Ash Hand is the 2010 Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Junior Max Champion, after doing what he needed to do to clinch the coveted crown and more besides in the Ellough Park Raceway finale – and as such, he has made sure his name is now inscribed upon the same British trophy as once belonged to a certain Lewis Hamilton.

With an incredible eight victories already under his belt from the opening ten rounds – in the same series as had first set Hamilton himself on the fast track to future superstardom, and one that now boasts the prestigious official backing of both the youngest-ever F1 World Champion as well as the sport’s influential ringmaster, Bernie Ecclestone – Ash headed to Ellough in Suffolk in confident spirits and knowing that just a couple of strong heat results would likely be enough to seal the deal.

“I’d never seen the track before, so I didn’t really know what I was going into,” the highly-rated young Nuneaton star confessed, “but in the first practice session, we were already half a second quicker than anybody else. It’s a fun track to drive – quite flowing and with a real mixture of hairpins and slow and fast corners. It’s an interesting circuit and really important to carry your speed well through the first half of the lap, and that makes it quite difficult to be fast there.”

In fairness, Ash hasn’t found it much of a problem being fast anywhere this year, and after comfortably pacing the opening day in changeable wet/dry conditions, he went into Saturday qualifying ready to show his mettle, only for his throttle cable to snap right at the start of the session and scupper his chances, rendering him unable even to set a single lap time.

Particularly frustrating given that he palpably had the speed to be right up at the front, the Maple Park hotshot acknowledged that the issue left him with ‘a lot more work to do’ and needing to ‘come through the pack as fast as I could’ – and around a circuit whose layout does not exactly promote overtaking...

“In heat one I got a very good start to move from 20th to eighth in the first corner,” he went on, “but then coming round the double right-hander afterwards I got taken out; another driver just came straight into the side of me and over the front of my kart, which caused my brake pedal and cable to come off.

“I came into the pits, where the team sorted out as much as they could, but after I rejoined it was just so hard to brake because I only had the safety cable, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I was pleased with the way I drove all things considered, but it wasn’t the kind of result we needed, and definitely a setback.”

Beginning to fear that it may not be his weekend after all and ruing his run of ill-fortune, happily, fourth place in heat two – from the very rear of the 20-strong Junior Max class grid – was enough to put the laurels beyond reach of any of his adversaries.

From 12th on the grid for the final, a series of knocks at the start left Ash right at the back once more, from where he scythed his way grittily up the order to claim fourth spot at the close – not the manner in which he might have wanted to celebrate his title success, granted, but unquestionably a champion’s drive nonetheless and one that earned the 16-year-old the Bradley Ellis ‘Hard-Charger’ award into the bargain.

Despite claiming the championship on what he confessed was arguably his worst day of the season in FKS, it ultimately mattered little, and that Ash still triumphed was testament to the cushion he had built up over his pursuers during the course of a magnificent campaign. And then the following day, he would go on to underline that superiority with a commanding pole position and pair of runaway heat victories. The final, however, was again not quite as straightforward...

“As I got halfway round the first corner, the kart just seemed to stop,” recalled the North Warwickshire College student. “I got hit from behind and lifted up in the air, which dropped me a fair way down the field and gave me a big flat-spot on one of my tyres – that didn’t help, because it left me with not much grip and a grinding noise for the rest of the race. We seemed to bring it back in the closing stages, though, and by the end of the race we were the quickest on the track – it just took us nearly the whole race to get there!”

Looking back on the year in which he truly staked his claim as one of the finest young talents on the British motor racing scene, finally, Ash made a special point of praising his P1 Racing team, CRG chassis and mechanics Richard Amos and Sam Smith as he soaked up the glory and plaudits of what was arguably as dominant a performance as has ever been seen in the sport.

“I’m really pleased with the way the season went,” he mused in conclusion. “We’ve had a lot of good results, and I think we did really well to win by the margin we did win by in the end. We didn’t finish outside of the top six all year, which I think is quite an impressive statistic, too. Last year I came on a lot as a driver, and this year I think I’ve really demonstrated what I can do. To win the championship means a lot to me, and it proves that I’ve been consistently good all the way through.”

Not just consistently good – consistently the best.