Imperious Singleton ‘ecstatic’ after making it the magnificent seven on home soil

To say that ‘it’s going really well at the moment’, to borrow James Singleton’s words, is something of an understatement, for in pulling off a sublime double victory in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship on home turf at Glan Y Gors, the talented young North Wales ace has now made it an incredible seven national triumphs in short order.

James headed to Glan Y Gors – barely a 45-minute trip – buoyed by five straight successes in 2011 in the previous FKS meeting at Three Sisters near Wigan, fellow British series Super 1 and the Rowrah ‘O’ Plate, and aiming simply to keep it consistent to continue racking up solid points towards the championship.

Sitting just fifth in the title standings following a technical exclusion earlier on in the campaign but with his eyes firmly on the prize, the highly-rated Conwy-based speed demon knew that local knowledge meant he had a theoretical advantage right from the outset, and having pounded around Glan Y Gors in testing on countless occasions, if anything, he probably knew it even better than the back of his hand.

“All we wanted to do was stay inside the top five all weekend,” he reasoned, “although of course, deep down, we wanted to keep our winning run going as long as possible. I was feeling pretty confident. Glan Y Gors is not an easy circuit to learn, and having driven so many laps there, we know the ideal set-up, which is definitely a help. It’s a very technically-demanding circuit and one of my favourites; I know all the corners off-by-heart and have always been quick round there.”

Up against some fierce opposition in FKS’ 26-strong Junior Max class field – including a clutch of fellow local specialists – the opening day could scarcely have gone any better as James claimed pole position followed by a peerless clean sweep of victories throughout the heats and the final, and fastest lap in all-bar one of his races. Stealing a march on his pursuers at the start each time and leaving the chasing pack to duel over the scraps in his wake, he sped to a trio of unchallenged triumphs.

Even a brief downpour ahead of heat two that made a muddle out of tyre choice – “we didn’t want to get it wrong, as we obviously didn’t want to lose valuable points,” the Penmaenmawr hotshot confessed – failed to knock him off his imperious stride.

“The kart never seemed to go off, and we could just keep consistently putting the lap times in,” he recounted. “As other drivers’ karts did go off, mine was only coming on stronger, which I think was testament to the set-up we had found and that enabled me to pull away.

“I treated the final as just another heat race, to be honest, only a little bit longer and we set the kart up in accordance with that. From the start, I was able to edge gradually away and nobody seemed to have an answer to us – they dropped off the pace as we remained strong. I was really happy with my performance – it was probably my most consistent race all year – and we were over-the-moon to get the win, especially with it being our home track and meaning maximum championship points.”

James’ consistency, indeed, was hugely impressive to behold, as he produced an absolute masterclass in flawless precision and set six consecutive lap times to within the same hundredth of a second of one another. Despite again claiming a dominant pole position in qualifying, however, Sunday would transpire to be somewhat less straightforward, as things went rapidly awry...

“I got pushed on from behind at the start of heat one, which sent me over the kerb on the outside of the first corner and allowed another driver to get ahead of me,” explained the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. “He then defended all the way up the straight, but ran a little bit wide going into the hairpin at the top. I tried to go down the inside, he squeezed me and we collided. The kart didn’t feel right after that and I knew I wasn’t going to catch anyone, so I just tried to save the tyres as much as possible and get to the finish to score some points at least.”

With his distinctly bent Coles Racing chassis palpably in no fit state to fight for positions, James went on to take the chequered flag plum last, and with the help of Dan Holland Racing, his team performed a heroic job to straighten it out as much as possible in the limited timeframe in-between races. With the pressure subsequently on in heat two, the 15-year-old fought a gritty rearguard battle and defended doggedly to retain fifth place – damage limitation in the circumstances.

A longer break ahead of the all-important final enabled the kart to be repaired more comprehensively, but following his trials-and-tribulations during the heats, James would take the start from just 17th. Still, he had come from even further back to prevail at Wigan, so all was far from lost.

“We didn’t really know what to expect in the final, and it’s not that easy to overtake around Glan Y Gors – particularly from 17th on the grid!” he quipped. “I was just aiming for the top five, to be honest. I got a big hit from behind and pushed forward going into the first corner at the start but I managed to hold it, and then going up towards the top of the hill there was a crash ahead, so I made up a few places there. I was in eighth at the end of the first lap, with one driver just in front of me but the top six having already broken away a bit.

“I passed the driver in seventh and then really got the hammer down. The kart felt great – we had got the set-up spot-on – and after a few more laps, we were right on the back of the top six. I worked my way through them into third, but then I knew Steven Handford in second was not going to give the place up easily so I decided to not take any risks and just push him round so we could both catch the leader Sam Marsh, which we eventually did.

“When Handford went for a move on Marsh, I followed him through, and because Steven didn’t get a great exit from the corner, I got past him too going down the hill and was then able to just pull away from them both over the last few laps. I looked behind me with two minutes left on the clock and saw them fighting, at which point I simply tried to take it easy and not do anything stupid. We were just ecstatic to win – and it was brilliant to do the double again, another really good weekend!”

A comparatively comfortable victory when the flag came down – with a new fastest lap right at the end for good measure, the only competitor to dip beneath the 43-second barrier – James has not only stormed into the championship lead, but he is turning this winning-from-the-back lark into something of a speciality, almost as if it is too easy winning from the front so he gives himself a sterner challenge.

Confessing that ‘I never thought we’d get up as high as we did’, the former FKS ‘Driver of the Day’ similarly reflected that he would have found it difficult to believe back at the start of the season that midway through he would have seven straight triumphs to his name – but that is precisely what he has. Preparing now for the resumption of Super 1 hostilities at Larkhall in Scotland – scene of his maiden Junior Max podium in Britain last year – James Singleton is on a real roll right now, and the goal is simply to keep it going.