James Turns Testing Times Into Victory

press release

James Appleton took a big step towards his ambition to win a major Championship, with a superb victory in the Stars of Tomorrow series at Rowrah, last Sunday (25 May).

pic by Chris Walker, Kartpix

“If you’d told me on Saturday morning that I’d win on Sunday, I’d have laughed” the 12-year old said after initially being off the pace in testing. With Chris Rogers and Nick Jest working tirelessly to cure his lack of speed, the Mini Max front-runner found his times beginning to improve during Saturday afternoon.

“That gave me the confidence for Sunday” he added. He won his first heat comfortably and then delivered a superb drive in his next race - passing twenty karts in just 10 laps - to finish in 4th place. In his 3rd race, James started from 15th on the grid to take the chequered flag in 5th.

With the points from his heat results added up, James found himself starting from P3 on the grid for the final, right behind his NJR team-mate Jake Dalton.

“At the start, I was tucked up behind Jake’s rear bumper, and that meant that as we turned into the first corner, I was able to take 2nd place. Jake and I just pushed and pushed to make a gap over the rest of the field.”

With an ambitious race plan, James reeled out the remaining four laps glued to Dalton’s bumper, and two corners from the chequered flag, went for the lead.

“I got past Jake going into the fast right-hander by the pit-lane entrance and managed to keep ahead through the last two corners to nick it” was how he coolly summed up the audacious move that saw him win by just two tenths of a second.

pic by Chris Walker, Kartpix

James’ father, Mark was suitably impressed. “He drove very well. Both James and Jake were very professional and didn’t battle during the race. They worked together to create the advantage and then went for it on the last lap.”

 “We’ve got the best result possible for the team today, with a 1-2 in Mini Max and with Ashley Sutton taking the KF3 win, it shows just how strongly NJR is performing and how good the Octane chassis is. It’s thanks to the hard work of Nick and Chris and Ricky Grice who looks after my engines” James said.

James is now leading the Stars of Tomorrow Championship with the next round at Whilton Mill, near Daventry on 8 June.

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