for top ten finish from back-of-the-grid

James Singleton has not enjoyed a great deal of good fortune on home turf in 2010, and if his latest British outing in the fiercely-contested Super 1 Series at Shenington turned out to be something of a variation on a theme, still the highly-rated North Wales karting star was able to demonstrate the kind of scintillating raw pace that has confirmed his status this season as one of the very best young drivers the country has to offer.

James travelled to the high-speed Oxfordshire circuit bullish about his chances of building upon the rostrum finish he had claimed the previous time out at Larkhall in Scotland. Qualifying would prove that the Conwy-based hotshot’s optimism was well-founded, as he revved his weekend into gear in the best possible fashion by setting the fastest time of anyone in his group – composed of half of the 42-strong Junior Max class field, the indisputable crème de la crème of homegrown talent at that level – to earn his highest starting position since the PF International curtain-raiser back in March.

“I was feeling pretty confident because I know Shenington quite well and I’ve had good results there in the past,” he revealed. “It’s one of my favourite circuits, too – it’s a very technical, challenging track that’s quite hard to get right, and I like that. In practice we weren’t stunningly quick, but as the meeting went on we just got quicker and quicker and quicker and I was really pleased with qualifying. That’s such an important part of the weekend, because with the competition as close and as tough as it is in Super 1, if you have a bad session it really sets you back.”

Embroiled in a fraught three-way scrap for supremacy in his opening heat race, James artfully manoeuvred his way to the front only for his kart to fade in the closing stages and allow one of his pursuers to pip him to the line by the scant margin of eight hundredths of a second. Still, having been targeting merely the top five as he kept his focus on securing a decent grid spot for the first final, second place was a more-than-satisfactory outcome – and heat two should have yielded even better.

“I started from pole, and led for the first lap until Oliver Hodgson and Matt Parry passed me into the bottom corner,” he recalled. “I then spent the next ten laps just sitting behind them biding my time. Once my kart came on properly I re-passed Hodgson for second, and then on the last lap Parry went defensive into the hairpin. I went out wide to try to get the run on him on the exit, and coming out of the hairpin I did to grab the lead – but he just drove me up the bank.”

Third was the result this time, but the fastest lap of the race underlined that not only did James have the pace to win, but also to mount a genuine threat for glory in the finals, in his first campaign of Junior Max competition and up against drivers with far more experience under their belts than he has. With his tail up, the Penmaenmawr speed demon prepared to begin the opening final from P4, his best starting spot of the year. Only he never even got to start...

“Going into the chicane on the warming-up lap, the engine suddenly cut out and I had to pull off the track,” he rued. “I tried blowing the fuel, but it still wouldn’t go. I was a bit annoyed, because obviously it meant I had lost a lot of championship points – and given that the top five pulled away from the rest of the field in the race, I think I could definitely have been amongst them.”

With the fault subsequently traced to a spark plug failure, the frustration in fact represented a double whammy, as the lack of points was compounded by James having to begin the second final from the very back of the grid in 30th place.

Fired-up to banish his ill-fortune and take something solid away from the weekend, and entering the race with a ‘win-it-or-bin-it’, nothing-to-lose attitude, the 14-year-old made a superb start and dived down the inside of the first corner before bravely holding his nerve – and artfully holding onto his kart following a nudge from behind that knocked him briefly out-of-shape – around the outside of the second to conclude the opening lap 11th, a staggering 19-place gain on his grid spot. Wasting little time in latching onto the back of the leading pack, by lap three he was already up into the top ten.

“Fortunately I had a good kart underneath me which I knew was fast,” James recounted. “That gave me a lot of confidence to be able to attack and overtake, and I was really on it as I came through the field and got as high as seventh. Towards the end the kart went off a little bit and I lost a position back to my team-mate and finished eighth, but still I was happy with the way I had come through.”

Justifiably so, as the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil once more set fastest lap as he brilliantly scythed his way past his adversaries, pulling off some supremely bold moves along the way and taking the chequered flag closer to the race-winner than he had been at the end of the first lap – a sure sign of what might have been as he crowned a magnificent 22-place improvement on his starting position, far more than any of his competitors achieved.

It is admittedly not often that a driver of James’ calibre has reason to be especially pleased with eighth place, but on this occasion he could be unreservedly proud of his performance – one that had Lady Luck not turned her back on him, could and arguably should have rewarded him with a brace of podiums, and who knows, maybe even better than that...

Having closed now to within just 16 points of his stated goal of eighth place in the title standings, the Coles Racing ace knows he has one last chance to attain his objective, at Three Sisters near Wigan in early October. Acknowledging that ‘it will take quite a lot’, James insists he will be giving it all he’s got and that he is ‘definitely up for it’. On the basis of his Shenington form, his rivals would do well to take note.

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