The Formula Kart Stars championship moved into its second half with a double-header round held at the spectacular Genk circuit in Belgium last weekend (14/15 August).

After reducing his deficit to just three points in the title race, Jack Barlow was eager to maintain the pressure on his fellow title-protagonists.

In Saturday’s qualifying session Jack recorded the fourth-fastest time to secure second row starting positions for the two heats. In the first race he initially dropped to 8^th in a scrappy start, but came back to finish 2^nd at the chequered flag. After being hit from behind he dropped to the back of the field but staged a gritty fightback to cross the line in 10^th position.

“I started the main final from 5^th place and had to scrap my way up the order. It was an enjoyable race, although I made a couple of mistakes, which possibly cost me a crack at going for the win. Still, 2^nd place gave me more vital championship points and keeps me very much in the overall hunt,” he said afterwards.

Sunday proved to be a tougher experience, with the Benelux weather creating challenging conditions for the competitors.

In timed qualifying, Jack recorded the second-quickest lap and went on to score a brace of 2^nd-place finishes in the heats to guarantee his third front row start of the weekend.

“I went off p2 and there was a lot of argy-bargy at the start,” he explained. “I managed to hold my starting position and to take the lead at one point. I was in a four kart battle for the front and dropped to 4^th. I pushed and pushed as hard as I could and managed to get into 3^rd but pushed a little too hard in the later stages and ran wide in one corner. This allowed the driver behind me through and I settled for 4^th rather than risk any more dramas.”

He added, “Overall I’m pleased, because I’m a rookie in the class and at this crucial stage of the season I’m consistently running at, or near the front. All is still to play for and I won’t give up.”

The Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed series moves to the fast Three Sisters circuit in September (25/26) for the penultimate round, before reaching its conclusion at Ellough Park in Suffolk on 16/17 October.

Milton Keynes-based youngster makes most of new kart and gets back on track in rounds seven and eight of the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone Formula One Management-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) series.

Samuel Oram-Jones showed impressive pace in rounds seven and eight of the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) meeting at Genk last weekend, despite having to get to grips with a new kart.

Sammy, who races in the FKS MiniMax class for 11-16 year olds, scored against the odds last time out at Glan-Y-Gors in June, but that event took its toll and the 12-year-old was forced to get a new machine for the trip to Belgium.

In practice on Thursday and Friday he made the most of the time and was never outside the top-four in his KR Sport Racing Team-run kart. That set him up well for Saturday's action and after qualifying ninth he was on form in both of the heats and despite losing out at the start he fought his way back, and eventually took two very respectable 13th places.

He then came through to take eighth in the round seven final of the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone Formula One Management-backed series, showing impressive pace by setting the second quickest lap overall, the best time in sector 3 and the fastest theoretical lap of all 27 runners.

"It went very well today," Sammy reflected. "We were quickest in the final, but we had to come from the middle to the front.

"We had two incidents in the heats where I was hit off at the start. In the first heat we bent one side of the bumper and the second heat was even worse because the person that hit me lifted the kart of the ground and put me up in the air. It damaged the kart a bit, but we still came back in both of those races.

"Then in the final we were really quick. I think we were about two tenths quicker than the guy that won. There was a train of about three or four people in front and we could have got ahead of all of them and taken P4 had there been a few more laps. We just didn't have quite enough time. Overall though, I was still pleased and it was very positive."

The next day however, was a tougher one for Sammy, and the weather changed dramatically, with torrential rain hitting the 1350 metre circuit - the longest on the FKS calendar - from around mid-day.

Prior to that though, Sammy was tenth in the second FKS MiniMax qualifying session and he then took a very strong sixth in the opening heat.

However, unfortunately he was later disqualified when it was discovered that his kart was ever so slightly under the minimum weight, a result of an additional rolling lap that proved extremely costly.

Then the heavens opened and with a wheel forced off the rim in the second heat and water getting into the carburettor for the round eight finale, he had to settle for 23rd and 24th respectively.

;"Sunday was frustrating," Sammy recalled. "There was a false start in the first heat and we used a bit more fuel than we thought we would use. We ended up being 10 grams under weight and were excluded as a result. We finished sixth initially.

"Then after the first heat it started pouring down and it just didn't stop at all for about three to four hours. It was just like a monsoon, absolutely terrible.

"In the second heat someone took off our tyre on the rolling-up lap and that meant I had to drive with a tyre off its rim. That was impossible. I had to put both hands on one side of the steering wheel to even keep it going in a straight line. It was crazy.

"In the final we started at the back and it was wet again. We were going very well at the start. We went from 24th to 15th in a couple of laps. But some water had got in the carburettor and it just got worse and worse. It completely messed up the race and really slowed me down."

Despite missing out on points though on the second day, Sammy remains confident he can still achieve his target of finishing in the top-five in the 2010 FKS MiniMax Championship standings.

