A KARTER from Stocksfield is mixing it with the best Europe has to offer after the opening two rounds.

A third and a fourth place in the openers at Donington currently sees Dan Clark sitting in third spot in the 2017 CIK-FIA European Superkart Championships.

In just his second season on the European stage, the Tyne Valley driver has made a blistering start to the series.

It was a sign of things to come when he qualified third after the first qualifying practice session, behind series favourite Peter Elkmann, of Germany, and the outgoing champion Czech Republic’s Adam Kout.

However, he didn’t get off to the best of starts in race one and soon found himself in seventh position with a lot of ground to catch up on the leading pack.

He did make some ground up, but he, Liam Morley and Jason Dredge still found themselves five seconds behind leaders Elkmann, Belgian Yannick de Brabander and Kout.

With Dredge breaking down and Kout suffering gearbox problems which forced him to give up mid-race, Clark sensed his chance and became more animated in the final stages.

There was further drama when Elkmann, just after setting a new lap record, retired with the ignition off, which saw de Brabander claim an unexpected victory, while Morley saw off the fight from Clark for the runners-up spot.

Clark again found himself trailing at the start of race two, Elkmann and Kout distancing themselves ahead of de Brabander, who himself had a healthy margin over Andreas Jost, Morley and the Stocksfield man. As Jost slowed, Morley and Clark both overtook him with the latter then getting ahead of Morley to cap a great weekend of racing with fourth place behind Elkmann, Kout and de Brabander.

He just missed out on third after running the latter close.

After the opening round, Clark’s performances put him third in the rankings on 29 points behind de Brabander (41) and Morley (31).

In the British Championships, Clark experienced a mixed start to the series although he finds himself joint second with teammate Paul Platt.