Hot on the heels of his first podium finish of the campaign in Britain in the fiercely-contested national Super 1 Series at Larkhall in Scotland, James Singleton proved that he has turned a corner on home turf in 2010 with a brilliantly aggressive front-running performance throughout the blue riband Kartmasters outing at PF International.
Buoyed by his Scottish success and with his tail up off the back of his timely confidence boost, James headed to Lincolnshire circuit PF prepared to pit himself against 41 Junior Max class rivals representing the very finest drivers in the country – all bidding to shine in what is widely-regarded as the toughest meeting of the year. His maiden Kartmasters appearance, the highly-rated young North Walian also faced the handicap of having to miss Thursday testing, but when he did at last take to the track, he was instantly on the leading pace.
“I knew it was going to be rough, with some hard driving,” acknowledged the Conwy-based speed demon, “but other than that I didn’t really have much of an idea of what to expect. A lot of drivers find PF quite a boring circuit, but I enjoy it – the chicane and a number of other corners are very demanding to get right, and there’s pretty much always guaranteed to be carnage at the first hairpin, so you just have to try to dodge it.”
Encouraged by his practice form and convinced he had the pace to vie for honours, the 14-year-old shrugged off the physically gruelling challenge of having to take on bigger and older adversaries in a class open to drivers aged up to 16, and if by his own admission he lacked aggression to begin with, he would come on in leaps and bounds as the weekend progressed.
Sixth in his group in qualifying – a mere two tenths of a second adrift of the benchmark having crucially proven unable to take advantage of a tow – James professed himself happy with his Coles Racing kart and began both of his heat races from the fifth row of the grid.
“In heat one I started tenth and tried to go around the outside of the first corner, but just as I was about to exit the first hairpin, someone drove over the side of my kart,” he related. “That dropped me down the order, but our pace was good and the momentum carried me back to ninth at the end. I was pleased with that, given that no-one would really work with anybody else to make up ground – as soon as you overtook someone, they would try to overtake you straight back again. We had still been able to prove the speed we had – and after that we knew we were fast enough, so it was just a case of trying to avoid the incidents.
“In the first half of heat two I sat back and let it all happen, waiting for the kart to come on. On lap five it came on like a light bulb and was suddenly a lot grippier at the rear, which gave me a lot more confidence to go into the hairpins harder and try overtaking moves – it was just a question of timing them right. Unfortunately, in the Complex section in the last couple of laps I kept making little mistakes, which lost me exit speed and cost me places.”
The upshot was P7 after he found himself unceremoniously muscled aside in the closing stages, when an excellent third position had been on the cards as James superbly passed both defending Kartmasters ‘GP’ plate-holder and current Formula Kart Stars Championship leader Ash Hand and reigning British Champion Matt Parry in an impressively feisty and assertive display, proving to be dynamite on the brakes into the first hairpin and betraying no fear at all in the heat of battle, despite the illustrious reputations of his adversaries.
Fastest lap in the first heat only served to underline the Penmaenmawr hotshot’s optimism and conviction, whilst the post-heats discovery that the jetting had been ‘a mile out’ on the yellow-and-black #28 kart suggested he could have gone as much as two or three tenths quicker still. From ninth on the grid for the pre-final, the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil would go on to recover from an early assault on the opening lap to run as high as fifth – before cruel ill-fortune intervened as he blamelessly found himself in the wrong place at precisely the wrong time.
“We were pretty fast again and could catch the front pack, but every time we did something would happen and I’d get spat out,” he recalled. “The field gradually spread out to leave several big gaps between karts, and for three laps I was by myself in sixth – but then I caught a backmarker heading into the chicane.
“I thought she was going to stay where she was on the inside, but she cut across the track and across the racing line to the outside, and I just clipped the back of her kart, which sent me straight across the grass. I think she was trying to be helpful, but it had the opposite effect, unfortunately. Three drivers went past me, and I only had time to get one of them back again before the end. I wasn’t happy about that, and we knew we would consequently be starting on the outside for the grand final – but by then I just wanted to either go for it or go off.
“I managed to slot in at the start, though I lost three or four places into the first hairpin when I got loaded from behind and pushed straight on. After that, the race settled down a bit and when the kart came on I just concentrated on moving forwards. I overtook and pulled away from Dominic Wheatley and Lewis Plato, and I then chased down George Williams and my team-mate Levi Coombs.
“They started battling in the closing laps, which gave me the chance to catch them, and on the last lap fourth place came down to me and George. I thought I had enough of a gap going into the first hairpin for the last time, but unfortunately he managed to fill it from quite a way back and I couldn’t re-pass him before the end.”
Nonetheless, a competitive fifth position at the chequered flag – less than a second shy of the runner-up spoils in what is indubitably the most prestigious event on the British karting calendar – was an excellent result, and yielded a thoroughly well-deserved trophy. One to which James hopes to add over the coming months before the year is out.
“It was good, exciting racing overall, and I was able to prove my potential by finishing as top Junior Max rookie in the grand final and by setting the fastest lap too,” he concluded. “Especially after the massive confidence boost of Larkhall, it really feels like my season is turning around in this country, and now I know we can be up there and that we can do it. We definitely went home happy.”
James is seeking sponsors to help support him in 2010; 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
