Weekend of two halves at Shenington Super One

MiniMax driver James Walkington travelled to Shenington for last weekend's Rotax Super One meeting with high hopes of building on his strong showing in the recent Kartmasters GP. The Colchester 13 year old, driving for Dan Holland Racing, gave further indications for a good week-end ahead during Friday practice by being timed amongst the front runners.

Saturday's official timed qualifying saw Walkington in the first of the two groups. Despite running in the top 3 for most of the session he eventually slipped back to ninth as he was unable to produce his best effort towards the end of the 10 minutes. "I signalled to him to drop back" explained mechanic Russ Carter, "but because the karts in front slowed too the gap was never big enough to give hime a clear run". After the second group had completed their run Walkington found himself in 21st place of the 42 drivers. "Disappointing" he commented, "but I guess I can only go forwards in the heats".

Unfortunately, Walkington's optimism proved incorrect as he was shuffled towards the back of the pack at the start of the rain delayed first heat and his race effectively came to an end when his engine cut out at the end of lap 3. Walkington's second heat was again rain interrupted but this time the rain fell after the race had started so all of the drivers were on slick tyres. Again Walkington had a bad start but matched the pace of the leaders during the second half of the race to pull himself back up to 11th.

A bad finish and an average one were not good enough to put Walkington into the finals by right so a dry Sunday morning found him starting the repechage from P6. This time his start was a good one and he moved into the fourth and final qualifying slot by the second corner. "I couldn't just sit there, though" said Walkington later "because I knew I had Shaun Arnold and Rob Holland somewhere behind me; I had to pick off the guys in front whenever I could". His first opportunity came as the karts went down the long back straight for the first time: he was able to out brake Jay Goodwin going into Wilkins bend to move into third place. Walkington repeated the manouvre on Jack Lang the following lap to take second behind team mate Ryan Morgan. By lap 4 the DHR pair had been joined at the front by Shaun Arnold and the three of them fought over the lead for the remainder of the race. Going into the back straight chicane for the final time, Arnold led Walkington closely followed by Holland, Goodwin and Morgan. There was time for just one more change of position: "Arnold over-defended through the chicane" explains Walkington "so he had no speed onto the back straight and I was able to get by him quite easily". A well-driven victory for Walkington, with Arnold, Holland and Goodwin joining him in the finals.

The rain returned to Shenington in the afternoon: a short torrential downpour during the lunch break left the track requiring full wet setup for the first final. As winner of the repechage, Walkington started P27 of the 30 karts. With just a single row of karts behind him he was able to concentrate on picking his way through the inevitable carnage of the first few corners. As one of the few drivers able to cope with the tricky conditions Walkington was up to 12th by the end of the third lap and continued to make steady progress through the field. His fiinishing position of 6th - no less than 21 places ahead of his grid position - markes his best result to date in a national final.

For the second final the track was again dry. Unfortunately Walkington could not maintain his P6 start position nor could he establish a driving rhythm, slipping back to a 24th place finish. However, his combined points haul from the 2 finals gives Walkington by far his best Super One result to date.

Published in The Grid 1st September 2010