Seven victories from the opening ten rounds in FKS enabled James to wrap up the laurels one meeting early, and his peerless, runaway success secured the talented young North Wales speed demon an invite to the prestigious Autosport Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

During the course of what was truly a red carpet affair, the 16-year-old Conwy-based hotshot rubbed shoulders with the likes of reigning double F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, British hero Jenson Button, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, popular BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle, multiple IndyCar Series Champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti and Anthony Hamilton, father of McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis.

“It was a fantastic evening, and not like anything I had been expecting at all,” James enthused. “I’ve not been to any awards ceremony as high-profile as that before, and I certainly hadn’t thought it would be as glitzy and glamorous as it was! Everyone who is anyone in the world of motorsport was there, and it was just such a good night!

“I met Christian Horner and Martin Brundle and spent some time chatting to them, and I spoke to Anthony Hamilton, too; he was talking about when to make the move up from karting into cars, and to make sure to get the timing right and go in with a solid plan. He has been through it all himself, of course, with Lewis, and he gave me some really useful career advice.”

The highly-rated Penmaenmawr ace confessed that he was ‘really nervous in the build-up to getting my award, but when I was called onto the main stage to receive it, it was definitely a special moment, especially in front of all those people’, and the ultra-cool, retro-style steering wheel that he was presented with marked the well-earned fruit of a year’s labours with Coles Racing.

Making a point of thanking FKS and its director Carolynn Hoy for organising such a brilliant championship and his sponsor Gwynedd Forklifts for its invaluable and unfailing support, James mused that aside from his superb title triumph, there were many other reasons to be cheerful in 2011, too, from victories in fellow national series Super 1 – in which he wound up an excellent fourth – to ‘O’ Plate success at Rowrah in Cumbria and a magnificent performance to rank third in the world in the hotly-contested Rotax World Finals in the United Arab Emirates.

“It’s just been an awesome year,” reflected the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. “Obviously we had our downs along the way, with a really tough start to the season in Super 1, but other than that it has been pretty faultless and as the year went on, we just got stronger-and-stronger.

“The highlight was probably winning the ‘O’ Plate at Rowrah, Super 1 there as well and two FKS meetings all in a row back in early-summer. Finishing third in the Rotax World Finals was a massive result, too. We were so happy just to have the opportunity to go there in the first place, but to come away with a podium was absolutely amazing!

“We’re really pleased with the way it all ended; we definitely expected to be up at the front this season, but we could honestly never have anticipated being quite as successful as we have been. There’s no question that it has been my best year yet – by far.”

In a 72-strong Junior Rotax class field – composed of the indisputable crème de la crème of international opposition – James recognised that with all competitors using identical Birel chassis, it would be a level playing field in which the emphasis would be placed firmly upon skill behind the wheel and genuine talent would shine through. He proved to be one of the very leading contenders right from the outset.

“When we first saw the track, it looked like it hadn’t been used much with the amount of dust around and lack of rubber down on it,” revealed the Conwy-based speed demon. “We knew it was going to be slippery due to that, but we also swiftly discovered that it was awesome to drive! The layout was very twisty and technical, with only a short break on the main straight, and once some rubber had gone down, that made it very physically demanding, especially on the arms.”

Be that as it may, it did not take James long during practice to get to grips with the circuit’s intricacies, and in evidence of his potential, in only the second session he was the quickest outright – but traffic unfortunately scuppered his qualifying charge and left him an unrepresentative 17^th in the standings, albeit just three tenths of a second adrift of the benchmark and quipping that ‘we were certainly still confident the pace was there; the only problem was there were 16 other karts in front of us…’

The Penmaenmawr hotshot began each of his three heat races from ninth position, but admitted to being initially somewhat taken aback by the sheer dog-eat-dog, no-holds barred nature of the on-track hostilities. In a one-off meeting and with so much at stake, the gloves, it appeared, were well-and-truly off.

