We’re back at Whilton Mill. Its welcome embrace is freezing weather. Not only that but the track is now closed due to icy conditions. Nelson can’t get track-time to re-acquaint himself with one of the UK’s leading circuits. The rest of the team (along with rivals) had got there earlier giving them valuable track-time before the ice stopped play. Clearly, the pressure was now on over the next four practice sessions. Only 6 minutes per session but Nelson, as ever, applied himself.

Qualifying was at 15.14 hours. With just four practice sessions under his belt, Nelson warmed to the task to leap 14 places to 3^rd fastest qualifier, just 0.06 seconds behind Akille, his ever-quick team mate. Akille had also improved dramatically, so it was looking good for the team all round. Time to call it a day and warm up.

It’s now Sunday. The track is damp and the weather overcast. Heat 1 starts at 10.21.  Fastest qualifier and pole sitter, Alfie Ward, loses concentration, spins out on the formation lap, dropping 10 places and tries to scramble back, sending the rolling-start into disarray. Frankly, the 2nd rolling-start should have been aborted with several karters still out of position  – and Nelson one of the biggest losers. At the end of the 2^nd rolling-start Nelson’s now in 8^th as he crosses the start-line, gets bogged down in the pack over 9 laps and pretty much stays there til the end: an undeserved drop of 5 places due to others’ inability to keep straight in difficult conditions. Racing can be cruel.

It’s now time for Heat 2. Lady Fortune deals Nelson another poor card. Track conditions remain cold and damp, so getting heat into your tyres is critical. And another rolling start. In a fit of tyre-warming zeal Nelson nearly spins, loses his 3rd space grid-slot and rolls across the start-line in 8^th place. His race gets messier when un-sportsmanlike conduct from another karter further hampers Nelson’s progress.  A 5-second penalty to the culprit hardly makes up for hindering Nelson. It’s too little too late: the damage is already done. A 13th place finish means Nelson starts amongst the mid-pack scrappers. It’s now down to the Final to salvage something from the weekend.

The Final starts at 14.09. Freezing weather has melted into torrential rain. None of the top runners have had a consistent weekend. Things are going to get spicy with many, not least Nelson, with a point to prove in just 11 laps. Another ominous rolling-start with a lot of tetchy karters sees the grid fearlessly barrelling into turns 1 & 2. At Christmas Corner, an infamous uphill right hander, two front-runners tangle and do the honour of collecting a hapless Nelson on their way.  Could it get any worse ? Lady Luck now places Nelson in 18th.

Nelson brandishes his trademark: dedication. Through sheer race-craft and consistency he claws his way back, dispatching the mid-pack and finishing in 6th, only to be put back to 7th having sustained a drop-nose in the first-round incident. The astonishing thing was he’d driven the entire race with a bent steering-arm from the earlier entanglement. Alfie Ward, who’d caused the rolling start chaos in Heat 1, triumphs in the Final.

The ‘might have beens’ and the ‘should have beens’ will not be lost on Team Nelson. The fight-back in the Final is a reminder that giving up is not an option.  Many lessons are drawn from this roller-coaster of weekends. One thing’s for sure: our prospects for 2025 are very exciting indeed.