"We moved up in the standings on the Saturday, but I think we dropped back a bit again on the Sunday because of the bad luck we had," Sammy explained. "But we can just drop those scores. We are still aiming for the top five. It is possible. There are four rounds left. It can be done.

"The person that I wanted to be closest too this weekend was the guy that won at the end of it, George Russell. He was at the front for the whole weekend and just had good luck. If we had been at the front we would have been just as quick as him, I'm sure of that."

Sammy's focus now shifts to Shenington for the next round of the Super One Rotax Series, which takes place from August 28-29. He will be doubly determined to do well there after having to sit out the Super One Rotax Series event at Larkhall in July while a new kart was acquired and he has already been testing to prepare.

"We were at Whilton on Tuesday and it went well," Sammy continued. "The track was not at its best but we were still very fast."

Beyond that Sammy will be back in action in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) series next month (September 24-25), when he heads to the Three Sisters Race Circuit in Wigan.

Sammy’s father and manager, Emil, is hopeful things will go well there: "It was a challenging weekend for us in Genk," he summed-up. "On Saturday Sammy was quickest in the final and clearly the pace was there.

"But on Sunday it was a bit disappointing. In the first heat we came in slightly underweight. Typically there is only one rolling lap. However, for that race, there was a couple and the fuel level burned. It was very, very unfortunate. We had finished sixth and he could have finished fourth. If we had been able to carry the points from that heat we would then have started a lot higher in the final and done better in that race. I partly blame myself for that.

"Then in the afternoon there was a massive downpour and water got into the carburettor. In fact one of the leaders, Oliver Myers, had the same issue, but worse, as he couldn't even start the race.

"Overall I think we had a fair weekend, but we were just terribly unlucky. Really, really unlucky - and to be underweight by just such a small amount was just ridiculous. But that is just motor racing.

"Sammy put in a tremendous amount of work on the Thursday and Friday and certainly deserved to take a lot more out of the weekend. The pace was there during the races and in testing he was never outside the top four. We had the pace from the off and were very, very fast. It just didn't reflect in the results.

"We are at Shenington in a couple of weeks time now and so we did some testing on Tuesday to get back into the feel of running on tarmac rather than the concrete we ran on in Genk.

"Sammy is going to have a break now and when he comes back we are straight to Shenington and then off to Wigan a few weeks later for more Formula Kart Stars action."

Image courtesy of Chris Walker at www.kartpix.net

It might seem rather odd to contemplate that Luke Whitworth’s maiden top ten finish in national competition came on international shores, but when the budding young Rotherham karting star took the chequered flag a superb eighth in torrential conditions in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship at Genk, that is precisely what he accomplished.

FKS is the same series as first set a certain Lewis Hamilton, no less, on the fast track towards F1 superstardom a little over a decade ago, and it now boasts the prestigious official backing of both the sport’s youngest-ever world champion and also its highly-influential ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone.

It is an arena into which Luke tentatively ventured for the first time earlier this year, to pit himself – with scarcely any experience under his belt – up against the very crème de la crème of British talent and opposition at Junior Max level. His Belgian performance demonstrated that he is rapidly finding his feet and going from strength-to-strength with every outing.

“I had been told it was quite a flowing track, with a racing line you really had to stick to as it’s very slippery off-line,” the 15-year-old mused of his European Odyssey. “They were right, too, because whenever I went off-line in practice the back end would always step out!

“I enjoyed the track a lot; it’s really fast, and it didn’t take too long to get used to – it came to me pretty quickly, and by the last session in practice I was up in the top five. That was a real confidence boost; I knew I had the pace after that, so it was just a question of keeping on working hard and chipping away at it and continually setting myself targets to aim at.”

If anything, that assessment is to do himself something of a disservice, as Luke was the quickest of anyone in the first sector come the end of practice, and eager indeed for the racing to commence. Well aware that he would still be up against it somewhat being a Genk ‘virgin’, the Wickersley-based hotshot gave himself the goal of a top 15 finish amongst the 23-strong field – though secretly he was hoping for the top ten.

Unfortunately, an unexpectedly bad set of tyres on Saturday significantly hampered his challenge, as could be clearly seen from the results sheets – and having hauled himself gutsily into the top ten in the all-important final, the P1 Racing ace then slipped back seven places when a minor error briefly cost him momentum and enabled his pursuers to pounce.

“We had to put as much grip on the kart as we could and just get on with it,” Luke confessed of his trials and tribulations. “In the final I made a few small mistakes which allowed the others to catch up, and when I got overtaken by one driver I got pushed out onto the dirt, which left me with dust on my tyres and made them less grippy, so I then lost time for the next half-a-lap cleaning them up again.

“I’ve still not been racing that long, so when I’m in close battles I’m perhaps not aggressive enough yet; I need to hold my line better in those situations, but that all comes with more experience and I’m learning all the time. At the end of the day, I just had to try to put that behind me and treat Sunday as a completely new day.”

