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Callum is still seeking sponsorship for the 2010 season. If you are interested in backing him, please contact Tracey Bowyer on 01733 701099 or 07960 400731, or e-mail: callumkf3@hotmail.com

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Bowyer charges from the back of the grid to the podium to keep runner-up challenge on-track

Callum Bowyer kept himself on-course for the runner-up laurels in the fiercely-contested national Super 1 Series in round five of the 2010 campaign at Glan Y Gors – by storming through the field from the back of the grid to the podium as the unpredictable elements and electronic woes failed in their bid to throw a spanner into the works.

Callum travelled to the undulating and demanding North Wales circuit off the back of an ultra-consistent run that had seen him finish outside the top six only twice from the eight previous finals – and with his tail up having proven that he is capable of mixing it with the big boys in the blue riband Kartmasters outing a week earlier, when he had impressively taken the fight to the likes of reigning European Champion Jordan Chamberlain and multiple British Champion Mark Litchfield in what is widely-regarded as the toughest and most prestigious race of the year.

“Given the amount of experience that we’ve got compared to them, it was a big boost to be fighting with them – they are the best in Britain and Europe,” acknowledged the highly-rated young Peterborough karting star. “At Glan Y Gors I was aiming for the podium and to come away with a good bag of points towards the championship – just a good, strong weekend.

“I like the circuit; half of it is really fast and flowing with a few blind corners, whilst the other half is really slow, and you have to hit every apex perfectly or you won’t get the lap time. I was feeling confident after Kartmasters, and I just wanted to carry that confidence forward.”

With the weather unable to make up its mind on Saturday as to quite what it wanted to do, Callum and his Global Karting team took the canny strategic decision to sacrifice qualifying in favour of giving themselves a better chance come the heat races.

“Everyone who qualified on wets really grained and destroyed their tyres because the track was drying out, but as they had predicted rain again for the first heat we didn’t want to do that,” he explained. “I just went round slowly not really looking for a grid position and trying to take care of my tyres so that if it did rain later we would be well-placed.”

Indeed, starting 11th and last on the grid is not too great a penalty in a relatively small field as Super 1’s KF2 class is, but even though the heavens did open in heat one to prove the wisdom of Callum’s choice, an electrical problem with his kart scuppered the 16-year-old’s efforts on the very opening lap, meaning he cruelly never got the opportunity to take advantage.

Undeterred, making full use of Glan Y Gors’ plethora of overtaking spots, Callum  came through magnificently from P11 to P3 in heat two once the track had dried out again – and set the fastest lap for good measure to underline his pace and potential. Admitting that it was a hard race, he would face a similar challenge from tenth on the grid for the first of the two finals – but having successfully done it once, he was optimistic of being able to do so again.

“We’d had a bad start to the weekend, but things were looking up by the end of the first day – and we were competitive in both wet and dry, which was encouraging as well,” he affirmed. “In the first final I just had to keep my head. It was a long race and obviously everyone tries that bit harder in the finals, but I just wanted to have no dramas at the start and then pick them off as the race went on.

“Starting towards the back does of course make the job a lot harder, but we had good pace again and were able to come through well to third. It was really good to finish on the podium, because we hadn’t had one in Super 1 since towards the beginning of the season.

“I dropped back a bit initially in the second final, but had recovered to third again with a few laps to go. Jordan King’s engine had seized in the first final, so his tyres were fresher than everyone else’s in the second final because they had done fewer laps – and that really shows at Glan y Gors. He was the fastest on the track and no-one could stop him as he came through, simply because his tyres were that much newer.

“He passed me on the last lap and then defended, which slowed us both up and allowed the pack behind to catch us – and with two corners to go another driver got past me too, so I ended up fifth. I was a little bit disappointed, because we could have had fourth had Jordan not defended when he had the pace to be able to pull away.”

Be that as it may, Callum’s best score since Larkhall in late April enabled him to hang onto second in the title chase, with two meetings now left at Whilton Mill and PF International, both circuits at which the Ken Stimpson School pupil has strong previous form. And having sat second in the standings all year, the former double British Mini Max Champion desperately doesn’t want to give it up now.

