James Singleton produced a mesmerising performance in the opening round of the 2010 Rotax Max Euro Challenge at Salbris in France to put a run of ill-fortune successfully behind him and gain a staggering 37 places between the heats and the grand final for a strong top ten finish on European soil – and get the better of both the reigning British and World Champions into the bargain.

With his confidence boosted off the back of a superb international debut in the hotly-contested Winter Cup at Malaga in Spain – in which he had incredibly stormed to pole position up against the very crème de la crème of global talent at Junior Rotax level, and followed that up with a podium finish on race day – James travelled across the Channel in optimistic mood. That optimism would rapidly prove to be well-founded.

“The circuit is great!” enthused the highly-rated North Walian. “It’s really fast and flowing, and you need to have good co-ordination to go well around there because it’s easy to make a mistake, and when you do the kerbs are really close to the tyre walls – so you’re driving just inches away from disaster all the time! That makes it really hard to get right!

“The competition in the Winter Cup had been really tough, so we were on a real high for Salbris after that. We were well on it straightaway in practice and really fast – two tenths up the road from anyone else which was a bit of a surprise. I thought I’d need to find my way around a bit first, but Ukyo Sasahara was following me around on Wednesday!”

Given that Sasahara is the defending world champion and Winter Cup winner, if that wasn’t an endorsement of James’ pace, then nothing would be. Having been so quick in the dry, however, the unwelcome and unexpected onset of rain on Thursday sent the 14-year-old’s preparations spiralling right off-track – and the heavens would not truly relent again until the end of the weekend.

“Unfortunately, we were out in the slower session when hail showers hit the track,” the Conwy-based ace recounted of qualifying, “so whilst I was fifth-fastest in my group which was pretty good, that only equated to 20th overall when normally it would have been inside the top ten. We couldn’t quite get the set-up or tyre pressures right in the wet, probably because we hadn’t had enough previous testing time in those conditions.

“I started all of my heats from tenth, and I was just hoping to get some good results to set myself up well for the finals – but not one of them went right! In heat one I made a fairly good start, but then approaching the first corner someone made a slight mistake in front of me and spun round into me. That knocked me down ten places, and it was hard to fight my way back through again from there.”

A perhaps appropriately unlucky 13th at the chequered flag, that result, however, would prove to be relatively fortunate in comparison with what followed, with a coming-together leading to an early bath in heat two and a snapped chain that catapulted itself straight through the Coles Racing star’s radiator on the warming-up lap for heat three leading to one failure to finish and one failure even to start.

“It was chaos!” he acknowledged. “In the second heat I got a really good start up to fifth, and then I got to the long sweeper at the bottom of the circuit and tried to go up the inside of someone – but I don’t think he saw me and he turned in. That spun me round, after which somebody else collected me and went straight over the top of my kart which took my radiator off. Then two laps later one of the wheels fell off!”

His woes during the heats left the Penmaenmawr speed demon a desultory and unrepresentative 44th of the 47 competitors in the intermediate rankings, and right down towards the back of the grid for the second-chance repêchage, not by any stretch of the imagination what he had envisioned four days earlier during practice.

With only six of the 19 participants able to progress through to the finals, the pressure was on with a vengeance – but in what was undeniably a nerve-wracking situation, James commendably displayed nerves of steel. Overcoming a deluge, being spun round on the opening lap and a red flag that meant he had to climb through the field all over again, the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil ultimately came in an excellent fifth – and with it assured himself of a place in the pre-final, which he would begin from 33rd out of 34.

“The goal was simply to keep it on-track, move forwards and get a better starting position for the grand final to have a good chance of picking up some points,” he explained, though greasy conditions once again did not make things easy. “Our aim this year is to finish in the top three in the championship to be able to progress through to the World Finals, so consistency is key.

“I got a brilliant start and was up to 15th within a couple of corners – I was over-the-moon with that! Unfortunately, I then went for the same move I had tried before in the second heat into the long sweeper – with the same result. That put me off the track and earned me a telling-off from my team, but I learned my lesson for the grand final and didn’t try it again!

“We knew our pace hadn’t been the best in the pre-final and the kart still wasn’t handling that well in the wet, so we were just hoping to get a good start in the grand final and then progress from there. I got spat out a bit in the second hairpin, which cost me a few positions, but after that I just got my head down and moved forwards. We had changed the set-up a bit since the pre-final and our pace was better, and we ended up seventh.

“We were really pleased with that, and we didn’t come out of the meeting with a bent chassis either, unlike some other drivers! As we progress through the season now the goal is to move up the order – and I’m only going to get stronger.”

That much seems indisputable, and the fact that James finished ahead of both Sasahara and 2009 British Champion Jack Barlow was encouraging indeed for the remainder of the Euro Max campaign. To come through from virtually last place following the heats to a top ten finish in the grand final was a magnificent and quite unprecedented achievement – though in round two at Wackersdorf in Germany, the teenager admitted he hopes he will not have to pull off quite the same recovery drive.

In the meantime, James has the second meeting on the national Super 1 Series calendar at Rowrah in Cumbria to focus his efforts upon. Having brilliantly secured pole position on his British Junior Max bow in the Super 1 curtain-raiser at PF International last month, he subsequently found himself battered around from pillar to post in the races – the inevitable learning pains of being ‘welcomed’ and initiated into a new class – but it is clear that he is learning fast, and just as clear that his raw speed is already there in abundance.

Make no mistake. Returning to one of the country’s true drivers’ circuits, James Singleton is fired-up – and ready to rediscover the rostrum.

James is seeking sponsors to help support him in 2010, and if you are interested in backing North Wales’ brightest young F1 hope, please contact his father Mark on 07795 297350 or at: gwyneddforklifts@ukf.net