Indeed it was, and what’s more an overnight downpour meant Luke could discard his rogue batch of slick tyres for a fresh set of wet boots instead. Though he admitted to finding the circuit an altogether different proposition in such a scenario – given that it was the first time it had rained all weekend – 13^th spot in qualifying was well within his stated objective.

“The track was greasy and very slippery in the morning,” he reported. “That was quite difficult to get used to, and you really need to control the throttle well in the rain and stay off the rubber on the outside. I kept losing time in certain corners because it was the first time I’d ever been round Genk in the wet – I was at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the others in that respect, but I kept working at it and trying out different lines, and that helped me to improve.”

There would be further improvements in both of his heat races, in the first of which the Wickersley School and Sports College pupil made an excellent start – something of a feature of his Genk adventure – to rise to sixth, before a handful of mistakes in the tricky climatic conditions caused him to slip back to 13^th at the chequered flag.

He found himself similarly delayed by a multiple-kart accident at the beginning of heat two, but a brilliant recovery drive netted ninth spot at the close, leaving him buoyed up for a strong result in the final, which he would begin from 11^th on the grid, on the theoretically favourable inside line...

“I had been told to keep to the inside at the start where there isn’t much grip, and to just try to stay on,” he explained. “I did that, but in the process I hit another kart, which cost me time and dropped me all the way down to 19^th. I was angry at first, but I soon calmed down and after that I just had to keep at it, settle into my rhythm and work my way forwards.

“It was really good fun fighting my way through the pack; there are three or four decent overtaking opportunities round the lap at Genk, but with so much spray about, whenever I got up behind another driver it was tough to make out my braking-point.”

Though he had scarcely anticipated coming through as far as eighth position in the end, Luke impressively never let himself get discouraged and didn’t put so much as a wheel out-of-place as he admirably kept his cool and kept his head on a treacherous track surface to produce a genuinely eye-catching charge back up the order.

Overtaking might have hitherto been something of an Achilles’ heel for him as he slowly built up his confidence levels in what is indisputably one of the most hard-fought championships in the country, but on the basis of his late-braking exploits in Belgium to progressively gain ground, it is palpably no longer an issue.

Having determinedly taken the battle to the big guns – belying his status as by some margin the least experienced driver in the field – the Yorkshire speed demon is now bidding for a similar outcome in the next FKS meeting at Three Sisters near Wigan, where he has already finished inside the top ten in a club meeting.

“It was a really good weekend overall,” he concluded. “Eighth is my best-ever finish in FKS, and it came at a track I didn’t know before and in really difficult circumstances with the weather – and having to come back from a long way down to be able to achieve it has left me much more confident for upcoming races, too.”

Ash Hand travelled to Genk in Belgium for the seventh and eighth rounds of the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed 2010 Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship bidding to re-assert his authority in the chase for the coveted crown – and despite the unpredictable weather doing its best to make life difficult for competitors, he fulfilled that brief and then some.

Having proven unbeatable with four straight triumphs earlier on in the campaign in the same series as had first set Hamilton on the fast track to future F1 superstardom, Ash’s seemingly unstoppable title bid then hit an unexpected speed bump in rounds five and six at Glan Y Gors in North Wales, with a rogue batch of tyres and set-up issues limiting him to a second place and a sixth – and reducing his advantage in the drivers’ standings to a scant three points in one fell swoop.

That hitherto commanding advantage would swiftly be re-established, however, as the highly-rated young Nuneaton hotshot headed cross-Channel determined to build upon the run of podium finishes he had achieved aboard new chassis CRG in the preceding Super 1 and Kartmasters outings – with a return to the very top step.

“I think after Glan y Gors we needed to win again, so that was the aim,” the 16-year-old reflected. “I’ve been quick at Genk over the last few years so I was confident of being quick again – what I didn’t know was what everybody else would be like.

“Genk is a really good, fast-and-flowing drivers’ circuit, and one of those tracks you never get bored on. That makes it quite challenging, because if you take your eye off the ball you lose time really quickly – it’s easy to make a mistake if you don’t stay concentrated. Over the weekend I saw a few people going off-line, and after that it was game over for them for three laps basically because the dirt you pick up just kills the tyres.

“The CRG has always tended to go well in Europe, and it felt consistently planted all weekend, in all conditions. I was able to learn a lot more about it and everything just clicked which made it easy to go fast, and I could always pull a few tenths extra out of it whenever I needed to. It was quite a boost knowing I always had something in reserve. I think it was the best kart in the field overall, so after that the rest of it was down to me.”

The Maple Park speed demon would go on to complete his part of the deal in style, qualifying a quarter-of-a-second clear of anybody else on Saturday to annex an unrivalled pole position amongst the 23-strong Junior Max class field and following that up by prevailing in his two heat races to the tune of five seconds or more each time, setting fastest lap in both encounters for good measure. And after that, well, the all-important final was really just a formality.

