Having challenged for the British Mini Max Championship crown in 2009, Harry Crawley has taken a step up the motorsport ladder in 2010 in graduating to the more powerful and fiercely-competitive Junior Max level – and in his first national outing in the hotly-fought Super 1 Series curtain-raiser at PF International, the young Dartford star rapidly demonstrated that he will be right up at the sharp end once more.
Harry has an enviable record at Lincolnshire circuit PF, having stormed to a superb maiden Junior Max victory there only third time out in the class in the 2009/10 Winter Series and having raced to an imperious triumph in the teeming rain in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship last summer.
Fast again from the get-go in practice and right up at the pointy end in the 54-strong bumper Super 1 field comprising the very crème de la crème of UK Junior Max talent, third position in qualifying – a whisker behind reigning FKS Champion Matt Parry, the acknowledged benchmark in the class – was an excellent way to begin. The frustratingly unpredictable weather conditions over the weekend, however – every time it looked like it was going to dry up, the heavens would open – did not make things easy.
“I was just hoping to score a good, solid top five result and then keep on getting better throughout the year,” the Hawley-based hotshot revealed of his objectives for what was still only his second major outing in Junior Max, having finished a brilliant fifth in the Euro Max Winter Cup at Malaga in Spain last month.
“The competition in Super 1 is really tough with a lot of very good drivers, and the racing in Junior Max is quite aggressive too – and this was probably the most aggressive meeting I’ve been in so far. If you make just a single mistake you pay the price for it, but I’m used to that pressure now.
“I like PF a lot – it’s quite undulating, with a lot of different varieties of corners. It has a nice mix of fast and slow sections, and is an enjoyable circuit to drive. Having proved that I’m quick there in both the wet and the dry was also a bit of a confidence boost going into the weekend.
“It does make it a lot tougher having to keep adapting according to the way the weather changes, though. It can get quite annoying, because if you are about to go out and then suddenly it starts lashing it down with rain, you have to hurriedly make the necessary changes to the kart. That throws in an added element of pressure – but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to manage the best you can with what you’ve got.
“I was very pleased with qualifying, but I made a mistake on my quickest lap and just caught one of the wet patches on the track which cost me a tenth or so. I was only two hundredths off P2 in the end, so whilst I was happy with third for my first time in Junior Max in Super 1, I also knew it could have been even better.”
Third again in heat one was a very solid result, and in heat two Harry snatched the lead into the first corner and never looked back, mastering a generally dry surface dotted with wet patches to absolute perfection and putting in impressively consistent lap times throughout to seal a dominant five-second victory – a near eternity in karting terms – and annex the outside front row starting spot for the pre-final.
Converting that into sixth at the chequered flag after experiencing the inevitable learning pains in a new class, a ‘lively’ opening lap in the all-important grand final later in the day sent the 13-year-old – one of the youngest competitors in a category open to drivers as old as 16 – plummeting down the order to 15th place. Undefeated, he went on to battle back magnificently to grab fourth position at the close, setting a better fastest lap time along the way than both the winner and runner-up and sending out a calling card to his adversaries that they would do well to watch out for Harry Crawley in future races.
“Halfway round the first corner I got tapped from behind, sending me out wide and allowing a lot of drivers to dive up the inside of me,” recollected the Evolution Racing speed demon. “That was an early blow, but I just had to put it behind me and get on with the job. I got my head down and was overtaking practically every lap; my pace was good, especially given that my fastest lap was on a lap when I overtook someone.
“Without what happened at the start, I’m fairly sure a podium would have been on the cards. I was happy with the outcome in the end, though, and I’m going to keep on getting better throughout the season – and hopefully that will show through in my performances and results.”
That it surely will, and after maturely putting his learning pains down to experience, the Wilmington Grammar School for Boys pupil will travel next to Rowrah. The Cumbrian track is a real drivers’ circuit and one that he loves – “It’s really, really difficult to get right, but when you do it’s extremely rewarding,” he explains – and one where in FKS last year he claimed pole position, won the pre-final, set a new lap record into the bargain and was looking in good shape to complete the set with grand final glory too when his chain agonisingly came off on the way around to the starting grid. His rivals should indeed be on their guard – Rowrah owes Harry...
