KARTING SUCCESS
28 Nov 2012
This year, James (Year 10) has been competing in the Easykart UK Karting Championship. Everything in the championship is designed to be fair, so the racing is down to driving alone. Eight rounds are contested with 16 finals in total in Britain, from tracks in North Wales to Dorset.
To put things into perspective, last year (James’s second year racing) he finished a creditable 2nd in the championship, and so this year, to him, anything less than that would have been a disaster! Fortunately however, after winning the first four finals in the series, James had done himself a favour by creating a large points gap to stand in second place in the championship. This had taken some of the pressure off him to race on the limit, and he started to lose his focus a little, taking less risks. James admits that this attitude caught up on him shortly afterwards, during the halfway point in the championship, as the large points gap he had built up was halved!
His main aims for the second half of the championship, therefore, was to either keep the points difference the same, or to extend it. His next couple of races went well, and the all-important gap was increased again.
James says that his favourite race this year was the final round, simply because he knew that he only had to finish in front of his nearest rival to take the overall victory. After qualifying on pole, he won the next 3 consecutive races, breaking his previous lap record not once, but twice in one day! Inevitably, because of winning the last 2 races, he also won the UK championship too.
Good racing, James – well done!