Having notched up his maiden national victory for CRG, however – “It felt brilliant to be back winning again; it proved to people that the kart is really good and that I’m driving well too,” he acknowledged – Ash rapidly made it clear that he was not satisfied with just that, and when the heavens opened with a vengeance the next day, he was able to show that he is every bit as adept and imperious in the wet as in the dry.

With his quality as a fast-learner transpiring to be key to his outstanding success, the P1 Racing ace’s first timed lap in Sunday qualifying was a full three tenths of a second out-of-reach of what any of his adversaries could muster all session, and the heats, similarly, were almost a carbon copy of 24 hours earlier. As he admitted to never really feeling threatened all weekend, the second day’s final was in truth the only time all meeting that anyone got so much as remotely close to Ash, and even then he had it all comfortably in-Hand, if you’ll pardon the pun.

“It was really wet and Genk is one of the most difficult circuits to drive in those conditions, but I figured it out pretty quickly and found the grip a lot sooner than anyone else,” he explained. “I was on the pace right from the start on Sunday – nobody else could really keep up.

“In the final, I knew I was going to be fast again after the heats. I had an eight-second lead at one stage and when I looked over my shoulder at the end of the start/finish straight I saw the others hadn’t even come onto it yet, so at that point I knew nobody was going to catch me and I just backed off and kept everything consistent.

“I didn’t really feel under much pressure all weekend if I’m honest, but I still had to stay focussed because if you don’t, it doesn’t take much to make a mistake. Being on my own on the track made it difficult to retain that focus at times, and it would have been quite simple really to get ahead of myself. The only thing that kept me going lap-after-lap was trying to beat or match my lap previous time...”

With no-one else to have to chase or defend from, it is indeed all-too-easy to lose concentration and end up in the tyre barriers, especially in such torrentially treacherous conditions – but to his immense credit, Ash mastered everything that was thrown at him with admirable aplomb, and the fact that his chief rival for glory finished off the podium was merely an added bonus as the George Eliot School pupil demonstrated that he had the pace whatever the weather and ably reminded everybody just who is boss. All-in-all, you really had to Hand it to him.

“It was brilliant to get back-to-back victories, and a great weekend championship-wise,” he concluded of his Hands-down European clean sweep, as he prepares now to take the fight on to the last two meetings at Three Sisters near Wigan and Ellough Park in Suffolk with his confidence sky-high. “We extended our lead quite a lot, I really feel back in control again and now we need to finish the job off. All I’ve got to do is keep getting consistent podium finishes, and hopefully that should be enough.”

What’s more, with Ash’s success adding to the burgeoning tally of CRG trophies in recent outings, the Italian chassis-builder’s UK sales and marketing director Mark Collings muses that any doubts that might have initially been aired about the wisdom of the Warwickshire star’s switch from OTK have now been well-and-truly silenced.

“I’m really pleased,” he enthused. “It shows that with the right driver behind the wheel, the CRG is every bit as competitive if not even more so as any other chassis on the market and is really proving to be the kart to have at the moment. It’s already the leading kart in Europe, and this shows it can beat the rest to be the leading kart in Britain too.

“Ash blew away the opposition at Genk and thoroughly dominated the weekend, by winning every pole position, heat and final by a convincing margin. It was fantastic to see him up there like that, and after his club meeting triumph at Larkhall and second places in Super 1 and at Kartmasters, I think these can be the first of many national wins for Ash and CRG. It’s all looking really, really good.”

Picture credit Chris Walker www.kartpix.net

To keep up-to-date with Ash’s latest career news and results, please visit www.p1r.co.uk, whilst for more information on championship-winning chassis CRG, please go to: text-decoration: underline;">www.kartcrg.co.uk

Tom Harvey had vowed to bring home the winner’s trophy prior to heading cross-Channel to Genk in Belgium for the latest meeting in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship – but what the highly-rated young South Wales speed demon had likely not envisaged was triumphing in an astounding race that was widely-rated as the best in recent memory.

Tom set off on his European adventure – only the second time he had ever competed at Genk – with his tail up off the back of having extended his lead in the title standings in fellow national series Super 1, and bidding to similarly reclaim the advantage in FKS.

“The aim was to keep that kind of form going and catch my team-mate in the championship,” mused the Bonvilston-based hotshot. “I really like Genk – I think it’s an amazing circuit! It’s nothing like the tracks in Britain, which are far more tight-and-twisty; at Genk you have to really pull on the steering to stick to the racing line, and keep the power down all the time. It’s all about throttle and braking. You have to get into the zone and into the groove properly before you get it right.”

