Ryan Anderton might concede that the 2011 curtain-raiser in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship at Rowrah was something of a ‘crazy weekend’ – but it was one from which he emerged with his best-ever finish at national level and his British title-challenging credentials firmly intact.
Admitting that the demanding and undulating Cumbrian circuit is not one of his favourites on the calendar, Ryan had nevertheless taken the chequered flag a close second at Rowrah earlier this year in a club meeting, a gnat’s whisker shy of victory – but after being excluded from the opening round of fellow national series Super 1 the previous month for an engine irregularity over which he had wielded absolutely no control, the highly-rated Somerset speed demon reflected that he returned north needing to rebuild his confidence a little.
“I would not say the Super 1 effect had completely gone – it was still in the back of my mind somewhere – but I was feeling quite optimistic going into FKS,” he acknowledged. “The competition is a lot higher than in Super 1, with so many good drivers in the MSA British Cadet class field. That made for tougher racing out on-track, and because everyone was fast, you couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.”
Unfortunately, just such a mistake on the part of Ryan’s team during qualifying on the first day – with Fusion Motorsport finding itself uncharacteristically caught out by a change in the weather – meant that he and his team-mates entered the wet session with the wrong tyre pressures for the tricky conditions. That error cost the Glastonbury-based hotshot dear, leaving him a lowly 19th at some two seconds shy of the leading pace – unaccustomed territory indeed.
“When I was on the track, I didn’t have any idea of where I was on the leader board,” the 11-year-old confessed, “but I did know the kart felt really, really slow, especially round the corners. When I came in and found out where I was, I could have cried! I was expecting to be maybe six or seven tenths off the pace – I didn’t think I had been that slow... That was certainly quite a shock.”
Furnishing him with extra motivation to fight back in the races, Fusion team manager Dan Hazlewood sought to inspire Ryan ahead of his two heats by telling him that ‘true legends are made from the back of the grid’ – and his talented young charge duly delivered. From the very bottom of the top 20, the St. Dunstan’s Community School pupil scythed his way through to a brace of top ten finishes, leaving him to begin the all-important final from 17th.
“It was really, really wet for the final, and because of all the rubber that had been laid down during the heats in the dry, it generated a lot of understeer and I kept having to go off-line to brake,” he recalled. “I gained a couple of places at the start and then just pushed my kart to the limit throughout the race – though I was careful not to push over-the-limit, because I knew if I went off I would lose a lot of points.
“Some drivers did go over-the-limit and fell off ahead of me, but I played it safe and kept it all steady to pick them off and move up the field. The front pack of four karts were able to make a break at the start of the race, so to finish fifth was good and represented some solid points to start the season.”
It was, moreover, the finest national result of his fledgling career to-date, and the following day began in even more encouraging fashion, with the second-fastest time in qualifying in a literal dead-heat for the top spot, as the leading four contenders found themselves blanketed by less than the blink of an eye in a tremendously tight session.
“I just kept level-headed about it,” Ryan maturely reflected. “I didn’t want to get carried away and start feeling too comfortable, because that’s when mistakes can creep in.”
A strong performance in heat one yielded fourth place, with only the attentions of a rather over-ambitious rival costing him P2. An even better result looked to be on the cards in heat two, until understeer issues culminated in a spin that dropped the West Country ace down to 24th and last place, from where he gave a superb demonstration of damage limitation in the circumstances to recover to 12th, going on to begin the final from the same spot.
“I was up to seventh and everything was going really well,” he recollected, taking up the story. “The leading pack were only just ahead and I was looking forward to taking the fight to them, but then as I made a move for sixth place, Cameron Roberts tried to come up the inside of me at the same time; I went to turn into the corner, but I didn’t realise he was there and he drifted across on me.
“The driver on the outside of both of us had nowhere to go, and I got squeezed between them and went up into the air. I landed on one side, which left me with a bent chassis. I was down in 15th after that and struggling to get round the track properly.”
With the damage rendering his kart nigh-on impossible to drive, Ryan belied his troubles to doggedly battle his way back to tenth at the flag, never once giving up the chase and assuring himself of the same position in the early title standings out of some 48 competitors. Not what he had either wanted or deserved, clearly, but with his raw pace there in abundance, there is significant scope to climb his way up the table – and all the evidence suggests that he will do just that.
“It was just a bit of a crazy weekend, and very frustrating in parts!” he mused in conclusion. “It was really up-and-down, but if I can just stay consistent throughout the season and keep scoring decent points, I will be in the mix at the front. I finished fifth in Britain up against a big field of drivers on the first day, which isn’t bad, I suppose – and championship-wise, certainly, the only way is up!”