“It was a solid weekend overall and we scored some good points, which is what we had been aiming for all along,” he concluded. “I’m still second in the championship, and it was definitely good to outscore Jacob Nørtoft for the first time – everyone had thought it was in the bag for him before the weekend.

“It will still be hard to win the championship, but I just can’t wait for the next round now to hopefully gain even more ground and hold onto second place – to finish there would be brilliant given our comparative lack of budget and experience. Near-enough everyone on the grid has been racing a year longer than me in KF2, including Nørtoft in front and Alex Walker behind – and Jacob has raced all over Europe too and spent a lot more money on it than we’ve been able to. I think we’ve done really well.”

Gritty Bowyer takes the fight to ‘the big boys’ in blue riband outing 

Callum Bowyer might have been by some margin the youngest and least experienced competitor in the KF2 class of the prestigious annual Kartmasters outing at PF International last weekend, but that didn’t prevent the highly-rated young Peterborough karting star from punching well above his weight by taking the fight to – and beating – drivers that on paper he should not even have been able to get close to.

Callum had been out-of-the-cockpit for six weeks prior to the  Lincolnshire event  and whilst PF is admittedly something of a ‘local’ circuit for him, with virtually every driver in attendance similarly benefitting from considerable running there, there was no real ‘home’ advantage to be had.

What’s more, having only recently turned 16, the is young  in comparison with the likes of multiple British Champion Mark Litchfield – a driver nearer twice his age – reigning European Champion Jordan Chamberlain and Tom Grice, who has years of experience of racing internationally. A level playing field it palpably wasn’t, but still, that didn’t stop Callum from duelling quite literally wheel-to-wheel with his illustrious adversaries.

“I was feeling confident and just keeping an open mind to see what it would be like against the big boys,” he explained. “I know a lot of drivers don’t like PF, because everybody spends so much time there, which means it’s effectively ‘local’ for pretty much everyone. People get bored of it, but I enjoy it; it’s fast and flowing, and quite technical too in terms of set-up – and when everybody is still bunched up during the first few laps, the first couple of corners can often be pretty crazy...”

Unfortunately, engine woes in qualifying meant Callum would have to begin both of his heat races from the very back of the order, but despite the difficulty of making progress when the pack is so evenly-matched in terms of lap time, a pair of stirring performances saw the Global Karting driver take the chequered flag a solid fifth in the opening encounter and an inspired second in heat two.

“We were losing over a second a lap and I knew I wouldn’t get any further up the grid if I stayed out there and would only really use my tyres up, so I decided to come in so as not to waste them,” he recounted of qualifying. “That was a bit frustrating, and certainly presented us with an extra challenge for the rest of the weekend – it’s tough to come through in any class, but with the quality of the field in KF2 and lap times being so tight, it’s really hard to make up places starting down there.

“In the first heat we had a different engine in as our main one was being rebuilt after qualifying, so it was just a case of staying out-of-trouble and trying to get a result, which we did. We knew there was more time in the race engine, and when that was back in for heat two I came through to second. We had to run the engine back in as well during that heat, so P2 was a really good result and meant we had clawed back a lot of ground whilst knowing we still had more in the bag.”

Resoundingly back in the game once more, the combination of results left Callum fourth on the starting grid for the pre-final, albeit on the unfavourable outside line...

“It’s never great being on the outside at PF, so I knew I’d just have to try to get round the first two corners without losing too much time or too many places and then chip away from there,” the Ken Stimpson School pupil reflected. “I got up to second, and whilst Chamberlain had a bit of a gap in the lead, I caught him within three laps – but unfortunately, I was pulling along a few others behind me too, so although I got into the lead briefly, with it being a one-off meeting everyone just fights straight back again and I got shoved down to fourth and didn’t quite have chance to come back before the end of the race.