Tom got ‘into the zone’ very fast indeed during practice, proving to be ‘on it’ as soon as the third session – “I got back into the rhythm of the track and the lines, and after that I was really quick and carried that over to Saturday,” he confirmed – and third in his group in qualifying was a strong start, a mere three tenths of a second shy of the outright pace amongst the 39-strong MSA British Cadet class field, the very crème de la crème of homegrown talent at that level.

Unfortunately, due to the track being slower when his group ventured out, the 12-year-old would begin both of his heat races just ninth – but then as he has proven time-and-again this season already, that is seldom a problem.

The opening encounter swiftly developed into a three-horse race as the leading trio sagely pushed each other away from the chasing pack behind, indulging in some superb racing that was only resolved on the very last lap when Tom nicked the lead into the final corner. In evidence of the closeness of their competition, all three set identical fastest lap times and were covered by a mere two tenths of a second at the chequered flag, with fourth place some five seconds further in arrears.

The second heat would be just as fraught, but this time the Fusion Motorsports star prevailed comparatively comfortably after his two pursuers collided on the last lap – allowing him to subsequently ‘chill’ and just concentrate on bringing his kart home to secure pole position for the all-important final.

“I had expected to finish in the top three, but not necessarily to win both heats,” he confessed. “I knew I had the pace, but there were a lot of other quick drivers out there too. In the final I was expecting a three-kart getaway to be honest, and for me, Nathan Aston and Connor Jupp to push away from the rest of the field like we had done in the heats. That didn’t happen.

“At one point there were 18 of us all battling over the win, and I dropped down to tenth towards the end but had worked my way back through to seventh by the time we went into the last lap. I then just shut my eyes and hoped for the best! I pulled off a manoeuvre into the first corner to take fifth, and into the chicane I zipped up the inside of three more to move into second. After that I overtook my team-mate to grab the lead, and then just defended to the end.

“I was always confident I’d be able to make up the places on the last lap like that – I didn’t know how I was going to do it or where I was going to do it, but I just knew I was going to do it! On the run to the flag I didn’t know where anyone else around me actually was, so I just kept my head down and pushed for the line and hoped I would cross it first, which I did. I was really pleased and just celebrated like mad when I got back to the pits and up on the podium! It was my first national win in nearly two months and I just thought, ‘I’m back!’”

Few observers were in any doubt afterwards that what they had witnessed was something very special indeed, with 18 karts circulating virtually as one and trading places into practically every corner. Whilst any one of the duellists could have won, it was Tom who timed his attack to absolute perfection to clinch victory.

Having added another faultless 100 points to his tally and with his chief competitor for the laurels all the way down in eighth place, the result also moved the Cowbridge High School pupil back to the top of the table – and it is just such performances that champions are ultimately made of.

After winning Sunday’s first heat by two hundredths of a second – or ‘less than the blink of an eye’, as he reasons – and taking a solid sixth in a ‘waterlogged’ second heat in which he admitted ‘it wasn’t just wet, it was like a monsoon’, from third on the grid for the final, Tom had high hopes of making it cause for a double celebration having proven himself to be equally rapid come rain or shine. Even just a top ten finish would have been enough to keep him at the head of the standings, but as he reflected, ‘it wasn’t meant to be’.

A knock at the rear from a rival on only the opening lap of the race was enough to dislodge the Vale of Glamorgan ace’s chain, leading to instant retirement and leaving him 15 points adrift of the championship lead, albeit still comfortably in second place and determined to fight back next time out at Three Sisters near Wigan, a challenging, fast-and-flowing circuit at which he has competed from a young age and that he effusively describes as ‘everything a racing driver enjoys’.

Acknowledging that the DNF has ‘made life just that little bit harder’, the coveted British crown is still eminently within Tom’s reach, and he will approach Wigan with a magnificent 50 per cent winning record in FKS, having now incredibly notched up eight national triumphs in 2010 from just 14 finals and at four different tracks. It is very much game on!

To keep up-to-date with Tom’s latest career news and results, please visit: www.tomharveyracing.com

Tom Harvey confirmed his status as a leading contender for British title glory this year in the same championship that first launched a certain Lewis Hamilton on the fast track towards F1 superstardom – Formula Kart Stars (FKS) – with a superb victory in the opening meeting at Rowrah in Cumbria.

Having come on in leaps and bounds over the past 12 months, Tom entered 2010 widely-regarded as one of the front-runners to lift the laurels on the national stage, and by qualifying quickest in his group and second overall amongst the 49 MSA Cadet class competitors – the indisputable crème de la crème of young talent at that level – the highly-rated South Wales hotshot rapidly demonstrated that his pre-season billing was well-justified.

“The aim was to get a top three finish to start the campaign off well,” he explained. “I had a lot of confidence having won the weekend before at Whilton Mill, and I was just hoping to be able to carry that pace over. Rowrah is one of my favourite circuits – it’s really twisty and difficult to get right – and I’ve had some very good results there, including a couple of victories in club meetings. Then after qualifying I thought, ‘Yes! I’m on it – and I’m in it to win it!’

