Not just another Sunday with 4 races. This is where Nelson has to step up: the novice plates come off and he’s just another karter determined to make his mark. The team tag him as ‘Orange 91’: his favourite colour and entrant ID.

Start time for Quali is 10.02 hours. 9 laps. Team mates Akille and Eden pop in great times to claim slots 1 and 4. Nelson posts a decent time for at slot 5, forgetting perhaps it’s the qualifying time itself – not the racing  – that really counts in Quali. Ferrari’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman’s younger cousin, Sebastian Bearman, posts second place – but only two tenths ahead of Nelson.

The top is tight with 2^nd and 10^th separated by just two tenths second. Time to reflect and focus on Heat 1 at 11.38 hours. 14 starters and 10 laps. After a false start, the second rolling grid sees carnage at turn 1 involving Nelson & Sebastian. Shuffling in the mid-pack causes a domino effect up the grid. The result is Nelson is punted helplessly into the air, miraculously misses Bearman’s head by millimetres and spins. Nelson is dropped to dead last, but he fights his way back to finish 6^th. Akille maintains a top slot finish, Eden improves to 3^rd and Bearman is now 12^th but thankfully compos mentis and intact.

Next is the Pre-Final at 13.22 hours. 10 laps once more. Akille does it again with slot 1. Slots 3 and 5 go to Eden and Nelson. Nelson’s still some way off Akille’s pace finishing 6 seconds behind but he’s holding his own in the Top 6.

It’s now 15.25 hours and time for the Final. 12 laps to go. 14 contenders remain. Bearman, S improves to a creditable 5^th place following the earlier shenanigans. But Nelson does even better.  Despite his imperious form, Akille gets in a tangle and the race director gives him a 5-second penalty for his pains.  Nelson, however, drives fast and cool. Keeping his nose clean, he takes the chequered flag in 2^nd place. But Akille’s penalty helps promote ‘Orange 91’ to his very 1^st Rotax win. Nelson is happy but victory is somewhat tinged with regret it had to be at Akille’s expense.

From plumb last in Heat 1 he now takes victory. The coolest head in Team Nelson is the lad himself. The rest of us are just…. elated.

*Just 316 days – after first sitting in an electric kart at a friend’s birthday party – he’s done this….