It might have been an up-and-down season for karting star James Singleton in 2010, but it was capped off nicely when he was awarded the coveted Sports Champion accolade at the annual Conwy Your Champions awards night – and having learned a great deal on the circuit this year, he is now revved up to go all-out for glory in 2011.
Selected by a panel of judges and seeing off the challenges of a local football player and boxer, James was presented with his well-deserved trophy by snooker legend John Parrott during the course of a black-tie evening. He admitted that he was somewhat overwhelmed by the whole affair since it had come so completely out-of-the-blue, adding that it was pleasing to have been chosen above practitioners from sports that are ordinarily considered rather more mainstream and as such are generally more widely-recognised.
“We knew we were in the top three, but when they said we had won, we were just over-the-moon,” confessed the highly-rated young North Wales speed demon. “We were really pleased that we had the backing like that from our local area, especially as karting isn’t that well-known a sport, really. It shows that people have recognised our achievements and notice what we’re doing. It was quite an honour, and getting to shake hands with John Parrott at the presentation was pretty cool!”
When says ‘we’, it is an allusion to what is a real family effort, with dad Mark investing hours of blood, sweat and tears into what James hopes to make a successful career out of. Singleton Snr is a key part of the Penmaenmawr-based hotshot’s tremendous success story to-date, acting as mechanic and number one supporter – and he was a constant source of encouragement throughout a maiden campaign at Junior Max level in 2010, as his son was inevitably ‘initiated’ into a class that is by common consent as aggressive and rough-n-tumble as they come.
“Everywhere we went, I think we were quick enough to win – we definitely had the pace – but it was our first year in Junior Max and I didn’t quite have the racecraft to begin with,” James explained of his season in the fiercely-contested national Super 1 Series.
“It was very hard initially; going into a new class, you need to get used to the extra power and the different set-up characteristics – because everything had changed – and I was bullied around a bit for a while. I could deal with the power fine, but it was all the pushing-and-shoving that took longer to get to grips with. Once I started to get a bit more recognised in the class, though, people began to work with me on the track rather than against me all the time, which boosted my confidence a lot.”
A phenomenal pole position first time out at PF International ably evinced the 15-year-old’s raw pace and potential – “we had been hoping for the top ten if we were lucky…we’d never expected to get pole,” he recollected – as he beat every single one of the second-year Junior Max drivers, even if he feared he had just missed out due to traffic on his fastest effort. Traffic or not, the lap was good enough for P1 – and with it, an immediate marker had been laid down.
There were many other highlights along the way, too, chief amongst which being an excellent P2 in qualifying at Three Sisters near Wigan – pipped to the top spot by a mere whisker – as well as no fewer than eight top five heat race finishes, including a magnificent triumph when he blitzed the field at Wigan and superb second places at PF, Whilton Mill, Larkhall and Shenington. Halfway through the season, James started to give as good as he was getting on-track, too, and a milestone podium at Larkhall was a mental turning-point.
“I went into that weekend thinking ‘I’m not going to get taken out – if anyone bullies me, I’m going to give it straight back to them!’” he revealed. “That approach obviously paid off. We were around two or three tenths off the outright pace, but in the races we made the most of every situation and finished third – that was a huge boost for me, and I felt a lot more confident after that.”
It was, indeed, only in the finals where Lady Luck deserted the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. Illustrative of that was his performance at Shenington, where James’ blistering raw speed suggested he would have done battle for victory, only for a spark plug failure to cruelly force him out before the opening final had even got underway. Still, that did set the scene for what was inarguably one of the drives of the year in the second final, as he fairly scythed his way through the pack from 30th into eighth at the chequered flag, up against the toughest opposition in the country.
If luck is the one variable James can’t control, then more importantly, his pace is palpably there in abundance, no question about that – and it was a similar story in the Euro Max Challenge on foreign shores, as the Coles Racing ace proved a front-runner throughout despite being new to all-bar one of the circuits and the majority of his rivals.
A stunning international debut to beat both the reigning World and European Junior Rotax Champions to pole position in the Winter Cup at Malaga in Spain was followed by a brilliant rostrum finish in the race, and a gritty effort in torrential conditions at Wackersdorf in Germany yielded the runner-up spoils, his best result of the year.
Circumstances might have ultimately conspired against him as an engine issue in the final round at Genk in Belgium dashed his hopes of claiming what had looked to be an eminently achievable top three overall finish to progress on to the prestigious World Finals – but James has undeniably left a potent calling-card for 2011.
“We went out to Europe expecting the competition to be really tough,” he acknowledged in conclusion. “We were hoping to finish inside the top ten in the Winter Cup as we got used to the tyres and style of racing over there – so we were over-the-moon to finish third! At Wackersdorf, the conditions were the toughest I’ve ever encountered, with the sheer amount of rain and all the puddles on the circuit. The track was really slippery, which made it easy to make mistakes – but we made no mistakes and got the job done.
“Euro Max is a really good championship, and it was a great experience to compete abroad, learn new circuits and race against new drivers – the differences were just massive. We had hoped towards the end of the season to do a bit better, but Genk really hurt us. Still, we’ve picked up a lot of racecraft along the way, so hopefully next year should be a lot better. 2010 was our learning year in the class, but I’ll be one of the more established drivers in Junior Max going into 2011, we’ve proved we’re quick enough – and people know who we are now.”
James is seeking sponsors to help support him next year; 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