“In the first heat, unfortunately, my kart didn’t come on until midway into the race, which allowed my team-mate Nathan Aston to get away early on. Then it started to spit with rain, which caused me to lose all grip. The drivers behind began to close on me due to that, but whilst I was mindful that they were there, I didn’t look round because that only slows you down and gives them an even greater incentive to catch you. I could hear their engines in the background and it got pretty close at times, but equally I was always confident of being able to hang onto second, which was a really good result in the circumstances.”

That it was, though Tom’s second heat efforts were somewhat hampered by further grip issues and what was at first thought to be an engine problem but would later transpire to be carburettor-related – costing the Bonvilston speed demon crucial time to his adversaries and leaving him down in fourth at the chequered flag having begun from pole position and pulled out a handy early advantage.

Those same difficulties would similarly stymie the 12-year-old’s efforts in the final later in the day, when after starting from fifth he coped admirably in conditions that would have led to many a lesser driver parking his kart in frustration. Doing a tremendous job even to finish, that he did so in seventh place – barely eight tenths of a second shy of the podium and under four seconds adrift of the race-winner – was impressive indeed.

“It was like getting blood from a stone,” Tom quipped. “I could see the engine was getting hotter all the time, and at one point it cut out altogether. I had to immediately get on the carburettor and richen the mixture up to ensure there was enough fuel flowing through to get it going again – all whilst trying to hold onto my position at the same time!”

With Tom’s dad and Fusion Motorsport team boss Dan Hazlewood working through the night to diagnose exactly what was wrong, a new carburettor was fitted for the next day, and following an early scare when the engine initially refused to fire up at all, the Cowbridge High School pupil was sent out into qualifying with nobody really knowing quite what to expect. That being the case, second position in his group and third overall was an excellent result.

“I woke up in the morning feeling really positive, and Dan said to me ‘today could be your day’,” Tom recalled. “He told me I was going to win because he could see it in my eyes. It’s great having him there – Dan’s the best! He’s not like some other team bosses; he relates better, spends more time with his drivers and it’s obvious he really cares. He’s amazing with me.”

Admitting that his kart was now ‘electric’, the Vale of Glamorgan ace was determined to show what might have been the previous day. A brace of runner-up spots to local specialist Aston in his two heat races – with no more than eight hundredths of a second to choose between them in either outing, and setting identical fastest lap times to one another in heat two as the pair’s mutual respect shone through in their close but clean contest – earned Tom a front row grid slot for the all-important final.

“I got hung out to dry a bit at the start with being on the outside line,” he revealed. “That dropped me down to ninth, but I just focussed on working my way back up again after that. There were 15 drivers in the lead battle – the whole back straight was just one long train of Cadets all on each other’s bumpers – and it was anybody’s race to begin with, a real lottery! You had to concentrate on both attacking and defending at the same time, because in a situation like that if one driver goes past you they all will.

“I got up to second just behind Trevyn-Jay Nelson, and I knew he had been really quick all weekend. I got into his tow, and it was always my plan to push the two of us clear of the rest of the field. If you are at the front of a group of 15 karts towards the end of a race, you can only go backwards, so I just wanted the two of us to get a break, with no lunging or overtaking attempts until the last lap. If you do that, you only slow each other down – and that would have allowed the others to catch us again. It’s a lot easier to fight just one other driver than 15!

“I just sat on T-J’s bumper and pushed and pushed. By watching his lines I found out that his weakest point was into the bottom chicane, and on the last lap there I got past him and made sure there was no room for him to come back at me again. I was just focussing on keeping it tight everywhere and not giving him any opportunity to re-attack.

“I celebrated so much when I crossed the line, and coming into the pits afterwards I gave my dad the sign for number one! I had given him such a hard time the previous day for the problems we had, but when he got it right on Sunday it was incredible. There’s nothing better than that winning feeling, and it was amazing to get my second FKS win!”

Indeed, having berated himself in the wake of the Super 1 curtain-raiser at Shenington just under a month earlier for snatching the lead on the last lap only to surrender it again by leaving the door open into the final corner, he acknowledged that he ‘wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice’, and the manner of his success evinced a keen intelligence and maturity beyond his years.

Sitting a challenging second in the title chase heading next to Whilton Mill – scene of a brilliant breakthrough national victory in FKS last October and his ‘favourite track’ in the country, Tom warned his rivals that ‘they’d better watch out!’ On current form, they would do well to heed that advice.

To keep up-to-date with Tom’s latest career news and results, please visit: www.tomharveyracing.com

Jay Goodwin was one of the leading contenders throughout the 2010 curtain-raiser for Formula Kart Stars (FKS) – the same championship that first launched a certain Lewis Hamilton on the fast track towards F1 superstardom – and if circumstances ultimately contrived to deny him the results his pace so clearly deserved, still his potential suggested there will be considerable cause for cheer over the balance of the campaign.

