A TEENAGE karter will represent Great Britain in Spain after placing highly at an esteemed karting event.

Sam Branston, 15, who lives near Cold Aston, came fourth in the Junior X30 in the Kartmasters Grand Prix, held from Thursday, August 1 to Sunday, August 4 at PF International near Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Previous participants at Kartmasters include Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton, who competed in 1996, and Lando Norris, who competed in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Sam’s place secured him a ticket to international karting event IWF24, which will take place in Chiva, Valencia from November 4 to November 9.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Sam, who attends The Cotswold School.

“There’s so much work that has gone into being able to get to Valencia.

“It’s very rewarding.

“I had a bad qualifier at the start of Friday – I was 18th.

“Then in the first two heats, I finished ninth and 11th.

“On Saturday, there was another qualifier where I qualified 11th, and in the heats, I finished seventh and fifth, which meant I started ninth for the final.

“There was progress all the way through the weekend, from a rough start at 18th to finishing fourth.”

The teenager said that karting started off as ‘a bonding exercise’ between him and his dad.

“We brought an old kart off eBay,” he said.

“Then we started taking it a bit more seriously.

“We got to know some people and some race teams and sort of ended up where we are now.”

Sam would like to go into car racing and said that he will do karting again next year before hopefully moving into the former.

Mum Sarah Branston said she is ‘incredibly proud’ of her son.

“He really does deserve it,” she said.

“He’s worked very, very hard to achieve this.”