In the opening encounter, James found himself knocked from pillar-to-post by his uncompromising adversaries and consequently wound up just 13^th, whilst a lack of power restricted him to a similarly disappointed ninth in heat two. In heat three, however, he ably demonstrated the benefits of a toughened-up approach as he scythed his way through into second. Those results left the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil ninth on the grid for the pre-final, as 38 of the initial entrants – more than half the field – were eliminated.

“I got a really good start to move straight up to fourth,” he recounted, “but then when I went for a move on the driver in third on the next lap, he turned in on me and drove me clean off the track. I ended up dropping down to 20^th, before fighting my way back through to 13^th. We were really frustrated afterwards, as third would have been a really good place to start the grand final, but at the same time we were really happy with our pace, because we practically matched the fastest lap.

“We knew it would be a lot tougher from 13^th on the grid for the grand final, but the one saving grace was that we were on the inside line. I immediately vaulted up to eighth, and the kart then got stronger-and-stronger as the race wore on and I was able to battle my way through to third.

“It was a real dogfight, though, and every time I made a move on someone, it was all-but guaranteed that they would try to come straight back at me again into the next corner! I knew I would have to go all-out and be as aggressive as them. Close to the end, the kart began to fade a little and Jordi van Moorsel was able to pass me, but I just sat behind him until the last lap and got the position back with three corners to go.”

In what was truly a titanic tussle, James grittily fought his way through and took the chequered flag behind only a former world champion and multiple Australian champion. What’s more, coming mere days after the Coles Racing ace had celebrated his 16^th birthday, it was arguably the best belated present ever, and one that capped a magnificent 2011 campaign that has also yielded title glory in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars Championship and victories in the hotly-contested British Super 1 Series.

“We were over-the-moon to finish up on the podium and top Brit,” James enthused in conclusion. “To beat so many quick and competitive drivers from so many different countries and with everyone being on the same kit was just amazing. It’s a massive confidence boost for me, and obviously a weekend to remember – definitely one of the biggest highlights of my career so far. It was our last outing in Junior Rotax, too, and it was fantastic to sign off on such a high. Third in the world – that doesn’t sound too shabby at all, does it..?”

From the start of the season, James has indubitably been the driver to beat in FKS’ fiercely-contested, 28-strong Junior Max class, and he headed to Whilton Mill boasting an impressive previous record around the demanding Northants circuit and with the title uppermost in his mind.

“The main goal really was to keep finishing ahead of my nearest rival Sam Marsh to extend our championship lead,” he confessed. “We were feeling quite confident, because Whilton is probably one of our better tracks and we’ve always been quick there. It’s very bumpy which makes it very physical to drive, and it’s twisty and technical, too, which is just the kind of challenge I enjoy.”

Qualifying a close second on the Saturday, James mused that since ‘our engines and the way we set the kart up are more suited to the hot summer weather’, with the onset of autumn, the edge he had earlier on in the year is no longer quite so apparent and his pursuers have narrowed the gap – but he served a timely reminder of just who is boss in the day’s two heat races.

“I slipped back to third at the start,” recounted the Conwy-based hotshot of the opening encounter, “but I knew we had the pace and gradually I picked off Luke Whitworth and then Marsh and was able to pull away, so it all worked out really well.

“In the second heat, Marsh got black-flagged early on – that was definitely a bonus for us, although at the same time, we don’t want to win by default – and then I got passed by both Whitworth and Bobby Thompson. After that, it developed into a bit of a fight. I got Bobby back, but I sat behind Luke all the way to the end. We didn’t want to take any risks given our position in the championship, so we just decided to settle for second.”

Incredibly, the three points he surrendered in that race were the only ones he would concede all weekend, and whilst James felt he had the pace to be able to attack Whitworth, he equally knew that with Marsh failing to finish, it would not have been worth risking ‘throwing away all that hard work for nothing’ had there been a collision in making a bid for the lead.

From pole position in the all-important final, the highly-rated Penmaenmawr ace found himself needing to stave off some early pressure, but then as his competitors began scrapping in his wake – affording him some welcome breathing space – he seamlessly cleared off into the distance to notch up his sixth victory from nine rounds this year, a result that he recognised was ‘another big step towards the championship’.

