16-year-old Alyx Coby, from Newbridge, Co. Kildare travelled to Circuit Jean Brun in Varennes-sur-Allier, France last weekend to compete in the IAME France Ladies Cup. The event, organised as a one-off race during the second round of the French National Karting Championship, featured an all-female grid of twenty-one drivers between the ages of 14 and 18. Now in its second year, the event draws the top female drivers from across Europe. Alyx was delighted to receive the support of the CJJ Motorsports team to compete at this event. Founded by Irish-American businessman John Campion and his wife Suzanne, CJJ Motorsports aims to support the next generation of Irish racing drivers, giving them the tools they need to further their careers in motorsport. Having never raced at the French circuit before, Alyx had five practice runs on Friday to familiarise herself with the track. After running the new engine in for the early stages of the first run, Alyx was immediately on the pace in the second run, setting the fastest lap of the session – a good sign for the weekend ahead! Saturday began with a warm up before the all-important qualifying session. A good qualifying position was going to be crucial as this would determine starting position for all three of the afternoon’s heats. The high speed layout of the 1500-metre-long track, with three long straights and only five braking points, meant it required careful planning in order to be close enough to the kart in front to get a tow down the straights but not too close to get blocked in the corners. In a tightly fought contest, Alyx qualified in third position, just sixteen hundredths of a second behind the leader, with less than a second separating the top eighteen drivers. After falling back to fifth place at the first corner in the first heat, Alyx made her way up to fourth my mid-distance and, with a close three-way battle for third place for the remainder of the race, finished in that position. With the pole driver making a slow start in heat two, Alyx dropped to fourth place before regaining third by the end of the opening lap and moving up to second position one lap later. A string of fast laps then saw the top three open a five second gap to the chasing...