He had been threatening to do so for some time, truth be told, but the ill-fortune that has seemingly dogged him all season in the Super 1 Series only served to make the result all-the-sweeter for Luke Whitworth, as he belatedly succeeded in cracking the top ten at Buckmore Park in Britain’s toughest karting championship.
Luke headed to Buckmore aiming to move up from the 24th spot he occupied in the national Junior Max class title standings – constituting 59 of the finest drivers the country has to offer – into the top 20, and quietly optimistic about his chances of doing just that.
“We wanted to get a top 15 finish again to score some solid points and boost our position in the championship after some bad luck,” revealed the talented young Rotherham speed demon, who prior to the weekend had tallied a best result of a brace of 15th places from the opening eight finals. “It’s a really physical track – you don’t get a rest around the lap – so fitness plays a big part, but we had been to Buckmore for club meetings and been quite quick, so we were feeling pretty confident.”
Indeed, the fearsomely fast Kent circuit has a reputation for being one of the most demanding and punishing in the UK, but a committed gym and swimming programme has seen Luke take a quantum leap forward in the fitness stakes this year – even if he concedes there remains work to do – and he demonstrated the benefits of that assiduous approach to his burgeoning career by setting the 22nd-best lap time in qualifying out of the 51 competitors present.
“We were fairly satisfied with that,” reflected the highly-rated Wickersley-based hotshot. “It was so close all weekend, but that put us tenth on the grid for the first heat and 11th for the second, and we were able to get some decent results from there. In heat one, I got a good start; I was on the outside line, but the driver alongside me on the inside bogged down, which enabled me to get across. That helped a lot, and I got as high as fifth but then got caught up in a fight and ended up tenth.”
Still an extremely solid outcome, Luke revealed that hard work throughout the weekend produced consistent improvements to his kart, enabling him to ‘push it more to its limits and pull off some stronger moves’ and reasoning that ‘it was all about being confident enough in it to be aggressive out there’. In the second heat, he would be brilliantly so.
“I got another good start, from the inside this time, and got quite far up the field,” the 16-year-old recounted. “I got into sixth and was closing on the five leaders, but then they started defending, which backed everyone up and brought the drivers behind me into play, too – at one stage, there was a train of 15 of us battling over first place and it all got a bit chaotic! I kept going backwards and forwards – I think my lack of experience showed a bit in that situation. It was definitely a hard race!”
An entirely unrepresentative 14th when the chequered flag fell, Luke’s competitive pace throughout was encouraging indeed, as he hauled himself determinedly into contention before finding himself knocked around by a number of rivals. Most importantly, his raw speed was palpably there, and after beginning the first of the two points-scoring finals from 21st position, the Wickersley School and Sports College pupil gained five spots on the opening lap alone before going on to home inexorably in on the top ten. He takes up the story...
“I got a fairly decent start and made up a couple of places straightaway, and then I found some space and kept going forward,” he recalled. “I was quite strong in the moves I made, and I worked together with another driver to progress through the field. Then on the last lap he began defending, which allowed the pack behind to catch us up and I had to defend, too. In the past, that’s not always been my strongest suit, but I think I did well to hold onto my position, because it was really getting quite fierce behind me...”
That it certainly was, and defending as if his very life depended upon it – with no fewer than three adversaries breathing unremittingly down his neck – Luke maturely withstood intense pressure to cross the finish line a very well-deserved 11th. He even boldly tried a number of more unorthodox lines around the lap in the closing stages in an effort to distract his quarry and find a way past – evidence, if ever it were needed, that he is learning fast. And then when two drivers ahead were subsequently disqualified, 11th place became ninth.
“That was really good,” he enthused of his breakthrough top ten Super 1 finish, a real milestone in his progress. “It boosted my confidence quite a lot, and left me feeling positive for the second final. I didn’t get the best of starts this time because someone spun in front of me, but after that, I was just trying to stay consistent.
“It was relentless out there – you had to be pushing all the time – but the kart didn’t feel as good as it had earlier in the weekend because the tyres were getting quite used by then. I was lacking a little grip, which didn’t help, and then towards the end of the race I began dropping away a bit due to my fitness, so I still need to work more on that – but we were happy with the result again.”
With the heat contributing to Luke’s fatigue, 11th place was another noteworthy outcome, and indeed, just one lap longer and he could arguably have vied for as high as sixth, as the group directly in front of him began scrapping intensely and slowing each other down. What’s more, the combination of results exceeded his expectations for the weekend and has vaulted him from 24th into 20th in the Junior Max table – and more significantly, a mere ten points shy of 15th.
“We achieved our goals,” the Yorkshire ace concluded, “and it was good, solid points to move forward in the championship. We were quick all weekend, and I learned a lot in terms of racecraft. We’re feeling confident. The next round is at our ‘home’ track, PF International, and the target is to get another top ten there. We’re still aiming to finish inside the top 15 in the championship overall to get a seeded number for next year. We need good results in every remaining round now, but hopefully, we should be able to do it...”