The young Sale-based speed demon travelled to Rowrah in bullish mood about his chances of showing well around the challenging and popular Cumbrian circuit. Fourth spot in qualifying on Saturday out of the 29 Mini Max competitors – the very crème de la crème of British talent at that level – was a strong start, particularly given that single-lap pace was arguably Jay’s only real weakness last year.

“I was aiming to get a couple of good results and was confident I had the pace to be up there,” he reflected. “Rowrah is situated in a former quarry and is a good circuit to race at; it’s a drivers’ track that requires you to be on the limit all the time, and it’s also very technical which means you need to get the kart set up perfectly. I’ve not raced there a great deal before, but I definitely enjoy it.

“I was quite pleased with qualifying, especially considering that last year it was a bit of an Achilles’ heel for me. I only had one good qualifying all season in 2009, and that was when I put it on pole for the first round of Super 1. I think I’ve come on a lot in that area, and it’s probably one of the most crucial parts of a race weekend now – if you start down towards the back, it’s hard to come through the field to reach the front pack before they break away.”

In his first heat race, Jay was running well up inside the top three when the driver directly ahead of him braked unexpectedly early into a corner and caused the Ashton-upon-Mersey ace to clip the rear of his rival’s kart and plummet right out of contention to an eventual and unrepresentative 14^th-place finish. Heat two yielded P9 – albeit with a better fastest lap time than the race-winner – whilst a ‘boring’ final saw the 13-year-old make early progress from 12^th up to eighth, and thereafter hold station all the way to the chequered flag, with his kart not quite on the very front-running pace.

Unbowed, qualifying the following day proved that a breakthrough has incontrovertibly been made, as Jay secured fifth spot in the order, and top Evolution Racing entry for the second day in a row. It could, though, he rued, have been even better still.

“On my last lap I set the best first sector time of anyone,” he explained. “It was all going perfectly, but then when I got to the straight after the hill there was a kart going slowly in front of me. I had to swerve to avoid it, which cost me two tenths – and, I’m convinced, pole position.”

Given that he missed out on the top spot by less than that, Jay’s argument is a compelling one, but nonetheless he was pleased to once more be right up at the sharp end of proceedings. Sadly, Lady Luck would again refuse to smile upon him come the heats.

In the first of them, the North Cestrian Grammar School pupil moved into the lead only to be assaulted from behind, causing his sidepod to fall off and resulting in an agonising failure to finish. In heat two, subsequently, he was lying second on the last lap and lining up for a pass on the leader, when he found himself unceremoniously wiped out from behind by a grossly over-ambitious pursuer. Having been in the mix for victory on both occasions, Jay was left with a brace of DNFs – and plum last on the grid for the final.

“The first corner was carnage, which helped me to make up a few places,” he recounted, “and after that I just worked my way up through the pack. I passed 12 drivers early on and then picked off the odd one or two in the middle of the race, and three more towards the end. Unfortunately, the field spread out quite quickly, which meant there were two or three-second gaps between some positions, making it hard to progress.

“I was a bit frustrated knowing I should have been starting right up at the front and perhaps even on pole – and obviously I would have preferred that – but to be honest I quite enjoy starting at the back and fighting my way through the pack. I’ve had some good races doing that. My racecraft is good, and that makes me very confident of being able to successfully make moves.”

That much is indisputable, but with no major incidents ahead, a battling tenth place at the flag was as good as it was going to get. Even having to fight his way through, Jay’s lap times were on a par with the leaders – painting a clear picture of what might have been. Still, allied to much-improved fitness compared to twelve months ago – the product of disciplined twice-weekly training sessions – the Cheshire hotshot remains much encouraged by both his form and his prospects looking ahead.

“I can be in the kart for 20 minutes now and I don’t even feel a thing,” he mused of his fitness benefits. “At this stage last year, I was shattered after only ten or 12 minutes. It’s been hard work to lose the weight, but staying in shape is an important part of the job – and I definitely feel better for it. It was frustrating knowing that that I was as quick as the top guys at Rowrah and that I could have been up there with them rather than finishing tenth, but championship-wise, I think it’s still wide open for anyone – and my aim is to win.”

To keep up-to-date with all of Jay’s latest career news and results, please visit: http://www.jaygoodwinracing.co.uk/

Pictures thanks to Chris Walker www.kartpix.net

So utterly dominant was Ash Hand in his latest karting outing – the 2010 curtain-raiser for the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship at Rowrah in the Lake District – that not one of his rivals was able to hold a candle to the young Nuneaton star, enabling him to leave again with a near-maximum points haul...and firmly instated as the hot favourite for British title glory this year.

With fuel issues having severely blunted his challenge in the opening meeting for fellow national series Super 1 a fortnight earlier, and plenty of experience and a superb previous record around Rowrah – having claimed there in 2009 what he described as his finest victory to-date – Ash returned to the challenging Cumbrian circuit fired-up to achieve a good result, and he would be on it right from the ‘off’.

