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Walker Kicks Up A Gear At CIK Opener

press release

12yo Cornubia School Student, Callum Walker driving for Harrington Doyle Racing’s Kart Team in the 2011 Yamaha Challenge Junior National class kicked the competition level up a gear at the recent 2011 Australian National CIK Stars of Karting Round 1 opener at Ipswich Kart Club’s Willowbank Raceway.

In the weeks leading up to the season’s start, Walker has been attending driving training tuition with Dale Verrall, join proprietor of Pacific Kartsport, and has also joined the Team’s Personal Fitness Program at the Beenleigh Police Youth Club.  This holistic approach to his sport certainly demonstrated some immediate benefits when he set the fastest time in Official Practice on Friday of the 3 day race meet.


Above: Fastest in Official Practice on Friday and Fastest Qualifier on Saturday, HDR’s Callum Walker was the Pole Sitter for all 3 Heats of Junior National Racing in Round 1 of the 2011 Yamaha Challenge.
pic - Ash Budd, AFimages

Jubilant on reaching his first goal for the season, the young Junior National Yamaha driver steered his Kart to be fastest Qualifier on Saturday morning with a 55.329 second lap around the 1.1 km track.  Under the CIK format of Racing, this would ensure that he started from Pole Position for each of the following 3 Heat Races on Saturday.
Walker drove smart races to learn his competitors’ strengths and to conserve his own Kart during the Heat racing.  In Heat 1 although setting the quickest lap of the race, he finished in 3rd place.  Similarly, Walker drove to his race program and in Heat 2 he placed 2nd and he was 3rd in Heat 3. 

These results would see Callum start from Row 2 of the Grid in the PreFinal on Sunday morning.  Determined to ensure himself the best opportunity for success in the Final, he set the quickest lap time of the PreFinal with a 55.144 second lap on Lap 14 of the longer 16 Lap format.  Two laps later he crossed the line in the lead and drove on to win the PreFinal convincingly as his peers had provided Walker with a break whilst they battled amongst themselves for the minor placings.

Starting from Pole in the Sunday afternoon Final was just another career best highlight from what was proving to be a tremendous weekend for the young local, however his real personal character was yet to be tested as nervous energy and strict race start protocols saw the young driver penalised to 5th for allegedly jumping the start on the roll-up to the green light.

Disappointed, Callum realised that he was a much stronger race chaser than a race leader, so this actually was seen by the Team as a positive outcome for the Entegy Web Creative supported driver. 

Coming from a 5th placed start Walker worked his magic through the first 13 laps of the Final to position himself in 3rd place.  A lap later and he had taken 2nd place and 2 laps after that he had made a solid and convincing pass to take the lead of the 20 lap Final.    He led for the next 2 laps, but was soon under attack at the end of the long back straight.  He was unfortunately involved in a racing incident in the braking area, which resulted in him being sidelined for the remainder of the race.  This was an exceptionally disappointing end to what had proven to be a tremendously good weekend for the 12yo Karter.

“I am disappointed for Dad, myself and our Team”, said Walker.  “We’d done everything right and worked so hard, but it wasn’t to be this weekend.  I guess that we proved earlier in the weekend that we can do it, so that makes me feel much better as we head for Adelaide in a few weeks.  Dale at Pacific Kartsport has been really great and Grant & Jace from ProKarting Melbourne have been terrific in helping me with my engines.  We’ll just train a bit harder, put this Final behind us and get ready to go again in Adelaide.”

Walker and the Harrington Doyle Racing Team look forward to continuing their Yamaha Challenge fight at round two of the CIK Stars of Karting Series at Southern Kart Club’s Bolivar Raceway in South Australia on April 2 – 3.

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