“At the beginning, the kart wasn’t the best it could have been so I waited for it to come on,” he explained, “but a few laps in, I felt it click and after that, it was really good. I knew I had the equipment underneath me, and when the two guys behind started battling later on, I got a little bit of a gap and then just had to keep my head and focus on pulling away.”

That he did to perfection, going on to take the chequered flag more than two seconds clear of the chasing pack and leaving the 15-year-old to enter the second day with his tail up. A commanding pole position in a wet qualifying session – the kind of conditions in which James invariably excels – installed him as the firm favourite heading into the heat races.

“In the first of them, I got a really good start and managed to pull out about a five-second lead over the opening laps,” he recalled, “before I backed off a bit to look after the tyres. Whilst the track was generally still wet, there were some dry patches forming, and although it would have been quicker to go onto them, that would also have wrecked the wet tyres we had on, so it was a real balancing-act.

“We always felt comfortable and were never afraid the others were going to catch us – and even if they had done, we had enough in-hand to be able to push a bit more.”

The second heat was rather closer, as after a textbook getaway had vaulted the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil into an early lead, Marsh grittily reeled him back in and tracked him every step of the way over the second half of the race.

Very much within striking-distance in the closing stages, as James’ Coles Racing kart began to fade, his title rival increasingly piled on the pressure – but he was always capable of responding with a better lap time whenever Marsh got near enough to be a threat, and he duly tallied maximum points once again and with them pole position for the final.

“I got a really good start in the final and managed to open up an early lead,” he reflected, “and as soon as I felt comfortable enough, I backed off because the pressure was off and I didn’t want to risk any errors – though it’s still difficult to maintain your concentration in those situations, because you just never know what can happen. It only takes one little mistake, and your race is over. You need to find a balance between backing off and staying focussed.”

It was a balance that he struck magnificently, and although he didn’t realise it at the time, the result – allied to Marsh’s torrid weekend – was sufficient to secure James the crown without even needing to enter the remaining two rounds at Ellough Park, appropriately clinching it in style up on the top step of the podium. A tremendous accomplishment – and replicating a feat achieved by McLaren-Mercedes star Hamilton back in the late 1990s – it was thoroughly well-deserved for a season of total domination.

“We didn’t know we had actually won it until several days after the meeting,” he confessed, “but when we found out, we were just over-the-moon. The goal had obviously been to win the championship, but with some top drivers competing, we always knew it was going to be tough.

“I’d never have believed we would win seven out of the first ten rounds. We expected to be realistically in the fight for the top three, but we didn’t expect it to turn out like this… It all just came together for us, though, and this is definitely the highlight of my career so far – it really has put the icing on the cake for the year.”

James headed overseas with a 27-point advantage in the chase for the coveted crown in FKS’ fiercely-fought Junior Max class and with an outstanding record this season to-date, having tallied four triumphs and one second place from the first six rounds. Better still, the last time he had competed at Genk in FKS, he had won – meaning the talented young North Wales karting star returned there in confident spirits.

“The aim was to try to finish in the top three again and extend our championship lead,” he acknowledged. “Obviously deep down, you always want to win, but I think looking at the bigger picture, our main objective for the weekend was just to try to beat our closest rival, Sam Marsh. We’ve always tended to be good rather than stunning around Genk, but recently we seem to have found a few things with the kart there, and my driving has improved a lot over the past couple of years, too.

“It’s really good fun to drive, and like with any European track, if you go off-line and off the rubber, you’ve got no chance of getting back on again – they’re far less forgiving of mistakes than British circuits are. You have to stay 100 per cent mentally focussed all the time, which can be pretty draining, especially with the weather being so changeable throughout the weekend.”

On a drying track surface on Saturday, James annexed a comfortable pole position in qualifying in the 23-strong field – “I knew I had the kart underneath me to take pole and I timed it right, put my lap in when it counted and then just saved my tyres,” he explained – and he followed that up with an utterly dominant, lights-to-flag triumph in the opening heat, as his pursuers battled ferociously over the scraps in his wake, enabling the Conwy-based speed demon to ease off the gas in the closing stages and still prevail by nigh-on five seconds.

