessions, he has qualified 4th for the final.

The weekend saw a round of the Magnolia Philippines Karting Championships, held at the Enchanted Kingdom track. Always a favorite with the drivers as it is located within the grounds of a fun park. After race activities give a lighter moment to the weekend and all the drivers have the chance of enjoying some fun together. Matthew had a mixed weekend still suffering the affects of jetlag and time out of the seat. The weather was impossible with constant changes between wet and dry running causing mayhem on the paddock with setup. Matt was 3rd fastest in the wet practice Saturday, however all Sunday runs were in the dry, even though other races were held in the wet. Somehow it managed to dry up for the Rok races. A bad start in the final saw Matt drop away from a good starting position and have to battel to make up ground. On checking data we saw that he was driving to the limit and all laps were incredibly consistent. A fun weekend but a disappointing result. Until next time!

The final day of racing was completed with Matthew performing extremely well. With 60 odd drivers in Junior being split into seperate sections to free up track space, saw the best competition in the country challenging for the top place. After a shakey start to the morning, Matthew managed to find his pace and by the final session was only 4/10's off the leaders, placing him 3rd fastest overall. Paul Carr worked tirelessly all week together with Olly, Matt's mechanic to get the maximum performance and pit Matthew against the best drivers in Great Britain. Overall a succseful week was had and whilst much more can be done, the result was impressive.

The following shots are from Fridays practise at PFI, a beautiful circuit in the Grantham area of the UK.

Day 2 arrived and Matt was on fire. Times came down to within 2/100ths off the fastest driver. A focus has been on braking and cornering and huge improvements in times are evident.

Matt did his 1st day of testing in the UK today and was running with 4 of the best drivers in the country. Pleasingly his times were very close to the best for the day.

Matthew attended the 2009 British Grand Prix for the 1st time. The weekend was full of activities, spending time in the BRDC with Marc Hynes and friends and meeting Matthew Marsh for Hot Chocolate at the farm. Most of the best drivers in the world were in attendance and Matt spent time with the likes of Jacques Villaneuve, Marino Franchitti and Paul Diresta to name a few.

The 1st AKOC round was held again in mixed weather conditions. Matt was fastest in wet practise and qualified 2nd in the dry. A poor decision by the team in setup delivered a poor handling piece of machinery for the race, but Matthew fought on, coming overall 5th in the Open 125 class.

Day 2 of testing was carried out in perfect conditions. Matthew was on the pace after the night prior settling down into the tire choice. Final changes were made and set ups tested to finish the session happy with the equipment.

A clever team strategy saw both Matthew and former team mate Luca Ferrigutti put in strong performances to take top places in class. Matthew finish 6th in qualifying, 0.6 seconds behind senior 1st placed Luca.

Butterflies were stronger than normal for Matthew who had to overcome a number of issues with the famed Macau track. A brilliant start saw Matt challenging for 4 the place when a small tap spun him into the gravel out of turn 4. After coming back onto the track in 23rd place, Matthew stormed through the pack to finish in 13th place.

Race Day and Team strategy in qualifying played out and both Luca Ferrigutti and Matthew finished on top of class. Matthew put in a blistering performance to finish overall 6th on the grid beating 17 mostly senior drivers for the position. The 1st race leg saw Matt get a great start and hold his place. For the next few laps Matt traded places with the 4th placed driver until he was tapped and knocked off the track in lap 7. He restarted in 23rd and got the bit between his teeth to finish 13th overall. Race 2 started in the heat of the day around 3:00pm and Matthew jumped 3 places by turn 1. By the exit of turn 4 he had picked off another 2 places. The race settled into rhythm and Matt set about picking off the field finally finishing 5th place overall and 1st in class. Overall Matthew put into his strongest performance to date, out-driving many, more experienced Karters all with an extra 9 HP.

The 1st practice for the Macao National was held on Friday evening under lights. Matthew joined his old team mates and Manager to work through the tire strategy for the weekend and Bridgestone was finally selected after many laps using a number of different setups.

During the pre-final Matt was unfortunate in getting caught up on a 2nd turn incident. This put him 15 seconds behind the front runners, but determined not to let them get away, he drove a near perfect race pegging them back towards the end. The last 8 laps saw Matthew setting the fastest time lap after lap and another 5  may have seen him mixing it at the front. On returning to the paddock a happy driver and team were confident for a strong final. 

The 1st day of practice was a long one, with a lot of time being spent on installing the PI data acquisition system. Following this, many laps were driven, delivering data back and giving Matt the ability to review and challenge his driving technique. The data that the PI was providing, allowed Matthew and Marc Hynes, to determine the best settings throughout the weekend and gave clear feedback of all the drivers inputs, from throttle to brakes, G force and wheel speed. This invaluable information helped improve the lap times over the weekend.

Matthew arrived at the Phillippines Carmona track, after some confusion at Immigration. Upon arriving late he was presented with his new Tony kart chassis and Rok engine for the '09 season. In the 1st session of 6 laps he was 1.0second off the days pace. The 2nd session saw even slower times with a lot of traffic causing delays. Session 3 saw some blistering times with a clear run, this time coming close to the days best. The 4th session saw all stops pulled out where all times across the 10 laps were within a 0.6 second spread with the best time equalling the days overall best. After 98 laps on the Yokohama's little more was expected of him. Another 20 laps saw out the days practise with a strong performance put in for the balance of the day.

In January Matthew was invited to Brussels to tour the Bell Racing Headquarters to complete the design of his 2009 New K series helmet.

Marc Hynes is regarded as one of the worlds foremost driving coaches today, with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikonnen as pupils. Marc has taken up the mantel of coaching Matthew in his racing career and has made tremendous progress with his approach to the sport.

The team of 5 drivers and 11 support crew arrived in Thailand on Thursday the 1st of November to beautiful weather and a 2 hour journey North to the provincial town of Saraburi where a great track is located. The facilities and environment were superb and our thanks must go to Simon Tan and his team for putting on a wonderful event that proves as ever to be 1st class. Friday saw the team practice with mixed success and Matthew was performing well with times improving all day. This improved over the course of the weekend but was not enough to get him into the front row for the final. Matthew started down the grid behind the front running KF drivers in their more powerful machinery. A strong start and 1st corner incident that Matthew avoided, saw him move through the field and eventually finish 2nd in class. Matthew drove competitively improving his times throughout the weekend. It was the 1st time during the 2008 season that he held the determination and aggression to finish high up th

In June of 2007 we went to Le Mans to be a part of the one of the worlds greatest motoring events. My good friend Matthew Marsh was racing in a Ferrari 430 and we together joined the team for what was one of the highlights of my life. We spent day and night watching and supporting Matthew and his team from various vantage points around the 16km track and enjoyed access to the paddock and garage where we saw all the action close up and 1st hand. On the Sunday morning we followed the Ferrari for half an hour in a helicopter through all the corners. Its races like these where I get the thrill of the sport.

This Gallery is made up of shots that I love. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They are from events that I competed in earlier, places I've been and of people that have made an impact on my aspirations in racing.