‏Ryan Anderton has kept himself firmly in the hunt for the British crown in the 2011 Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship with a brace of brilliant podium finishes on foreign shores at Genk in Belgium – but boy, did he have to work hard for them.

Ryan travelled overseas at the head of the title chase in FKS’ fiercely-contested MSA British Cadet class – uniting the indisputable crème de la crème of young talent at that level – but embroiled in a tremendously tight, nip-and-tuck duel with Fusion Motorsport team-mate Daniel Ticktum, with three other drivers very much within striking-distance, too. He was ready, he confessed, for one of the most challenging weekends of the year.

“I knew it was going to be tough,” acknowledged the highly-rated Somerset speed demon, “and based upon what Genk had been like 12 months earlier, I expected there to be a long train of karts all fighting over the win. It’s a good circuit – long and flowing – and really hard to drive in the wet. When it rains at Genk, it really shows up who are the best drivers, and even in the dry, when you go off-line there are so many ‘marbles’ – if you hit them, it’s just like sliding on ice, so concentration is absolutely key.”

With the climatic conditions indeed proving to be frustratingly changeable over the weekend, that made a nightmare out of set-up choice for all of the competitors, but Ryan was confident – and quick – come rain or shine, and on a dry track surface in Saturday’s qualifying session, he annexed second spot, a mere whisker shy of the benchmark in a 44-strong field and earning him pole position for his opening heat race.

“I dropped back at the start but then fought my way through the pack,” recounted the Glastonbury-based hotshot. “There were quite a few battles, but I latched onto my team-mate Alfie Brown and we worked together to pull away. He led going onto the last lap, but I followed him all the way round and then when he defended the inside line into the last corner, I pulled off a sneaky move to get the cutback on him on the exit.”

In a truly non-stop encounter, the leading trio were blanketed by just 16 hundredths of a second when the chequered flag fell, whilst a very solid fourth position in heat two as the heavens unleashed their fury secured Ryan third on the starting grid for the all-important final – a position he would retain for all of about 20 yards...

“Going into the first corner, the track was very greasy and I got a massive whack from behind as everybody loaded each other up,” recounted the St. Dunstan’s Community School pupil. “I tried to turn, but I just got pushed straight into Jamie Caroline and we both went off. 

“That left me right the way down in 27th place, but I recovered ten positions on the opening lap alone. It wasn’t easy to control the kart or to overtake with the track being as greasy as it was, but I set about working my way back up the order, and my team-mate William Taylforth helped by pushing me along. I always expected to get quite high up again, but I didn’t think we would regain third like we did. We had really good pace, though, and I was really pleased with my performance.”

Justifiably so, but a lack of grip during the following day’s qualifying session left Ryan to begin the first of Sunday’s heats from sixth on the grid – on the unenviable outside line. Finding himself quite literally harpooned at the start, the 11-year-old was unceremoniously spun round and sent down to the very rear of the field once again, leaving him to fight his way grittily through to eighth at the flag and admitting to feeling ‘gutted, because I knew we had far more pace than that’.

“Starting on the outside at Genk can be disastrous,” he explained. “Some people just load each other up from behind heading into the first corner, and with the domino effect, the result is that the drivers at the front of the grid on that side get fired off the track. You’ve done all the hard work to qualify high up, and then there’s nothing you can do...”

Heat two, happily, would get off to a better start as he vaulted immediately from seventh up to fourth before progressing to second and going on to reel in and overtake Ticktum for the lead. Despite having a ten-second penalty hanging over his head, Ryan’s title rival then snatched the initiative back again into the last corner, running his team-mate out to the very edge of the circuit and enabling two other drivers to come past as well and demote the West Country ace from what would have been a deserved victory to a disgruntled third place.

“I began the final 11th after that,” he recalled, “but I was quite lucky at the start this time, because I ended up right on my team-mate Alfie’s bumper and we pushed together to get through the pack until we joined the leading group. 

“Ticktum and Caroline were in there, too, and there was quite a scrap, but then Jamie and I got away from the others. I pushed him all the way to the last lap and considered a move into the last corner but thought better of it. Still, I was happy to finish second, because the championship is going to be all about consistency at the end of the day.”

The very narrowest of defeats – to the tune of a scant four hundredths of a second – Ryan’s was a tenacious effort indeed, not to mention extremely intelligent in the manner in which he analysed the situation on the last lap and wisely elected to back out of a manoeuvre that he recognised could have resulted in an accident and a significant loss of points. As it is, he has now tallied six rostrums from eight outings in FKS in 2011, and as the series heads next to Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire, he is lying eight points adrift of Ticktum – and palpably revved up for the fight.

“Overall, we achieved our objectives with two more podiums,” he concluded of a particularly lively weekend’s action, “and I’m feeling quietly confident looking ahead. We’re usually quick at Whilton, so I’m optimistic about our chances of being able to turn the tables there and get the championship lead back again – that’s certainly the goal.”