|
|
2006 The British Kartmasters Grand Prix, PFI 5/6 August 2006 “One of these days I reckon I should be able to qualify for a Kartmasters ‘A’ Final”. He might have said it with a smile, but James frustration was evident. ‘Jiggy’ had come back to karting for the most prestigious race of the year, with but one aim, which was to win the suitably titled Elf Kartmasters British Grand Prix at PF International, using a newly acquired Arrows/Parilla outfit.  James has been busy of late working in mainstream motor-sport, so he knew the task ahead of him, even as a returning British karting champion, would not be easy. Drivers often need dozens of laps just to get back into the swing of things after some time away, but this was lap time that James had not been able to enjoy. And the cut-and-thrust of the Formula Super Libre class, which had attracted the best of British talent, and included a number of International Europe and World competition class drivers, was a hard way for him to return. Starting from the back of the grid, James had a steady run in his first heat to finish in 17th place as he shadowed another former British Champion Jason Edgar across the finishing line. He then fought around mid-grid in his second outing, holding position in a group of more than half a dozen karts separated by just over one second, coming home in 11th place in the slipstream of Stefan Wilson, younger brother and accomplished karter of ex-F1 and Champ Car driver Justin Wilson. Warming to his task James set his fastest lap of the weekend at 45.34s in his third heat, as he finished in 10th place just over six seconds behind the winner. All in all James had experienced a good return to karting, as he took on some of the most experienced and hardest kart racing drivers, he would find outside of European competition. Sadly his results were not quite able to get him into the ‘A’ Final, which left him with a second row starting berth on grid three for the ’B’ Final. He set another personal best lap of 45.18s, 0.35s away from the fastest race lap, but failed to qualify by just two places after being rammed by Chris Brown on the approach to the Esses. “Did you see that nice piece of grass-cutting”, James said still smiling after the race. He had slid wildly across the infield on full steering lock, just missing the barriers, before re-joining the track after losing a lot of time. “He said he panicked as he thought the drivers chasing us were closer than they actually were”, James explained in more detail. “He decided to try and go for the inside, realised the move was going nowhere, before ramming me off the track. I think he had his licence endorsed for his driving…”, although this was irrelevant as far as James was concerned. Although sixth at the finish, he was only 3.77s behind the winner, after losing an estimated five seconds in the Brown incident. But for that James would have qualified for the ‘A’ Final, and given his ever-increasing pace, a degree of progress would have been reasonably anticipated in that race. Bearing in mind that Jamie Croxford, who had finished the ‘B’ Final only a few lengths ahead of James, subsequently went on to fight his way up to sixth place in the main event, a potential top ten finish for James would not have been too much to have asked for. The future? James still has his sights set on mainstream motor-sport for his future. He might return to karting one day tough, probably even for Kartmasters 2007 – with probably a bit of practice before-hand, just to make sure he is ready..? |
|
|
|
|
||||