“We had done a lot of testing,” he explained, “so I knew the chassis and engine were both going to be on top of their game, and the fuel was all fine this time too. I was confident I would have the equipment beneath me to do the business – so I went to Rowrah aiming to win.

“I really enjoy the track, but you do need to know how to drive it, because it’s very difficult to get right and you have to be very careful over the big kerbs. We were extremely quick in testing, though, miles up the road – as much as six tenths of a second ahead of anybody else.”

That form was converted into pole position in qualifying on Saturday out of the 27 Junior Max competitors, before Ash literally blitzed his adversaries in the day’s two heat races, comfortably prevailing in both and setting fastest lap in the second for good measure, even enjoying the luxury of being able to back off in the closing stages to save his tyres for the final – which he went on to magnificently lead from lights-out to chequered flag.

“Everything just seemed to fall into place,” the 15-year-old acknowledged. “I got a good start, got away and then built up a decent gap. I initially had a three-second advantage over my team-mate Fraser O’Brien, and I extended that throughout the race. When he threw a chain just over halfway through, I had a huge gap over second place.”

Indeed, Ash’s margin over his closest pursuer was as great as 15 seconds at one stage, but again maturely electing to preserve his equipment, the Maple Park ace sagely backed off towards the end to the tune of as much as half a second a lap to cross the finish line just over ten seconds to the good following a truly peerless performance – and the spoils of victory were just reward after going unchallenged all day.

On Sunday, however, the P1 Racing speed demon would face more adversity, firstly finding himself pipped to pole position by O’Brien in the dying moments of qualifying, as his team-mate benefitted from being out on-track at just the right moment to narrowly nick the advantage. The only time all weekend that Ash was not quickest, he nonetheless remained optimistic of being able to turn the tables come the races.

In the opening heat, the George Eliot School pupil tracked O’Brien closely, palpably the faster of the pair but intelligently playing the team game – mindful of the fact that he did not want to risk causing an accident between team-mates, and also knowing he only needed to finish second to secure pole again for the final – until the Welshman hit difficulties that let Ash through.

A straightforward win in heat two, meanwhile, displayed shades of the previous day, before a disqualification on mechanical grounds sent the Warwickshire teenager right down to plum last on the grid for the final – and on a mission to prove a point.

“I gained a few places at the start,” he recounted, “and then just made my way through lap-by-lap. I took eight drivers on the first lap, then four or five on the next – I was able to drive through the pack pretty quickly to be honest. Five laps in I was already up to eighth – and that was the point where I really started to believe I could win.

“I got up to the front pack, and followed Fraser past Declan Jones into third. I overtook Fraser, and then there was a three-second gap ahead to the leader Jacob Hunstone – but I was catching him at the rate of seven tenths per lap. I could see him looking over his shoulder wondering where I was, and though he was clearly trying to push harder and harder, no matter what he did I was still just so much quicker.

“I knew I’d got him as soon as he started looking behind; I think because I had come from so far back, when he saw me chasing him, mentally that was where he lost the race. He began to make some mistakes, and that just made it all-the-easier for me. When I caught him I got past him straightaway, and after that I just paced myself to the end. I was so happy when it finished – I couldn’t believe I had actually done it! I had told everybody I was going to win and obviously I had wanted to win, but I had been thinking it would be a pretty tall order...”

Indeed, having quipped to pole-sitter Josh Parker that he would overtake him on the very last lap, he did so rather sooner than that – and his extraordinary charge even drew comparisons from observers with that of Lewis Hamilton in the GP2 Series at Istanbul in 2006, when the driver who would go on to become the youngest-ever F1 World Champion stormed through the field from well outside the top ten following an early mistake. That had only yielded the runner-up laurels, however – whereas Ash went one better still.

“I said to him on Saturday before the final, ‘Could you go a bit slower please because you’re making it boring’,” remarked FKS commentator Henry Beaudette, “but what Ash did on Sunday was anything but boring! It was one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time by anyone anywhere. It was precision overtaking at its finest. And on Easter Sunday too – what a day to choose to make a comeback...”

Joking apart, it was an awesome drive and one that both inarguably topped his 2009 Rowrah triumph and also represented a huge confidence boost ahead of the remainder of the season. Far from merely winning, Ash fairly blew them all away, and as he next returns to Rowrah for the second round of Super 1 targeting a repeat, and then heads to his ‘home’ circuit of Whilton Mill in Northants – scene of a stunning victory over the newly-crowned British Champion back in October at the end of a thrilling down-to-the-wire duel – for the second FKS meeting of 2010, can anybody halt Ash Hand’s winning streak..?

Pic credit Chris Walker

To keep up-to-date with Ash’s latest career news and results, please visit: www.p1r.co.uk