“In the grand final, there were a few little battles before the field began to spread out. I got into third, with a bit of a gap behind and not really gaining on the two leaders, and I was on my own for pretty much the whole race. Then the kart started to gradually go off, though – it was a long race, and the tyres were at their worst just when I needed to push the hardest – and with three laps to go, Grice started to catch me. He had crashed in one of his heats, so his tyres were fresher than mine because they’d done fewer laps.

“I kept an eye on him and knew he was coming up quite fast and gaining every lap. I tried to defend, but I just couldn’t hold him off and he overtook me with half a lap to go. I was obviously really disappointed to be fourth rather than third, because all the hard work from the whole race had been undone in the very last half-a-lap, but all credit to Tom – it was a good move, and it’s not as if it was a mug coming past me.”

That it certainly wasn’t, and there was no shame whatsoever in finishing fourth amongst such exalted company and fully-grown adults against whom Callum showed absolutely no fear. Musing that ‘we did quite well in the end’, there is no ‘quite’ about it, and the former double British Karting Champion knows that everything he learned over the weekend will only serve to make him even stronger in the future.

“It felt really good to be fighting against drivers like that,” he concluded. “On age and experience we shouldn’t really be up there, but we are. I have a lot of respect for them and I look up to them, but at the same time, on the track I treat them just like anyone else. Every driver that beat me was older than me, had been racing a lot longer than me and was stepping down a class from Super KF. We didn’t let ourselves down at all.

“I learned a lot from racing against them, and hopefully that will help me throughout the rest of the year. I’ve been the new boy on the block in KF2 for quite a while, but hopefully they’ve got a bit more respect for me after this weekend. I take a lot of positives away from Kartmasters, I’ve put my mark down now and they know I’m there – and knocking on the door.” 

Pic : Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net

Tyre woes fail to tire gutsy Bowyer with spirited Scottish showing 

Calumny Bowyer admitted that after qualifying for the second round of the 2010 Super 1 Series at Larkhall in Scotland, if somebody had offered him a third and a fourth place for the two finals he would have eagerly snatched their hand off, so greatly was he struggling for pace – but courtesy of a gutsy and determined performance, that is exactly what he came away with to keep himself firmly in contention for British title glory.

Callum headed north of the border off the back of a double podium finish in the Shenington curtain-raiser for the hotly-contested national karting championship just over a month earlier, and a test outing at Larkhall a fortnight prior to the meeting itself left him with considerable cause for optimism.

During pre-weekend practice, the young Peterborough driver maintained that encouraging form to lap up at the pointy end come rain or shine – but then in qualifying, a rogue batch of tyres badly offset the handling of his kart, severely stymieing his progress and leaving the 15-year-old more than three tenths shy of the benchmark and down in 11th position in the KF2 class field.

“It’s a circuit that I quite enjoy driving,” he reflected of the South Lanarkshire track. “Obviously it’s so far away that we don’t tend to go there that often, but every time we’ve been we’ve seemed to do quite well. It’s a real drivers’ track, and because it’s such a short lap you have to get absolutely every corner spot-on. You don’t get a break physically, and that makes it quite challenging because it really isn’t forgiving of mistakes. And if your kart is difficult to control, Larkhall really does crucify you...

“I knew straightaway in qualifying that the tyres weren’t even as good as the old ones we’d had on in practice that had done a lot of laps. The grip level was rubbish and we were miles off, but in that kind of situation there’s not really much you can do about it – they’re not going to just give you a new set of tyres. You have to try not to let it affect you and just get your head down.”

Consistent lap times – impressively, similar to those he had set during qualifying – earned Callum ninth place in his opening heat, a solid result. When he woke up the following day to find that the heavens had opened the Gunthorpe teenager instantly knew he had been handed a reprieve.

From 11th on the starting grid in heat two, he stormed through the spray to a commanding triumph, winning by almost two seconds after hitting the front two laps from the flag. In fact he was the only competitor who lapped under the 44-second barrier. The result also saw him line up in P6 for the first of the two finals.

