For the second national meeting in succession, and for the second time around the same circuit, highly-regarded Sale-based karting star Jay Goodwin ably demonstrated that he has the pace to be a front-runner at the highest level in 2010 – except for the second time in as many weeks, Lady Luck failed to smile upon him.
Having run inside the top five throughout the curtain-raiser for Formula Kart Stars (FKS) around the technical and challenging Cumbrian track of Rowrah – only to be denied in the end by the over-eagerness of some of his rivals, as he found himself torpedoed out of the reckoning almost within sight of the chequered flag – Jay returned there a fortnight later for round two of fellow British championship Super 1 confident in his ability to feature up at the sharp end.
A relatively slow start on the opening day made way to scintillating speed come Saturday morning, when the Ashton-upon-Mersey hotshot lapped fifth and second-quickest in the last two practice sessions once everybody had bolted new rubber on. Amongst the 50-strong Mini Max class field – the very crème de la crème of young home-grown talent at that level – Jay went on to qualify a solid tenth, less than three tenths of a second shy of the leading pace. Whilst he admitted that was ‘nothing to get excited about’, the 12-year-old was nonetheless convinced he had the potential to be considerably higher.
“Unfortunately, on what should have been my fastest lap I made a mistake that cost me a top position,” he explained. “I came down the hill, round the left-hand kink and then sharp 90-degree right which you need to quickly swap your feet over for. I did that too late, which put me outside on the ‘marbles’; the back end of the kart then came round and sent me into a half-spin. I managed to regain my composure again, but it took a lot of time to get the heat back into the tyres as a result.”
Acknowledging that ‘the competition was extremely tough’ as he did battle with ‘the best drivers in the country’, Jay finished a competitive seventh in his first heat after admitting to ‘not getting stuck in’ sufficiently – before going on to maturely take that on-board for heat two when he raced hard and well for an impressive fifth place, barely a second shy of victory.
“I got a horrendous start and the lead pack managed to get away,” recalled the Evolution Racing speed demon, “but I managed to fight my way back through. When I got into fifth, the four drivers in front of me were the whole length of the straight ahead – but even though they weren’t battling each other at that stage, I was catching them by two tenths a lap. When they did start battling I began to catch them even quicker, and I got right onto the back of them by the end and really got stuck in.
“On the last lap I had the same driver behind me who had taken me out of both heats in FKS, though, and behind him there was a big gap, so I used my head and let him past because I didn’t want to risk him ruining my race again and end up at the back of the ‘A’ Final grid or even in the ‘B’ Final. That one point I sacrificed would have made the difference between 12th and ninth on the grid for the pre-final, but I would much rather be starting 12th in the ‘A’ Final than fourth in the ‘B’.”
Displaying an intelligent approach that belies his tender years, the North Cestrian Grammar School pupil subsequently had to endure an unruly start to the pre-final, which was red-flagged twice due to collisions. The first of them, indeed, saw him sent over the ‘rumble strip’ and then needing to take avoiding action after a driver who had been knocked spinning off came shooting back across the track again, clipping Jay’s kart and similarly sending him barrier-bound.
“I got up to seventh, but then two other drivers came past me,” he recalled of the race after it belatedly got going at the third time of asking. “We all pushed each other along to try to get to the front pack, and then one of them dropped out so it was just two of us. We battled up to the last lap. I made a good move on him to regain seventh, but then because I didn’t defend well enough he was able to get me back again so I ended up eighth.
“In the grand final I got off to a decent start and the first six laps or so were really fun, but then the race just turned into chaos with lots of drivers crashing – and some of them you couldn’t avoid unless you went off onto the grass yourself. At one point the guy ahead braked miles too early for the corner and I drove over the top of him – that pretty much ruined my race.”
An entirely unrepresentative 19th at the close, Jay is now bidding to banish his bad luck and finally get some results on the board when he travels to Whilton Mill in May for Super 1 and then a week later FKS. Having shone around the Northants track – a real drivers’ circuit again – in 2009, and boosted by having received for the third time the Lewis Hamilton ‘True Grit’ award for his spellbinding charge up through the order when FKS visited Rowrah earlier this month, the Matrix and Joe Bloggs-backed ace remains optimistic of turning things around.
“I’m still quite confident,” he asserted in conclusion. “It was really pleasing to get the ‘True Grit’ award again, because it shows I can fight my way through the pack, and that my racecraft and overtaking skills are good. Last year I put it on pole at Whilton in Super 1 and finished fourth from 22nd on the grid in the final meeting of FKS. I’ve always been quick there, so this time I want to qualify up at the front and then stay there!
The Lewis Hamilton accolade is presented to the FKS competitor who pulls off the most overtaking manoeuvres during the course of the day, and at Rowrah Jay soared through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter to finish inside the top ten from 29th and plum last on the starting grid. Given that the man after whom the award is named has been by far-and-away the most prolific overtaker of F1 2010 thus far, he would doubtless approve of its latest recipient.
