Oram-Jones Wins Lewis Hamilton Award
press release
Samuel Oram-Jones came away from rounds three and four of the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) meeting at Whilton Mill last weekend having picked up the Lewis Hamilton ‘true grit’ award.
Sammy, who competes in the FKS MiniMax class for 11-16 year olds, earned the accolade - which is given to one MiniMax competitor at each round - after a throttle cable problem forced him to start Saturday’s heats from the back of the grid.
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net
Despite lining up out of position and in 28th place though, the 12-year-old put in a masterful performance and the KR-Sport Racing Team driver fought his way back through the field and pulled off a number of overtaking moves to finish twelfth in heat 1 and tenth in heat 2.
He then came through to take fourth spot in the round 3 final of the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone Formula One Management-backed series.
“My throttle cable was stuck on and so I didn’t complete a lap in qualifying and had to start last,” Samuel explained. “It was quite frustrating, but we came back in the heats and then we did even better in the final. It was really good in the end and we scored a lot of points.
“It is really great to take the Lewis Hamilton award too. I am really, really happy about that.”
pic - Chris Walker, kartpix.net
Sunday, like the opening day, was again played out under largely sunny skies, and Samuel was right on the pace in the second FKS MiniMax qualifying session, finishing ninth, his best lap a 48.39 seconds.
However mechanical gremlins struck again in the heats and he had to settle for 14th and 15th, before bouncing back to claim sixth in the round 4 finale.
“It was good in qualifying but we had two problems in both of the heats,” Samuel continued. “We had power problems in heat 1 and in heat 2 we had kart problems. We still scored some good points however.
“Overall we were pleased with the weekend because we had two good results from far back and came up through the pack.”
Samuel now moves up to sixth place in the 2010 FKS MiniMax Championship standings, with 640 points on the board.
“We have gone forward,” he added, “and are just one point off fifth. We are going to try and push now and really go for the title.”
Samuel’s next chance to add to his tally in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) series will come at Glan-Y-Gors at the start of July. Before then though, he has a few other Club events to think about, as well as the next round in the Super One Series at Buckmore Park (June 26-27).
“Sammy will take a lot from this weekend,” summed-up his proud father, Emil. “His performance was remarkable given the difficulties we suffered on the Saturday and I think he drove beyond his potential.
“I am very pleased to hear that he got the Lewis Hamilton award too. It is good of the organisers to acknowledge his efforts and what he did on the Saturday.
“I understand it is a good award to be given. Basically he was just in a different league.”
