Jay Goodwin travelled to Kimbolton for the Cambridgeshire circuit’s club championship finale endeavouring to overcome the odds and snatch title glory away from under the nose of season-long rival Toby Reynolds – and whilst he would ultimately come up just short following a valiant effort, the Sale-based star had nonetheless sent out a warning sign for 2010.
Indeed, ahead of the weekend, Jay was such an underdog and the championship crown such a long shot that the 12-year-old admitted his primary goal was to hang onto second place in the standings – the product of having missed two meetings earlier in the campaign and suffered ill-fortune and low scores in two more.
After setting the pace during practice, though, it seemed the laurels may not be entirely out of reach, and that scintillating raw speed was maintained on race day morning as the heavens opened – but then Jay’s bid began to unravel...
“We were really quick on the Saturday,” recounted the Ashton-upon-Mersey ace, “and we were still really quick in three-lap practice on Sunday morning, but then we changed something on the kart before the heats which caused it to lose a lot of its power and grip. I could stay with the other drivers, but I didn’t have the same edge on them that I’d had the previous day – and that made things a bit harder.
“I finished third from ninth in heat one which was respectable, but I had been aiming to win, and then in the second heat I used all of my experience to battle my way through from 16th to fourth. I started fourth in the final, got a good start up to third and then the kart came on really well – but after that it just began to fade and fade until I could hardly even turn into the corners. It was just lacking a bit of everything really, and though I finished fourth – which again I thought was respectable in the circumstances – I ended up narrowly missing out on the championship.
“I had got my hopes up a bit about the title after our pace on the first day, but second was still pretty good on reflection and the best I’ve ever done in a club championship – my previous best was tenth at Three Sisters last year. I was quite pleased, though it was frustrating to know that without the crash we had at the start of the year that cost us 50 or 60 points we could easily have won it – but not everything goes the way you want it to, does it? If my auntie was a boy she would be my uncle; ‘if’ is a very big word...”
The margin of defeat in the final reckoning was a scant eight points – a remarkable accomplishment when taking into account the fact that Jay only scored solid points in six of the ten rounds – and as the North Cestrian Grammar School pupil prepares to focus on his national challenge rather than club meetings in 2010, it was a fine manner in which to sign off.
He might lament the fact that the Mini Max class is open to competitors as old as 16 in leading British championships Formula Kart Stars (FKS) and Super 1 – ‘I’m only being beaten on age and size, because a lot of the other drivers are stronger and more experienced than I am’, he rues – but have no doubt, the Evolution Racing speed demon will be a contender from the word ‘go’ next year. Smaller and less experienced at national level he may be, but in 2010 Jay Goodwin is ready to take on the big boys.