The second heat on a sodden track might have been ‘a much harder race’ as James confessed to lacking a little consistency, but if he was not quite as devastatingly fast as he had been earlier, he was nonetheless fast enough to rack up a second consecutive success – and with it, secure pole position once more for the all-important final.

“One half of the circuit was dry but the other half was still wet in the final, which made it a really tough call in terms of set-up,” recalled the highly-rated Penmaenmawr hotshot. “We went for a dry set-up in the end and fortunately, that turned out to be the right decision. The right-hand side of the track – where I was starting – was wet, so they let us go round for two warm-up laps rather than just one to try to get some heat into the tyres; that seemed to work, and I was able to move straight into the lead.

“The kart was probably the best it had been all weekend – the set-up was spot-on – and I was able to pull away, but being out on slick tyres with only one dry line was certainly challenging. It was really tricky around the wetter parts of the lap – I had to be extremely careful through some corners.”

In distinctly treacherous conditions in which it would have been all-too-easy to throw it off into the scenery, James kept it all together and controlled proceedings beautifully to complete a clean sweep of peerless lights-to-flag victories. It was, he reflected, pretty much perfect.

“We were really happy with the day,” the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil mused. “We beat Marsh in all three races, which had been the goal, and even though it was my fifth FKS win of the season, it still feels just as special every time because we know we’ve had to overcome some tough opposition to accomplish it.”

The following day yielded another commanding pole position in qualifying – on a wet track this time – but heat one would swiftly degenerate into something of a dogfight, as after initially grabbing the lead, James subsequently found himself dragged back into the chasing pack.

“We made the mistake of leaving our wet set-up on with the track drying out,” he rued. “A lot of other drivers had changed over to a dry set-up, and we struggled in comparison. Towards the end of the race, it all got a little bit scrappy and going down into the chicane at the end of the back straight, George Williams overtook me for third place. He then ran a bit wide on the exit, though, and I decided to make a move back up the inside of him into the next corner – but I don’t think he saw me and he just turned in, which sent me straight off.

“I ended up crossing the line all the way down in 20^th, which obviously wasn’t good for the points situation and put more pressure on for the second heat because we knew then that we would really have to pull something out-of-the-bag to get a half-decent starting position for the final.”

Evincing characteristic grit, though, that is precisely what James did, and even if he conceded that neither his driving nor his Coles Racing kart were quite ‘100 per cent’ in heat two, a close and competitive third place was sufficient to salvage 11^th spot on the grid for the final – from where he had the top five in his sights.

“I got a really good start to move straight up to fourth,” he related. “We had set the kart up to come on as early as possible, and during the first few laps, we were very quick and I managed to get into the lead and pull out a little bit of a gap. As the race progressed, though, I felt the kart slowly beginning to go off.

“Ryan Norris overtook me midway through, and we didn’t really have an answer to him. He was able to pull away, but we knew we wouldn’t fall too far down the order because of how much the field had spread out. With four laps to go, Marsh passed me, too and similarly pulled away, and then on the last lap, I didn’t think there was anyone particularly close to me, but I looked behind with two corners to go and saw Bobby Thompson was right there. I had to defend the last corner pretty heavily to hang onto third place…”

Taking the chequered flag a scant 15 hundredths of a second ahead of Thompson – and less than two seconds shy of the winner – incredibly, James’ third position is currently in-line to be one of his dropped scores under FKS’ points system, representing as it does his second-lowest finish from the opening eight rounds of the campaign.

With the title battle clearly at the forefront of his mind all the way through, he wisely and maturely elected not to fight too hard against drivers who had more pace than him on the day – “If I’d ended up getting involved in an accident, that could have been a big dent in my championship, so I just let them go,” he reasoned – and his reward was a handsome gain in the standings to head into the remaining four rounds 51 points clear of any of his adversaries. Better yet, next up is Whilton Mill – where he has invariably shone.

