News

SSI Karting Intervarsities - Round 2 News: results

Posted On 9th Feb 2026
Posted By Racing/Motorsport
Author CHLOE KELLETT (President)
Location Nutts Corner, Northern Ireland

Student Sport Ireland Karting Intervarsity’s – Round 2


Round two of the 2025/26 SSI Karting season took us to Nutt’s Corner, just outside Belfast, county Antrim. Wet weather conditions, alongside a very loose interpretation of the word “stewarding” set us up for a morning of challenging and aggressive racing, where one really had to get the shoulders out to make any sort of forward progress.

The team of 5 travelled up to Belfast the night before, to the tune of Irelands world cup qualifier against Portugal on the radio. A great result in Dublin for the boys in green really motivating us to aim for similar success on track the next day. It was an early start, arriving at a cold and wintery track just before 9 in the morning for sign in. Waterproof race suits were handed out to any drivers that didn’t have one, which were promptly put on by the drivers of every college, that is except for UL. A message to the other teams perhaps that we weren’t here to mess about!

The event started with a short practice session for each of the drivers. Each driver only had about 5 minutes on track, not long at all, but perhaps a brief chance to get a feel for the slippery conditions and explore some alternative racing lines. Before we knew it, we were out of the karts, and drivers were called for Heat 1. There were 14 Heats in total, short 8 minute races where you had to be aggressive off the line to stand any chance. Each driver had 4 Heats, and scored points based on finishing position to try and book their spot in one of two semi finals, with 15 drivers in each heat, and 8 spots in each semi final.

Heat 1 started strong, with Reece leading the field away from pole position. Some say that he really should have won the race, after pulling a strong gap in the first lap, however an unfair signal from the steward to slow down bunched the pack up and costed the team what should have been a runaway win (100% accurate account of events!).

After that, each race came and went in very quick succession, with very little time to relax in between. Between the team we brought home a heat win, and a number of podium results. Conditions cleared up as the day went on, although that certainly didn’t prevent carnage from unfolding on track. There were bumps, bangs and even a bit of lawnmower racing at times. The crash barriers were certainly well tested by some of the Dublin Universities.

After all the excitement, the team headed inside to hear the top 16 called out. Ben McNulty managed to string together enough good results to get himself into the second semi-final. Nerves were high as we watched on to see if our man could make it a first appearance in the final for UL in a number of years.

He started 7th, needing a top 4 finish. With not a lot of time on the clock, he marched forward, finishing 4th, and securing points. Unfortunately, a kart that couldn’t get any sort of top speed on the straights halted any further forward progress in the final, however that didn’t dampen what was a great result, with our first appearance in the final since UL’s return to competitive racing in 2024.

The next round will take us to Watergrasshill in Cork, where hopefully homefield advantage will allow for a repeat of the success in Belfast. It’s sure to be another great day out for all involved!

- Daniel Candon

Create your account today

Explore everything that UL Wolves has to offer.

UL Wolves does not use any third-party cookies. We only use cookies required for the website to function. No personal data is shared outside of UL Wolves.

By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to the UL Wolves Privacy Notice