Luke started karting in April 2000, learning his race and track craft on an old Project One Cadet chassis that his father bought for him. After a full year of learning, he made the switch to Birel chassis for racing on and used two JVC tuned Comer S60 engines. Entering his first race on the 23rd April 2001 and achieving instant success, Luke raced his way to 15th and 16th places in two of the local club championships that year.

2002 was a huge step up for Luke; at 12 he became a works driver for Birel UK and ACR, racing in the last ever Champions of the Future series and the inaugural MiniMax Junior National Championship. The season was one of importance for Luke, taking 21st in that series despite having to withdraw after 2 rounds. A painful pre-season testing injury restricted a great deal of track time but at club level Luke was achieving widespread success, taking 3rd at Bayford Meadows in a club championship hindered by a painful muscle tear mid-season and another 3rd at Lydd International Raceway, narrowly missing out on championship victory at one even though he competed just a single round. To his delight, Luke was asked to test and develop the CRG chassis that year by his engine builder DG Racing.

For 2003 and 2004 Luke spent time testing the Birel chassis but couldn't compete without a strong budget. None the less, in 2005 he returned with success at the Super 1 National Championships for Junior Max in the first round, taking some good points finishes despite his chassis being 3 years old. It was at that race where a deal was done to partner Luke with then Senior Max driver Dean Waters as a mechanic for the rest of the season. Luke switched to rival chassis TonyKart, albeit very briefly and contested a few rounds of the BPKC Club Championship and tested frequently at LIR. At the end of the season, a disagreement about the direction of Luke's racing between his Dad and mechanic Dean saw them part company in unfortunate circumstances.

2006 was sure to be a good year, Luke moving to the improving Intrepid chassis to race in Senior Max, but a tough year and another struggle to find funds saw Luke test the chassis for a year. In 2007 Luke was back to his competitive ways, racing in Senior Max at the Super One Series. At the first round Luke was racing closely for 3rd when an unfortunate incident saw him pitched into the barriers and from then on the title aspirations were finished. Injuries that day resulted in a long lay off and at round two the lack of seat time started to show. Luke passed some of the top UK drivers in the heats and a storming drive in the B final saw Luke close to the A final qualification places but it wasn't enough. An unsatisfactory round 3 didn't help promote Luke up the points tables, round 4 at Rowrah saw Luke challenge British then number 1 in qualifying only for it to go wrong on the way down the hill. Missing round 5 at Wigan to try and close on a BARC Formula Renault deal for 2008 made little difference and at the final round, Luke was 3 tenths faster than the then title holder only to be wrongly black flagged and excluded for a marshalling error. In the winter, Luke competed at BMKC in their close season championship where Luke finished 8th despite only competing 3 rounds, things looked on the up.

This year was a fresh start, with a new Intrepid chassis and a move to Coles Racing saw Luke unsuccessfully contest round 1 at a foggy and near undrivable race meeting on a WildKart due to manufacturing delays at Intrepid, missing round 2 when the race transporter failed saw Luke head to home circuit Buckmore Park for round 3 eager to make up for lost points. However, luck wasn't with LJR on this occasion and despite an unofficial lap record it just wasn't what he had hoped for. Round 4 at PFi was Luke's final round, we weren't aware of it at the time, but various mechanical failures saw an unsatisfactory end to Luke's karting for the season.

Who knows what 2009 holds for Luke as he looks set to finally make the jump to cars but we wish him well.

Happy Birthday Luke

The LJR team