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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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mail your news to editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk Weekend of two halves at Shenington Super One
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. Pics: Paul Mabbutt - pixelero.co.uk
James Walkington Shines at Kartmasters
Walkington's achievements were all the more impressive because he had to use his second choice engine for the second half of the meeting. "The kart felt strong during practice" said Walkington "but I was disappointed to achieve only a mid-field finish in qualifying. I could feel the engine going off towards the end of the session". After another mid-field finish in his first heat it was clear that Walkington's engine was not performing as it had been so the Team replaced it with Walkington's second engine for the next heat where he drove an excellent race to finish sixth. His combined heat results placed Walkington 14th on the grid of 34 for the 1st final. A solid start promoted Walkington to 11th place at the end of the first lap and some intelligent driving thereafter saw him move up to 8th at the chequered flag. Starting from 8th in the second final, Walkington appeared to make another good start but then had to take to the grass to avoid a spinning Lemuel Pay in front of him. As the race settled down, the lead karts fragmented in to a group of 4 and a group of 7 with Walkington and Luke Hughes 2 seconds adrift of the latter. After passing Hughes on lap 5 Walkington set about narrowing the gap ahead but found he was unable to do so without a friendly "tow" to help him down the straights. Only as the front group slowed whilst jockeying for position over the final 2 laps was Walkington able to get close to the action, snatching 8th place in the last dash to the line
James Wallington - Champion Final round of the Bayford Winter Series
James with race manager Dean Meyer and his No 1 fan and brother William Walkington has endured a frustrating month since his victory in the previous round at Bayford. First, his visit to PF International for round one of their Winter Championship, saw him start the final near the back of the grid after a faulty starter motor forced him to miss his second heat. Worse still, a fuel flow problem allowed him to gain only a handful of places from his lowly start position in the final. The following week he returned to PFI for round two. All seemed well until the start of lap 8 in the final when Walkington's rear axle snapped in two towards the end of the main straight. "As I came onto the straight there was a lot of vibration from the back end" he recalls, "and then as I reached the braking point the kart just let go and I headed off towards the tyre wall. All I could do was close my eyes and wait for the impact!". Fortunately, neither Walkington nor the kart were seriously damaged. Next came a snow disrupted test day and race meeting at Shenington. Sterling work by the ground crew converted a circuit under 2 inches of snow at 7am to one fit for slicks by early afternoon! Walkington finished a creditable 11th on only his second visit to the circuit. And so to Bayford for the final round of their Winter Championship. Walkington showed dominant form during the Saturday practice, maintaining a margin of 0.3 seconds over his rivals through most of the sessions. However, anti-climax followed on the Sunday when heavy rain caused the track to flood and the meeting to be abandoned. This led to the championship being decided from the results of the previous 3 completed rounds and, as championship leader, Walkington was declared the champion. Walkington's attention now turns to the Super One British Championship opener at PFI in March. His progress there and at all of his other races may be followed on his website - www.JamesWalkington.com - in the results section. James Walkington wins 3rd round at Bayford
Qualifying was as closely fought as ever, with 0.3 seconds covering the top six. Walkington qualified third with his main championship rivals Jack Mitchell, Toby Cook and James Cossins occupying pole, second and fifth respectively. The first heat was enlivened by a flying start from P4 by Mikey Thompson. During the ensuing melee in turn one Walkington was able to slip into second behind Mitchell; these two then pulled clear as Cook, Thompson and Cossins sorted themselves out behind. The remainder of the race proved to be quite tense for Walkington when a heavy contact with the kerb broke one of his kart's sidepod mounts. "I could hear my sidepod scraping along the track and it was getting louder and louder" recalls Walkington, "I was really worried I was going to get black flagged; and whilst I was distracted by that I could see Mitchell disappearing into the distance and knew Cook and Co must be closing in behind!". Fortunately Walkington was able to complete the eight lap race and held on to second by the narrowest of margins. The grid for Heat two reflected the finishing positions from heat one. This meant Walkington was promoted to P2, a position he held on to at the start as once again he and pole man Mitchell pulled away from the others. This time, with a fully functional kart, Walkington was able to hang on to Mitchell's bumper but couldn't quite get close enough to attempt a passing move. The grid for the final had Mitchell on pole, Walkington second and then Cook, Thompson and Cossins. Once again the latter three tangled at the first corner allowing Mitchell and Walkington to escape. Over the first few laps Mitchell was able to extend his lead but from the fifth lap onwards Walkington slowly started to reel him in. As the karts entered the main straight to complete lap ten of the fifteen lap race Walkington was only a few kart lengths adrift. Tracking Mitchell for the full length of the straight, Walkington waited until the last possible instant before diving to the inside of turn one and into the lead. With Mitchell struggling to match Walkington's pace the race looked over but, as Walkington explains, there was one further obstacle to overcome: "We were closing in on a back marker really quickly. One mistake from him might have cost me the race, but luckily he saw the blue flag and left me enough room to squeeze through on the inside. But in all the excitement I missed the last lap board, so the chequered flag took me by surprise the next time around which is why my celebrations were a bit late!" Walkington returns to Bayford Meadows for the final round on the 28th February. The final outcome of this championship and his other races may be followed on Walkington's website - www.JamesWalkington.com - in the results section. Pics: Martin Clark of MPH Photography
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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..jpg)
James
Walkington of Dan Holland Racing recorded his best result to date at
national level by coming 8th in both Mini-Max finals of last weekend's
Kartmasters MSA GP at PF International. According to DHR Team owner Dan
Holland "James had by far the drive of his life and hopefully this is
the start of good things to come!"
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MiniMax
driver James Walkington got his 2010 season off to a flying start with a
well deserved victory at the Bayford Meadows January meeting. The win
extends his lead at the top of the Kent circuit's Winter Championship to
13 points with one round remaining.