Outlane youngster Alex McDade is making  a name for himself on the track after an  impressive rookie season in competitive  karting.

The 11-year-old, who is a student at Rishworth  School, battled his way into the top ten in two classes in  the national junior championships in his debut  campaign.

Competing in both the Super One Rotax series and  LGM series races, McDade has managed to finish sixth  and ninth in the standings.

His first season has also brought a fair amount of  travelling and while he has mainly competed at the PF  International Kart circuit in Grantham, there have been  trips as far afield as Cambridge, Devon and abroad to  race in Spain.

His aim is to break into Super One karting, the route  by which British Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton  and Jenson Button learnt their craft.

Already McDade’s successes this season have seen  him switch teams having started the season with the  Eclipse Motorsport team, who are based at the PF  International, but then moving having been offered the  chance to drive with AIM Motorsport based in Stoke.

For the time being he is weighing up his options for  next season, but proud mum Joanne is just happy that  Alex has progressed so well in his first year of racing.

“It is a really outstanding achievement because there  are 72 drivers in qualifying battling to make the races,”  said Joanne.

“They are racing at around 75mph and with the  classes worked out by both the age and weight of the  drivers, it means Alex can be up against older drivers  who have been racing for a couple of years.

“But he has done really well and we will just have to  see how things go over the next couple of seasons and see  how far he can go.”