Back in late 1996, after enjoying indoor karting for 3 years with some success, Richard Johnson at the 'youthful' age of 42 acquired a '95 Wright pro-kart. At the inaugural test run at the small concrete circuit Whilton Mill (the national track didn't exist at that time), Richard met another driver also on his 1st test run -Ken Cherry driving a '95 Knight. Richard with his 'engine manufacturing' technical background enjoyed preparing his own motors and soon lent a helping hand looking after Ken's engines as well. After further test sessions at Whilton they decided to take the plunge & both enter their first race at Stretton in 1997.In 1998 Richard went on to win the Stretton Drivers Championship '1hr endurance' on the Wright, using self prepared engines.For 1999 Richard entered the Ancaster pro-kart championship, went quite well and learned much from more experienced younger drivers, realising an up-to-date chassis was needed! At the start of 2000 Richard & Ken both acquired brand new Solo pro-karts and in late 2000 Ken hatched an idea to start an owner driver series at Caxton.The Caxton Pro-Kart Sprint championship commenced in 2001, organised by Ken. Richard finishing 2nd in the championship that year and Ken finishing 5th with engines prepared by Richard. It had been noticed that kart engines were appearing more often at Caxton with logo's on the air boxes. Various people will know Ken's kart number has always been 51, (after area 'fifty one' and its connotations with mysterious flying objects) so Richard decided to label the engines 'UFO'............. Ken finished 3rd in the 2002 Caxton Pro-Kart Sprint Championship, went on to win the championship in 2003 and in 2004 finished 3rd, all with 'UFO' engines prepared by Richard.
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