Goodwin proves he’s turned a corner with stunning FKS finale 15.10.2009: Young Sale-based karting star Jay Goodwin confirmed that he has well-and-truly turned a corner with a stirring performance in the final meeting of 2009 in the hotly-fought Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship

Young Sale-based karting star Jay Goodwin confirmed that he has well-and-truly turned a corner with a stirring performance in the final meeting of 2009 in the hotly-fought Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship, gaining a staggering 18 places around one of the most demanding circuits in the country to come within a whisker of a podium finish.

Jay travelled to Whilton Mill in Northants in optimistic mood, eyeing a top 15 championship finish in his maiden full campaign at Mini Max level and looking forward to demonstrating his mettle around arguably the most physical track in Britain – not ideal given that he was still bearing the visible scars from a hefty shunt only a handful of weeks earlier at Shenington that had left him battered and bruised to say the least. He might still have been suffering from the ill-effects, but you would have been hard-pressed to tell.

“Whilton is my favourite circuit in Britain,” he enthused. “I was feeling confident, and on the Friday we were very quick. We carried that pace over to the Saturday too, when we were still one of the fastest on the track. It was really hot, and I think we had the kart set up perfectly for the conditions.

“I still had a burst blood vessel in my arm from my accident; it was affecting me a bit when I drove, but you just have to carry on. I could feel it if I thought about it, so I just tried to put it out of my mind.”

Unfortunately, after lapping right up at the sharp end again in Saturday morning’s warm-up session, disaster struck during qualifying when the fuel tank on Jay’s Evolution Racing kart fell off – just as the lap times were really beginning to tumble. With the tank resting uncomfortably on his leg, the 12-year-old – one of the youngest and least experienced drivers in a class open to competitors as old as 17 – was forced to peel into the pits, and as his rivals went faster and faster he slipped from a likely top three spot to a lowly 18th out of 26 on the grid for the pre-final, when his luck would scarcely improve.

“I was coming through the pack and battling to get into the top ten,” he recounted, “and then completely out of nowhere someone lunged up the inside of me. He took my nosecone off with his back bumper – and he was coming into the pits anyway! It was just a really needless move, and meant I had to come in for a new nose.”

He may have wound up a highly frustrated 22nd as a result, but the Ashton-upon-Mersey ace remained happy with his pace – lapping on a par with the top six for most of the race, going to show what might have been – and in positive spirits ahead of the all-important grand final later in the day.

“I got a really good start, went to the inside and got straight up to 15th on the first lap,” he recalled, “and then I gradually worked my way through the pack during the race. When the ‘safety car’ flags came out I was ninth, and that allowed me to catch the pack in front and on the re-start I was able to gain another place to eighth.

“I then took advantage of a late-race coming-together ahead, and on the last lap Luke Hughes was in front of me and defending pretty much everywhere, so I went for the outside into the first hairpin and got the cut-back on him on the exit, getting my nosecone ahead for the following corner and making the move stick. I’d been thinking sixth would be alright given where we had started, but I managed to finish fourth in the end; I was really happy, because I hadn’t been expecting to get as high as that.”

The result marked the second-best of Jay’s career at national level – following his runner-up spot in the same championship at PF International back in the summer – and kept him well on-course for the top 15 in the final points standings. It also won the North Cestrian Grammar School pupil the Lewis Hamilton ‘True Grit’ award for having produced the greatest improvement during the course of a race – for the second time in 2009, in the same series that first set the McLaren-Mercedes hero on the fast track to future superstardom, and one that now boasts the prestigious official backing of both the reigning Formula 1 World Champion and the sport’s supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

On Sunday, Jay lined up an excellent eighth on the grid, less than two tenths of a second shy of third – a career-best in FKS, having traditionally found qualifying the only real weak link in his competitive armoury. Going on to cope admirably with a gruelling 20-minute final counting no fewer than 26 laps, the Matrix and Joe Bloggs-backed speed merchant pushed hard throughout and proved the benefit of his recent training and health kick with a strong performance to take the chequered flag seventh, thereby doing enough to earn himself a seeded number for 2010. But then his dream would swiftly be shattered.

“It was a fairly lonely race,” he reflected. “I was sixth for most of it, but towards the end I received a mechanical flag, which meant I got disqualified and left me feeling really disappointed because it effectively ruined our championship by dropping us out of the final top 15. Still, I think I surprised everyone with my fitness, because I came in afterwards and wasn’t even breathing that heavily! I was really happy with how I drove all weekend, and I genuinely believe we’ve turned a corner now.”

As he prepares for an all-out assault on a leading placing with Evolution in both UK-wide series Super 1 and the international Euro Max Challenge next year, Jay Goodwin is clearly a man on a mission. Watch this space.

To keep up-to-date with all of Jay’s latest career news and results, please visit: http://www.jaygoodwinracing.co.uk/

- RA  photo Chris Walker kartpix.net