“I was a lot more confident when I saw it was raining,” he acknowledged, “because with everyone switching over to wets I knew the tyres were not going to hamper us anymore. In the second heat we were half a second quicker than anyone else, but still, starting from 11th I wasn’t expecting to come through the field and win in the way that I did – I was quite shocked to be able to do that, to be honest.

“Unfortunately, the track then dried out slowly-but-surely before the first final, so we had to just keep chipping away, knowing deep down that the tyres were going to let us down again and that we wouldn’t be as sharp as the others because of that. We had improved the kart quite a bit overnight, though, and I just got my head down.

“I got quite a good start and worked my way through to third – so I feel sure that if we’d had a decent set of tyres, it would have been an altogether different outcome. Trailing by half a second in qualifying and setting the fastest lap in the first final just goes to show how much we improved over the weekend – so if we’d had a good set of tyres, who knows, perhaps we’d have been half a second up the road...”

Passing Rob Foster for the last podium position with six laps to go, Callum went on to add to that with a solid fourth place in the second final later in the day, having run second early on before finding himself shuffled down the order and having to fight his way back.

As an exercise in damage limitation given how the weekend had begun, it was a superb display, and one that enabled him to close to within just two points of second spot in the championship, and 18 adrift of leader Jacob Nørtoft as the series heads to Nutts Corner in Ireland on the last weekend in May.

 “We came away from Larkhall with quite a good result in the end,” Callum mused in conclusion. “After qualifying, I’d definitely have taken a third and a fourth place! Considering how bad the tyres were and how far off the pace we were to start with, that was certainly better than we had thought we would come away with – and at the end of the year, points make prizes.

“We’ve just got to knuckle down to some hard work now before Nutts Corner. It’s another drivers’ track where you don’t really get much of a break again, and I enjoy driving there, whereas I know some other drivers don’t get on too well with it. It’s still quite early in the year – Nutts will only be the third round of the championship – so I’m aiming to stay consistent and score some more good points. And we’ll try to make sure Nørtoft doesn’t have it quite so easy next time...”

Brilliant Bowyer battles the big boys on British KF2 class bow 

In terms of age and experience, Callum Bowyer gave away plenty to his rivals on his British KF2 class debut in the 2010 Super 1 Series curtain-raiser at Shenington – but in terms of raw pace out on the race track, he demonstrated that he is giving away absolutely nothing at all.

At just 15, Callum is one of the very youngest of the 14 KF2 competitors in Super 1, and he headed to Shenington in Oxfordshire with just three prior meetings in the class under his belt, during which he had firmly established himself as one of the main contenders in the 2009/10 Winter Series. That notwithstanding, he knew that he still needed to earn his spurs on the national stage.

“The aim was to have a good, strong, consistent weekend to set us up well for the championship,” he explained. “I knew I had a bit of a point to prove to earn the respect of all the big boys in the class. A lot of the others are far more experienced than I am, but I try not to let it bother me because at the end of the day what matters is the results you get on the track, not how old you are or how long you’ve been racing.

“I try to treat all of my rivals the same regardless of age or experience, and just race everyone hard but fair. The racing in KF2 is definitely more physical than in KF3 too, but because I’ve been training hard over the winter I haven’t found that too difficult.”

Up against some extremely good opposition including the likes of European names Jacob Nørtoft and Todor Batkov and reigning Asia-Pacific KF3 Champion Jordan King, the Gunthorpe driver nonetheless came out of the starting blocks flying during practice, lapping quickest of all throughout the opening day.

As the others slowly chipped away at that advantage as the weekend progressed, however, so Callum found himself embroiled in a tight duel for the leading positions – and come race day, there would be barely hundredths separating the front-runners.

Second in qualifying – a mere tenth shy of the top spot – Callum overcame a lack of engine power in the first of his two heats to secure the same result when the chequered flag fell, and added a third place in heat two.

