Singleton proves benefit of experience as trio of gutsy encounters yield Rowrah ‘O’ Plate
This time last year, James Singleton was a fresh-faced Junior Max rookie – but 12 months on, he is one of the class’ established front-runners on the British karting scene, and a trio of impressively feisty recent outings have served notice of his intent for the national hostilities to come.
James’ first three appearances of 2011 have been at Shenington in Oxfordshire, Whilton Mill in Northants and Rowrah in Cumbria – and all three have given the highly-rated young North Wales star significant reason for optimism.
In a 30-strong field, Shenington yielded the runner-up spoils following what Conwy’s finest acknowledged was a five-way dogfight over the podium positions – but Whilton Mill would provide an even sterner challenge. Ultra-quick during practice and having dominated the first heat from down in 12th on the grid, a subsequent complaint from a rival that the lights had not extinguished properly at the start led to the race being re-run – and James being unceremoniously turfed off the track on the opening lap.
With only one decent finish from the remaining two encounters, the 15-year-old was left to begin the all-important final from a lowly and distinctly unaccustomed 27th place, but two fastest laps out of three during the heats – in one of them, more than half-a-second quicker than the winner – left nobody in any doubt that the speed was there in abundance.
“It was hard work!” quipped the Penmaenmawr-based hotshot of an event that attracted a bumper entry list of some 52 Junior Max competitors. “There were an awful lot of good drivers there, including most of the British front-runners.
“Despite what had happened in the heats, we were still feeling confident for the final. Unfortunately, there was no big accident at the start to help us like there often is, but we made really encouraging progress through the pack – I had some enjoyable battles along the way and had to really fight it out at some points, whilst being mindful of not wanting to damage the kart, obviously. We finished eighth in the end, but I think if we had been a bit higher up the grid, we might have been able to get a top three.”
As it was, to gain 19 places in only 12 laps, take the chequered flag barely five seconds shy of victory and conclude proceedings with comfortably the fastest lap to his name for the third time of the day was a warning shot indeed, and testament to James’ scintillating raw pace and gritty overtaking prowess – and, third time lucky and right on cue, Rowrah would finally deliver him the reward his potential palpably merited.
“We’d always been fast there before, but had never really had any good results to show for it,” mused the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil of the undulating, famously demanding drivers’ circuit. “Sam Marsh had been pretty quick all day, so he was the driver we knew we had to beat in the final. I began second but got a good start and managed to pass Sam straightaway, and after that I was able to build up a bit of a gap and then just kept things steady all the way to the finish.
“There was always a little bit of pressure and I was trying to measure how far he was behind me each lap going into the hairpin – but even though he started to close on me at one point, I always had enough in reserve to be able to open the lead out again. We didn’t actually know beforehand that the winner would receive the Rowrah ‘O’ Plate, so we were over-the-moon to find out we had won that, and really happy with the result because there were some pretty quick drivers there.”
Yet another fastest lap simply served to further underline James’ superiority, and with the national Super 1 Series set to visit all three venues in 2011, he has had the perfect opportunity to gauge himself against his immediate adversaries – with Rowrah even throwing in some handy wet-weather running for good measure. Things are, he admits, shaping up nicely.
“So far, so good!” the Coles Racing ace summarised. “Our karts and engines are all ready for Super 1 now, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got a lot more racecraft than I had 12 months ago and I’m sure we’ll be on the leading pace, and judging by our performance so far this year, hopefully we can finish the season inside the top three. The field looks to be really close in Junior Max and there certainly won’t be much in it at the sharp end – it’s going to be one big fight all the way through – but I’m confident we’ll be up there.”
James is seeking sponsors to help support him in 2011; 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
