After a conclusive victory in 2010, CUAC's Varsity team arrived at Bayford Meadows Kart Circuit for the annual Varsity race, quietly confident of another success on May 10th, but were greeted by an early and thoroughly stash-clad Oxford team looking worryingly well-organised.

Conditions were hot and sunny, and initial testing went well with all ten Cambridge drivers making good progress on a track completely new to the majority of them.  They worked well together to get the most from the 115cc TKM karts.

Cambridge started qualification well despite little idea of the pace that the Oxford drivers would have to offer. But a series of spins from drivers on both sides disrupted much of the short 5-minute window on track and created a very mixed grid for the race start with Oxford dominating the higher places.

Cambridge's Sam Massey took pole, leading Sam Rebbettes and Dmitri Zaporozhets of Oxford off the line.

As the union flag fell for the rolling start, Cambridge made significant gains in the early corners and held their nerve to fight for position in the bunched-up pack, recovering ground from their poor qualifying performance. After the first laps, the field began to spread out with Cambridge's Sam Massey stretching out what would prove an insurmountable lead from pole position.

Meanwhile, a fierce 4-way battle developed for 2nd place that would see Richard Morris on track to complete a one-two finish for the team. But unfortunately, he was ultimately unable to hold the position until the finish.

The intensity of the race took its toll as fast but comparatively inexperienced drivers from Cambridge made errors under pressure: Alex Thewsey span out after taking 5th place and Ed Bellamy succumbed to pressure from a strong Oxford mid-field to drop down the rankings.

Eventually, despite valiant efforts to fight back against the Dark Blue tide, the superior skill of the Oxford side was undeniable as the table became increasingly segregated.

At the end of a starkly contrasting race for CUAC, the team finished with Sam Massey topping the table to take home the winning driver's trophy and Richard Morris securing 5th. But the rest of the top ten remained exclusively Dark Blue leaving the Cambridge team to fill the bottom five positions.

The club was disappointed with the result but accepted it simply had not been prepared on the day to face the fierce opposition Oxford supplied.

Undeterred by the defeat, the club now aim to get more students involved to add to the 38 regular competitors in their open entry University Championship in order to come back fighting in the British Universities' Karting Championship in the new academic year.

And as Britain's second oldest surviving motor club with a list of alumni featuring the Aston Martin-founder and Harry Ralph Ricardo, the precedent is set for a return to the top standard at national level.