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Walker does the double at Larkhall

Jonathan Walker completed his second double podium of the season and moved into 2nd place in the British Super 1 Championship at Larkhall in Lanarkshire on Sunday (17 August).  Walker’s 2nd and 3rd places were also the perfect present to himself, as he celebrated his 20th birthday on race day. 

However, he faced a stern challenge after Timed Qualifying - “I was quickest in the warm-up, but could only go 6th quickest in Qualifying,” Jonathan said. 

With the rapidly changing weather playing havoc with the teams’ kart set-ups, Jonny found that it had wrong-footed his choices during the first heat. “It would rain really heavily, stop, and then the track would dry very quickly. But how long it would rain for, you just couldn’t tell. We went with the wrong tyre pressures and I couldn’t find the right level of grip, which meant I dropped back a couple of places”. 

His fortunes began to improve when the AMT driver took 5th in the second heat. “It had stopped raining again and the track was drying, so I was on slicks. This made over-taking quite challenging because to make a pass, you had to come off the dry racing line and go onto the damp, greasy parts of the track – which made heavy braking quite lairy.” 

Having qualified 9th overall for the first final, Jonathan started from the 5th row of the grid and describes the start-line action, “Larkhall’s one of the shorter, tighter and twistier circuits on the calendar and there are always crashes there. Just after the start, it’s important to avoid the incidents, let the race settle and then move forward. Which is exactly what I did. I picked my way, one by one, and got into second place. At this point, the leader - Mark Litchfield – had established a three second lead, but I began to take big chunks out of it and managed to peg it to just over a second at the finish.” 

Although he was delighted to take a trophy and a good haul of points, Jonny knew that his second-place meant that he would start the day’s next final on the still damp outside line. “The first corner at Larkhall is a quick, left-hander. You need to get over to the left as quickly as possible because if you don’t, you’ll be hung out to dry on the dirty part of the track.”

Which is exactly what happened. “Mark got a good start but I couldn’t tuck in behind him because his team-mate, Chris Rogers, was already there! I was pushed wide and got beaten up a little, but fought my way back and eventually got into 3rd.” 

On the penultimate lap, Walker posted the fastest lap but was unable to finish further up the order. “I think I could’ve been 2nd had the race been two laps longer,” he mused. “Still I took home good points and I’m second in the standings now. There are four races left and I think I can catch (Championship leader) Mark. It’s going to be interesting. He’s good at the start of races and I’m good at the end, so we’ll just have to see…”

Jonny scores a boatload of points in Lakes 

Podium double moves him into Championship contention 

Jonathan Walker’s two second-place finishes in the 3^rd round of the British Super 1 kart Championship at Rowrah in the Lake District over the weekend (14/15 June), have moved the Blackburn racer into 4^th place in the title hunt. 

The 19-year old had gone into the weekend well prepared, after spending several days testing at the Cumbrian track. However, Jonathan felt that his kart’s handling could have been better during Timed Qualifying. He said, “I couldn’t get the kart to ‘come on’ in the allocated time. It was taking about eight laps for the chassis and tyre set-up to work at the optimum level, by which time the chequered flag was coming out.” 

Nevertheless, he recorded the 5^th fastest time to give himself a third row start for his first race. 

Encountering “no real dramas” Jonathan scored a 4^th and then a 2^nd place, to put himself 3^rd on the grid for the first final. “I got shunted at the start and dropped to 5^th” he explained. “I got back onto the circuit and picked my way back up the order and ended up in 2^nd at the (chequered) flag. I was catching the leader quite quickly, so it was a good sign for the next race.”

Starting alongside the first final winner and three-time British Champion Mark Litchfield, Jonny managed to get into the lead going into the tricky first corner.  

“I tried to get away because I know Mark is so good early on in a race, but it was the other way round - he passed me and started to pull away.” 

Pushing at ten tenths, Jonathan knew he’d have to work hard to stay in front of the pack before his kart started to perform. Midway through the race, it finally began to handle in the way he wanted, and he soon found himself reeling in Litchfield.  

“It (the kart) was suddenly really fast, and I was gaining on Mark bit by bit. I think I would’ve passed him with three or four more laps. To be honest, Mark drove impeccably and I don’t think we could’ve done much better. To finish second in both finals was a fair result in many ways.” 

Buoyed by his performance, Jonathan’s next race will be the second round of the European Championship at Mariembourg in Belgium (28/28 June). It is a circuit that Jonathan knows well and likes. 

“I’ve gone very well there in the past. My first priority is to qualify for the main final (having come through the qualifying heats) and then go for a top 15. That may sound a modest objective but at this level, the European races are brutal.”

Walker delighted with podium

Jonathan Walker was delighted - if a little surprised – to finish 3rd at last Sunday’s (18 May) second round of the British Super 1 kart Championship. 

The Gillard driver had put in a storming drive in the second of the day’s two finals to finish in 4th place - but Richard Bradley’s disqualification from 2nd place moved him into a trophy-winning position.  

“I couldn’t ask for any more really” Walker said, reflecting on the fact that he’d previously stated that he needed a podium to kickstart his title ambitions, after a disastrous first round of the UK’s premier karting Championship - “Beforehand I did say: ‘If I’m not in the top 3 in the Finals, it’ll be a disaster’.”

His day didn’t start quite to plan. After starting from 6th on the grid, he’d got up to 4th place when on the last lap, his chain snapped putting him out on the spot.  

Things started to improve in the 2nd heat, when he took he took an excellent 5th after driving from the back of the field. 

In the tough first Final, Jonathan was involved in battles with three drivers – first with Nick Yelloly and later with Elliott Burton and Sam Tordoff. At the finish, he crossed the line barely a tenth of a second ahead of Tordoff, but behind just Burton. 

“Considering I had a puncture for three quarters of the race, 8th wasn’t bad” he said dryly. 

With his AMT team making changes to his kart’s set-up, Walker knew that he needed to produce something special in the second points-scoring race - “In the first final I didn’t have enough ‘waff’. I needed the sort of speed I’d had in the two heats -when I’d been second quickest in the first one, and fastest in the second.” 

Whatever his mechanics Ashley and Kevin did, it worked. In the second final, Walker was in storming form. Overtaking two karts in the first corner, Jonathan earned the praise of watching 2005 World Kart Champion, Oliver Oakes for his aggressive start. 

Now in 5th, Jonny momentarily dropped to 6th before (reigning British Champion) Chris Rogers’ exit with a seized motor put him back into 5th spot.  

After losing three places in one move, former race-leader Mark Litchfield now found himself under attack from Walker.  

With three corners to go of the last lap, Jonathan pulled off a superb move to wrest 4th place from Litchfield - “I tapped Mark wide going into Fletcher’s (corner). He’d braked hard and I just ran into the back of him. It wasn’t intentional.” He said afterwards, unaware that the drama wasn’t yet over. 

During post race checks, Bradley was excluded from 2nd-place for an error on his scrutineering card.  

Promoted to 3rd, Jonny has also moved into Championship contention and is now lying in 6th place overall - just 31 points off the lead. With 50 points awarded for a win, he’s confident that he can build on his PFi podium -“We head up to Rowrah for the next round and the last time I was there, I was fighting for the win. It’s game-on now.”