Second on the grid once more for the pre-final, he unfortunately found himself disadvantaged by being on both the dirty side of the track and on the outside line – and paid the price in being forced wide when the lights went out. However he wasted little time in battling back and snatching the lead on lap four of 23. With a solid margin over his pursuers, all was looking good – but then the performance of his kart began to fade and left Callum to doggedly defend to hang onto third place.

“I pulled out quite a gap over the others, but then towards the end the kart started to go off slightly,” he recalled. “Nørtoft overtook me with four laps to go, and because that caused me to briefly lose momentum, Steven Napier was able to come past too. I was a bit disappointed having done all the hard work and led most of the race, but I had to remember it was still only my first national meeting in KF2 – so I couldn’t really grumble at that!

“Having a corner pretty much straightaway after the start makes things hard at Shenington, and doesn’t give us much chance to sort ourselves out. I managed to find a bit of a gap at the start of the grand final, but then I got run wide and ended up dropping down to fifth behind Rob Foster. It was hard to overtake him, because although I knew I was faster, it was difficult to find the right moment. I got past him at the top hairpin, but he attacked me straight back and ran me off the track – I don’t think he liked being overtaken by a 15-year-old!

 “I got back past again later, though, and was able to shake him off and reel in Sam Snell. I got him for third and then got Napier for second, which put me right behind Nørtoft in the lead, but Steven lunged me straight back again and ran me out wide – which, like with Foster, I guess was all about me having to earn their respect. That allowed Sam to catch me back up, and with only a few laps left at that point my chance to win had gone, because the three of us fighting had allowed the leader to pull quite a way clear.

 “It’s so hard round Shenington without the tow – and with only four corners to the lap, it’s not a track where it’s easy to close gaps, especially when everyone is so close on times as well. On the last lap everyone just concentrates on holding their line so as not to give the driver behind an opportunity to attack – and Napier covered his line well, so I had to settle for third in the end.”

With consistency likely to be the key to a successful challenge for the crown, Callum has made a good start. As he prepares next to return to Larkhall in Scotland – scene of an excellent showing in the KF3 class of Super 1 last year – the double rostrum finish from Shenington has left Callum just eight points off the championship lead.

“Pace-wise we’re already very strong,” he concluded. “We just need a bit more experience and to sharpen up on a few things. Because some of the others have been doing it for so long, they can come to a race weekend and have a good idea of what effect different changes to the kart will produce at each circuit. We don’t have that confidence 100 per cent yet, so sometimes we’re still having to take a few gambles. Everything was new at the weekend, so to end up with two podiums and a good points haul was pretty pleasing.

“We’re definitely there, and I’m just looking forward to the next round now! The goal for Larkhall is to come away with an even better result. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some testing there beforehand, and it’s a real drivers’ track, fast and tight with a lot of corners. The amount of time I’ve had in the seat so far isn’t a great deal compared to many of the other drivers in the class, meaning as time goes on we will only get stronger and stronger. We can only improve, and hopefully next time I’ll go a couple of steps higher up on the podium too...”

pics: Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net

Bowyer vows to fight to the finish after victory near-miss 

Calla Bowyer might have left PF International following the latest round of the 2009/10 Winter Series frustrated that an early knock from a rival had likely cost him his breakthrough KF2 class victory, but with the coveted title still at stake he has vowed to fight on to the end – for if there is one thing that the highly-rated young Peterborough karting star has never been, it is a quitter. 

Callum began the third meeting out of four on the Winter Series schedule heading somewhat into the unknown, following an eleventh-hour change from his regular Alonso chassis to a new Tony Kart mount in the wake of an unusually off-colour test day at the same Lincolnshire circuit a week earlier.

However, having claimed an astonishing three major British titles in 2008 – BRDC Stars of Tomorrow, Super 1 and the ‘O’ Plate – on a Tony Kart, if anything the switch marked something of a homecoming for the 15-year-old, with his good record and good memories only serving to spur him on. 

“There had been something not quite right with the kart the previous weekend,” he explained, “and that had left us a fair way off the pace. We had everything on it that should have made it quick, and we checked it all and couldn’t find anything amiss. We put our heads together and all we could think was that it was just the kart in general that had got a bit tired. I had been on it since the middle of 2009, and it had done a lot of hard work and a lot of laps over that period and as a consequence just wasn’t the same anymore as it once had been. 

