Bowyer takes on world’s finest – and proves he can mix it with the best in the business
He is already widely-recognised as one of the very brightest karting stars in his homeland, but Callum Bowyer boldly pitted himself against the cream of the international crop in the 2010 CIK-FIA World Championship at Zuera in Spain – and came out of the meeting with immense credit and a significant injection of confidence.
Not only the toughest event the highly-rated young Peterborough hotshot had ever entered, the weekend’s competitive action was billed as arguably the toughest in the sport’s history, bringing together some 118 Super KF and KF2 class drivers all bidding to claim the coveted world championship crown. Innumerable hopefuls were rejected ahead of the meeting due to their credentials not being strong enough, so that Callum made it to the starting grid at all was already an achievement in itself.
From the ‘off’, the 16-year-old faced a massive learning curve in a short timeframe in needing to rapidly get to grips with both the circuit – which he revealed he ‘sussed out’ relatively swiftly – as well as hitherto unencountered opposition, as he prepared to take on European rivals in their own backyard for the first time, with many of them boasting daunting international reputations and some even benefitting from the support of leading F1 teams such as Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and Red Bull Racing.
“It was quite a big eye-opener,” he candidly confessed. “It was a huge field, for starters! The grids have been about 15 drivers for most of the year in the UK – and in Spain there were more than 100! They’re the world’s best drivers, and a lot of them had been testing there the whole week beforehand and so were absolutely on top of their game, whereas we unfortunately hadn’t had the opportunity to do that. If we had, it would have helped us to better figure out just what we were up against.
“There was a lot for me to digest and adjust to as a driver, and the racing is very different in Europe – bigger grids mean there are generally a few more crashes, so you just have to remain doubly alert over the first few laps when you sometimes get karts flying everywhere, and try not to get tangled up in it all. I really enjoyed the circuit, though – it’s fast and flowing, and you need to be really smooth on the steering and patient with the throttle to be quick round there.
“In Britain, the weather generally isn’t as good so not a lot of rubber tends to go down, and when it rains it ends up washing it all away! That means you have to really attack the track, but over in Europe the grip is just permanently there, which demands a whole different driving style and a completely different kind of set-up, because what we’re used to weekend-in, weekend-out just doesn’t work. We had to effectively start right from square one, and after that we were left playing catch-up for the whole meeting.”
That being the case, and with qualifying marking the first time Callum had ever lapped Zuera in the wet, 67th position – ahead of the likes of Ferrari-backed Brandon Maisano, former World Cup-winner David Da Luz and Renault Driver Development programme member Ben Hanley, who has recently been conducting testing for 2011 F1 tyre-supplier Pirelli – was a none-too-shabby way to begin, even if he acknowledged that there was ‘something missing’ throughout the session that held him back slightly. From there, he would begin all three of his heat races from 18th.
“It started spitting with rain before the first one, which made tyre choice a bit hit-and-miss,” explained the Gunthorpe teenager. “Whilst some drivers went for wets, we stuck with slicks. The drivers on wet tyres were like bullets at the start, but as it dried out three-quarters of the way through the race, the conditions came to the drivers on slicks and I was able to come through the pack to finish fifth. I’m used to racing in slippery conditions in Britain, and that really paid off.”
A timely boost, dry weather unfortunately rendered it more difficult to move forwards in heats two and three, and after promising starts that saw him rise to the verges of the top ten on both occasions, Callum found himself the victim of some unwelcome attentions, as he mused that ‘since I don’t yet have their respect as the new kid on the block over there, they just shoved me straight off the track because they didn’t like being beaten by me – that was a little bit frustrating’.
Although that ill-fortune cruelly cost the Global Karting ace the possibility of making it through to the main finals the following day – his stated pre-weekend objective, albeit one that he subsequently reflected with the advantage of hindsight goggles on, might have been ‘expecting too much too soon’ – he did at least get to race on Sunday in the consolation finals, when 49 of the initial competitors didn’t. And in the pre-final, he worked his way impressively up the order from 18th into ninth.
“I was a lot more confident in the package that we had by then, and I had adjusted to everything a bit more,” he recalled. “After the first lap I simply concentrated on picking the others off one-by-one, and we showed good pace – I just wish we could have found that kind of form earlier in the weekend, so that we might have made it into the main finals.
“In the grand final, it was again a matter of getting round the first lap and then getting into a rhythm. All the good drivers were up at the front by then and nobody was really making any mistakes, so I just had to dig deep.”
Displaying encouraging speed once more as he annexed a well-deserved fifth position – equating to 39th in the world at the first time of asking, a more-than-respectable result given his complete lack of prior testing or knowledge of either the circuit or his adversaries – Callum had every reason afterwards to feel justifiably proud of his gritty and determined performance.
“As the weekend went on we got better and better,” the former double British Mini Max Champion concluded. “Each time we went out, two tenths of a second came off the lap time. In Sunday’s grand final, we were only about a tenth off the fastest, which is nothing around a lap of that length – it was just a shame it all came together so late. Still, we learned a lot which has all helped to improve me, and I’ve got some valuable experience under my belt now too up against world-class drivers.
“I was pleased with how we progressed overall, but considering that in the space of only four days we went from being just average to bang on the money and on pretty much the same pace as the winner, if we’d had a few days of testing beforehand like the vast majority of the others did, it could have been a totally different outcome...”
Callum is now seeking sponsorship for the 2011 season. If you are interested in backing him, please contact Tracey Bowyer on 01733 701099 or 07960 400731, or e-mail: callumkf3@hotmail.com
