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Two weekends/two troubled races 20th August 2007 In two consecutive weekends in August James took part in two important races, first of all at the Kartmasters 'GP' plate meeting at PF International in Lincolnshire, and then the following weekend at Warden Law near Sunderland for a round of the MSA Super One Championship in Formula ICA.  After a confidence boosting run at Shenington a few weeks earlier, James had found that to remain competitive, his Wright kart had to be fitted with hand-operated front brakes. That would not normally have been a problem for James, except that the stub axles that the front discs were attached to, were not designed for the chassis James had to use.  "It just throws everything out at the front," his father and race engineer Ian explained. "The angles are all wrong and there is nothing that we have been able to do to put it the way it should be." This soon became clear in the Saturday heats where James, even as a past Super One British Champion, struggled to make any progress with his wayward mount. It also did not help that he was pushed off the track several times by the odd ill-mannered and racing deficient opponents, whose futures would perhaps be better served by the removal of a racing licence or two for several months.  Just one such incident accounted for heat one where James failed to finish after completing only one lap. Heat two was a little better considering his kart difficulties, where James finished in a creditable 15th place after holding close to his start position on grid 11, setting a respectably quick lap of 45.17s in the process. For the third and final heat James started on grid 8 and finished 8th in heavy rain, with a best lap of 61.50s, but as expected a long way off the pace of the winner, who seemed to have a tyre advantage that no one else had anyway. The three combined heats left James a disappointed 20th on the grid for the main final, but at least he did not have the ignominy of qualifying from the 'B' Final, as some of his better equipped rivals were faced with. The heavy rain from Saturday re-manifested itself just in time for the first final, where James stayed out of trouble to move from 20th to 15th in difficult conditions, remaining in a confident mood, even though he knew his kart was simply not good enough for the conditions. "We need the front brakes on the kart to try to be competitive," he said after the race, "even if they do not work on this chassis. Without them we would be even slower." With the track still wet it was never going to be easy for the Grand Final and James did well just to keep his wayward mount on the track. "I suppose this weekend is one best forgotten," he said. "I did my best , but if the kart is not up to the job, there is not a great deal more that we can do." |
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