James Pull believes his best is still to come after a frustrating weekend in the MSA Formula Championship.
The 15-year-old JTR driver was unable to make an impression in his first-ever outing at Croft.
His lack of race time at the track was compounded by difficult practice and qualifying sessions that left him with too much to do later on.
But as he goes into a six-week summer break, the ADD Motorsports-supported teenager knows that more familiar tracks will be on the calendar on his return.
The driver, from Singapore, now living in Herts, said: “It was a really frustrating weekend.
“There was the problem of racing at the track for the first time to start with, but then one practice was in wet and one in dry, meaning I went into qualifying with just one spell in the dry.
“Then someone hit me coming out of the pits and damaged my front wing so I lost five minutes of qualifying.
“It left me on the backfoot for the whole weekend.
“There’s a six week break now, but I’ll come back stronger.
”I know a lot of the tracks we’ll be racing at really well and we known I’m fast on them. I’m confident things will be better in the second half of the season.”
James finished 14th and 15th in qualifying after his time was cut short on the track after being hit by another driver as he left the pits.
On a track where overtaking is difficult, James was left with a lot to do in the first race - but he managed a 12th place finish.
He started 12th in the second race and was feeling more confident about the track when he encountered more bad luck with a wheel coming loose.
It meant he had to go a lot slower on corners and although he finished 11th, he felt he could have challenged the drivers in front had he been able to put everything into it.
James started 15th in the final race of the weekend and had some difficulties with his traction that again prevented him from making an impression as he finished in 13th place.
Despite the disappointing weekend, he remained positive and hopes to be challenging for podiums again in the second half of the season.
He added: “I’m going to be training hard and testing during the break.
“I had such a good start to the season but things have trailed off for the past few rounds – especially at the tracks where I’ve not been able to test before.
“I know the last three tracks I’ll be racing at so I’ll hopefully be back to my early season form in the second half of the season.
“But first I’m going to go back to Singapore to see my family and have a few weeks off to recharge my batteries. I haven’t been home for six months now and am really looking forward to it.
“I’ll be even more determined when I come back.”
