Maiden Victory at Lydd

Twelve year old Colchester kart racer James Walkington had a very successful Easter weekend, recording his first victory since moving up to the MiniMax owner/driver class of kart racing.

Saturday Practice

Appearing at the Lydd International Raceway in Kent for the first time, and in only his seventh owner/driver meeting, Walkington performed well during the Saturday test sessions. However, as the day progressed it became apparent that the Lydd circuit wore tyres very heavily and so with only one set of tyres allowed on race day a tyre management strategy coupled to Walkington's smooth driving style would be the key to success the following day.

Sunday race day opened with a timed qualifying session followed by three heats to determine the grid for the grand final. Race engineer Dean Meyer set up Walkington's kart to preserve his tyres through the qualifying and heats, but Walkington still recorded 4th, 6th and 3rd place heat finishes to gain 3rd place on the grid for the afternoon final.

James, Race Engineer Dean Meyer and the winning kart

With his kart now set up for an all-out assault on victory, Walkington held his postion from the rolling start of the final and through the first sequence of bends. Exiting the third corner faster than the two karts ahead of him allowed Walkington to take the lead as the race entered the downhill straight that is the fastest part of the Lydd circuit.

With a melee of karts behind him Walkington now found that his economic driving style worked against him as his tyres took slightly longer than the others to get to full race temperature. It took two laps of defensive driving for Walkington to get his kart to optimum performance but then he started to extend his lead. After 15 laps Walkington took the chequered flag by the comfortable margin of seven and a half seconds!

Published in the Colchester Gazette 16th April 2009
and the Essex County Standard 17th April 2009.