“I was pretty confident going into the weekend with the new kart, and I got settled in with it quickly, just like in old times. We were quite a long way up the road in Friday testing; on Saturday the others caught us up a bit time-wise, but we were still fastest in the last two sessions so I knew we had the pace, and the chassis and motor both felt really good.” 

It was, indeed, an extremely positive start, and this up against a fuller field than had been present in the first two Winter Series outings, something that Callum opined ‘makes it a bit more of a challenge and a better race at the end of the day’. And a back-of-the-grid starting position for his opening heat did little to deter the Gunthorpe teenager. 

“The weather was horrible and really wet,” he recalled, “but we had good pace still and were able to come through to finish a solid third. In heat two I started a bit further forward, and picked them off again to get into the lead early on. Jordan King had so much grip in the wet, though, which allowed him to catch and pass me and then pull away – but the main thing was that I scored good points for second and was ahead of Jake Lloyd, my main rival.” 

Those results earned Callum a front row starting slot for the all-important final later in the day, but unfortunately it was on the unenviable – and wetter – outside line. A subsequent tap from behind when the lights went out sent him off-track and plummeting down to the very rear of the order, leaving the Chris Rogers-run speed demon with a lot of work to do. That he stormed back through the field to very nearly triumph – setting fastest lap along the way for good measure – spoke volumes. 

“A dry line was just starting to appear,” he recounted, “so everyone went out on slicks, but at the start I got pushed from behind out onto the wetter part of the circuit. All of the temperature went out of my tyres, which cost me a lot of time and left me right down at the back by quite some margin.  

“After that I just had to get my head down, and I was really determined to come back through. The kart and engine still both felt really good, and we had good pace and were three tenths a lap faster than the winner. I just focussed on picking them off one-by-one and making up ground as fast as I could; with the final being a longer race, I had a bit more time on my hands than in the heats.  

“I knew Jordan was really quick in the wet having won both of the heats, but in the dry he didn’t have the same grip advantage or the same edge. I overtook him and when I looked back a couple of laps later I had established quite a gap over him. The only problem was, following all the chaos at the start the leader had been able to pull a long way ahead of everyone else, and when I got into second he was the whole length of the straight in front of me. By the time we crossed the finish line I was literally right on his bumper. Just one more lap...”  

Just one more lap indeed, but notwithstanding his understandable disappointment, the Ken Stimpson School pupil’s performance had nonetheless clearly caught the eye. What’s more, with King coming in third and Lloyd enduring a torrid time of things in the testing conditions, the scene has now been set for a thrilling finale, as Callum approaches the decider 13 points off the top and embroiled in a fraught, no-holds barred three-way scrap for the Winter Series trophy and the prestigious ‘O’ plate that accompanies it. This battle is far from over yet. 

“To be able to come back through so well considering the quality of drivers out there was really encouraging,” he reflected in conclusion. “I set the fastest lap in KF2, and only two of the Super KF class drivers in the same race were quicker than me, which just shouldn’t be possible – they should be about a second faster with the extra power they’ve got.  

“I was definitely pleased with how we performed; it was just a shame about what happened at the first corner that left me with all that hard work to do. I feel pretty confident that without that, we would have had an excellent chance of winning – and to come all the way from last and be so close at the end was very frustrating. 

“If our ignition hadn’t blown in the first round and if our axle hadn’t snapped in the second, we would have been leading the championship now by quite a long way. This weekend was the first final we’ve actually finished in KF2, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.  

“It’s going to be really hard to make the points deficit up, but I know we’ve got the pace, so it’s just a case of staying focussed mentally. We went into the last Mini Max round in Stars of Tomorrow in 2008 behind on points and came out in front, so it can be done. Whilst Jake should effectively have the title in the bag, we will be giving it absolutely everything we’ve got to snatch it away from him.”