He might have admitted to being ‘very doubtful’ that he would actually be fit enough to return in time for the fourth round of 2010 in the hotly-fought national Super 1 Series at Buckmore Park, but only three weeks on from breaking his arm, highly-rated young Sale-based karting star Jay Goodwin was back in action – and back in style.
A rival’s moment of inattention during practice for a club meeting at the beginning of June at PF International had caused an accident that left the radius in Jay’s arm close to his wrist ‘hanging on by a thread’ – and occurring just 20 days away from Super 1’s trip to Buckmore, the 13-year-old’s prospects looked bleak.
Worse still, a planned test day at the challenging Kent circuit in the interim period had to be cancelled – a significant blow given Jay had little real experience of the track from only two prior outings there in his fledgling karting career – and indeed, he had no chance to test anywhere as he gave his arm maximum opportunity to heal in time. Hardly ideal preparations, all-told.
“I was very doubtful I’d actually be back for Buckmore,” he confessed, “and I didn’t know if I would still be quick or if I had lost that. It had been so boring not being able to do anything sport-wise – I couldn’t even run, and I couldn’t drive which obviously was the worst part. I really missed that.
“Once I knew I was definitely racing, I didn’t really have any expectations for the weekend – my only expectation was to get back in the kart and get my wrist feeling right again. I don’t enjoy driving at Buckmore – in my opinion it’s the worst possible circuit you can race at, because there are blind corners and there’s no run-off, making it really dangerous.”
That, unfortunately, would be corroborated in Jay’s second heat, but the good news was that the Ashton-upon-Mersey hotshot was back on the grid and – after settling steadily back into the groove during practice, and giving himself a welcome confidence boost by posting the fourth-quickest lap time in the last session of the opening day – back on the pace too, happily displaying no lasting ill-effects from his bad break.
Whilst admitting that his arm and wrist were still far from 100 per cent, Jay gutsily put the pain to the back of his mind and proved that he had adjusted well, and in a tremendously tight qualifying session, 11th position in his group at just under half a second shy of the outright benchmark left the North Cestrian Grammar School pupil 26th overall out of the 47 Mini Max class competitors – the very crème de la crème of homegrown talent at that level – and satisfied with his form.
Feeling confident, the Evolution Racing ace overcame a torrid start to his first heat that dropped him right down to the rear of the field to work his way impressively back through the pack to 11th at the chequered flag – more than achieving his objective of a top 15 finish and evincing strong pace and racecraft along the way. And then came heat two...
“On the second lap Oli Myers’ steering broke, and when he tried to turn into the pits his kart wouldn’t turn,” he recounted. “Coming around the blind last corner, I didn’t see him and hit him flat-out from behind at 70mph. His kart was bent really badly, but the front of mine took all the impact so fortunately it didn’t really hurt. That just shows why Buckmore is so dangerous, though.”
The last thing he needed as he recovers from a broken arm was another sizeable accident, but Jay maturely shrugged his misfortune off and focussed on battling his way successfully through the second-chance ‘B’ final, which he would begin from 12th, knowing he needed a top four finish to progress on to the two all-important ‘A’ finals. Fulfilling that brief to perfection, he raced well and wound up second, right in the winner’s wheeltracks, to seal 28th spot on the starting grid for the first ‘A’ final.
“The pressure was definitely on in the ‘B’ final,” he acknowledged, “because I knew if I didn’t get through, I wouldn’t get any championship points and would just be going home instead. At the start I initially dropped down to 15th, but I stuck to the inside into the first hairpin and with some other drivers going wide I was able to take advantage and move up to tenth. I then worked my way through the pack to fourth, and passed a couple more drivers over the last two laps to finish second.
“At the start of the first ‘A’ final I held back a bit, waiting for a crash ahead like often happens at Buckmore; it did, and that gained me five or six positions straightaway. After that I just kept on pushing and fighting my way through. I’m experienced at coming through the field like that and my pace was pretty good again, so it wasn’t too difficult to be honest – and I was pleased to finish 12th in the end.
“In the second ‘A’ final I got up to tenth and stayed there for most of the race, but on the penultimate lap, Harry Webb tried to overtake and he pushed me wide and we collided. That allowed a bunch of karts to get past me, although on the last lap I managed to get Webb back again, so at least that was something. It obviously wasn’t the way I had wanted the weekend to end, but we picked up some decent points which means I moved up from 16th to 14th in the championship and am now just over 30 points off ninth.”
Out of 61 drivers in total, that is no mean feat, and whilst 17th in the second final was a frustrating way to conclude proceedings, Jay took away encouragement from having lapped barely two tenths adrift of the fastest driver in the race in the first final – underlining the progress he had made from Friday to Sunday. What’s more, with an excellent previous record around two of the remaining three circuits on the calendar – Shenington in Oxfordshire and his ‘home’ track of Three Sisters near Wigan – the Matrix-backed speed demon is in optimistic mood and eyeing the top ten. And ‘100 per cent confident’ he can achieve just that.
