Luck-wise at least, not a lot has been going right for exciting young Peterborough karting star Callum Bowyer since his recent graduation to the KF2 class – but provided he gets all of his ill-fortune out of the way over the winter months, he has swiftly proven that he will be a force to be reckoned with indeed in 2010.
After superbly finishing second in Britain in his maiden season of KF3 level competition in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship in 2009, Callum has made the step up to KF2 with eye-catching ease, immediately on the leading pace and already taking the fight to some of the class’ far more experienced contenders.
However, as he headed to PF International for his final outing of the year still suffering from the effects of a stinking cold that had caused him to lose 5lbs in the preceding week, the 15-year-old found himself battling against the odds right from the word ‘go’.
“It was all a bit of a nightmare really,” he confessed. “Now we’ve gone into KF2 we have to upgrade to an International ‘B’ licence, which requires a medical and can be quite a long process. I was testing at PF on the Friday, and then my mum rang us at midday and said ‘you’re not going to be racing this weekend, because we can’t get the medical and licence all sorted out in such a short space of time’.
“I was obviously disappointed, but we knew we had to just try our hardest to get it all sorted, so we raced back home, got the medical done and they faxed it through to [British motorsport governing body] the MSA so that we could compete in the meeting. It was all pretty hectic, and an added complication that we didn’t really need, to be honest.
“I had also been off school ill and laid-up in bed all week, just hoping I would get better in time for the weekend. I thought having not been able to train and having barely been eating would affect me in the kart, but fortunately I was alright. I think the adrenaline probably helped me to overcome it to be able to race, but since the weekend it has come back again with a vengeance!
“In the wet on Saturday morning we were half a second up the road, but as the track dried out we bolted the race motor on and encountered some electronic problems. That meant we didn’t get a proper reading of the circuit in the dry, but I was still feeling confident. It was a bit of a shock to see the weather on Sunday morning, though! We went out to walk around the track and it was still dark because it was raining so much. I thought they would have to cancel it to be honest, but thankfully it dried out enough for us to be able to race.”
From the very rear of the grid in heat one, Callum’s electronic woes would unfortunately come back to haunt him, but still he made the best of a bad situation to snatch a laudable third place. The Gunthorpe ace then went on to triumph comfortably in the second heat from pole position, impressively lapping a quarter of a second out of reach of any of his rivals – and, incredibly, quicker than some of the KF1 drivers in the same race, despite benefitting from 1,000 fewer revs – to earn himself an outside front row starting slot for the all-important final.
“We could hardly see a thing going into the first corner in heat one,” recalled the Chris Rogers-run speed demon, “and then on the second lap all the electrics went again – whether the rain had got into the engine and left it waterlogged we don’t know, but we put all fresh electrics in for the rest of the day and it was fine – and after that we were just pootling around to finish really. There were lots of incidents with people spinning off in the conditions, but we managed to come home third, which I thought was pretty good considering we were two seconds a lap off the pace!
“In the final we dropped down to third at the start with being on the outside line, but coming back through again the kart came on brilliantly. I was consistently catching the leader Jake Lloyd by two to three tenths a lap, and with five minutes still to go I was just six kart-lengths behind him – and then the axle snapped, which is something that had never happened before, and touchwood never will again.
“It would have been really good to win, considering I had been ill all week and the whole episode with the licence. Everything had been looking perfect and there was more than enough time left to catch Jake – and I was just getting faster and faster. I was disappointed, because that’s two finals on the trot now that we’ve been sitting in P2 gaining on the leader and have had to retire – at Shenington the engine blew up and at PF the axle went, which has potentially given away two wins. Whether we would have won or not I don’t know, but we would certainly have had a good crack at it!”
Nonetheless, there remains the hope that Callum’s luck will change for the second half of the 2009/10 Winter Series campaign and that a return to Shenington in early January will transpire to be third time lucky. Having ably proved that he belongs in his new surroundings, the Ken Stimpson School pupil now has the coveted ‘O’ Plate trophy – the spoils of success for the Winter Series Champion – firmly in his sights.
“On dropped scores we are still sitting third, just eight points off the lead and one point off second with two rounds to go,” he concluded. “You get more points for the finals than for the heats, so taking that into consideration I think we’re doing pretty well. What we need now is to have no DNFs and to beat the championship leader by a couple of places every time – and with more drivers due to enter the next two meetings, it would be good if some of them can finish in-between me and him as well.
“We’ve gone out and shown that we are meant to be here. I’m a lot more confident with everything now, and though we’ve clearly not had the results we should have had, we’ve got nothing to worry about pace-wise in KF2 – everyone can see that we’re getting better and better every time we get out on the track.”
