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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).
“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.
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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