Nathan Harrison was lucky to escape with ‘severe whiplash’ after his kart speared into barriers following a collision in the third round of the Super One Rotax Championship.

The 14-year old, from Cumnor Hill, Oxford, went into the event at Rowrah in Cumbria as the points leader, but now faces a race against time to be fit for the series’ next race in three weeks.

Having claimed four consecutive podiums in the first two rounds, Harrison looked on course for another top-three spot, when he avoided an accident in front of him, but ended up being thrown out of his kart after crashing into a tyre wall.

“At first the paramedics thought I’d broken my neck,” Harrison explained.

“But at the hospital the doctors told me it was whiplash.

“It should gradually ease and I’m hoping I’ll be OK to race in Scotland.”