“It was definitely a successful weekend overall, and I think we should be quick at Whilton, too,” the 15-year-old pondered in conclusion, pausing to wish rival Nick Arthur a speedy recovery from the injuries he sustained at Genk. “It’s a track I enjoy and that seems to suit my driving style well. Another couple of podiums there would do just nicely…”

James arrived at Buckmore sitting fifth in the title chase, with his hopes of clinching the crown having been badly hit by an appalling run of ill-fortune in the opening two Super 1 meetings earlier on in the campaign. What’s more, the fearsomely-fast Kent circuit had rarely been kind to him in the past, leaving him somewhat apprehensive about his prospects heading into the weekend.

“I was mainly aiming to just score some good points, and maybe a couple of top five finishes,” mused the highly-rated North Wales karting star. “Buckmore is a very tough and physical circuit to drive, especially when it’s hot; that makes it really hard to hold onto the kart, particularly in finals that are more than 15 minutes long like they are in Super 1.

“We weren’t overly confident given the luck we’d had there in the past; in 2009, we had been black-flagged and last year we never had the kart set-up properly all weekend, which meant we didn’t have the pace. We hadn’t been that quick in the dry there the previous weekend, either.”

Be that as it may, what James modestly fails to mention is that when the heavens had opened ahead of the final a week earlier, he had gone on to win – and if he had been dogged by bad luck at Buckmore on his two previous Super 1 appearances there, then happily, this time around he would make it third time lucky.

Second place his qualifying session – in a 51-strong Junior Max class field, composed of the indisputable crème de la crème of young British driving talent at that level – exceeded James’ initial expectations, leaving the Conwy-based speed demon feeling ‘a lot more confident’ going into his two heat races. Unfortunately, that also put him on the unenviable outside line of the grid for the first of them.

“We just never managed to get in at the start, and I ended up dropping back to about fifth,” he recounted. “I recovered to third, but by then the two leaders had pulled away. The driver behind then lunged me into the second hairpin and someone else followed him through, but the more the race went on, I could just feel the kart getting better-and-better and we were able to reclaim third by the end.”

A solid result indeed, with his Coles Racing mount improving consistently as the weekend progressed, the Penmaenmawr hotshot began heat two from pole position – but after initially retaining that advantage when the lights went out, he soon found himself embroiled in a fraught six-way dogfight, running as low as fourth for a couple of laps.

Timing it to absolute perfection to snatch the lead back again, James and another driver broke clear with a third of the race to go, leaving their pursuers to scrap energetically in their wake and slow each other down in the process. Thereafter, he artfully controlled the pressure from behind to seal a very mature victory and with it, P3 on the grid for the first of the two all-important finals.

“It all came together at the right time,” he reflected of his second heat success. “In the closing stages, Jack Aitken was beginning to fade, so I knew I had to pass him straightaway to make sure I didn’t get dragged back into the pack again, and after I had regained the lead, I just focussed on defending. Luckily, the drivers battling over third all started tripping over each other, and I managed to open up a tiny gap back to Aitken and went on to win.

“In the first final, we knew Jack Barlow and Nathan Harrison who were starting ahead had a touch more pace than us, so we decided it was better to just go for the points and not risk doing anything stupid. I got into second at the start, but as we had anticipated, I wasn’t able to hang onto Barlow and then after Nathan came past me, he just had the edge and crept slowly away by about a kart-length a lap. We were still happy with third, though; it was really good points, and it meant we were starting on the inside again for the second final.”

With the front-running trio in a veritable league of their own, the second final would turn out to be almost a carbon-copy of the first, only this time James clung grittily onto P2 for a few laps longer before wisely deeming that to force the issue would likely only end in tears.

“I got into second place again at the start and we managed to hang onto Barlow for a while, but then Nathan came past me like in the first final and slowly the two of them just began inching away,” recounted the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. “At that point, I knew it would be best to settle for third again. It was more decent points in the bag, so we were happy with that. I knew if I had tried to get second it would have ended up in a fight and the drivers behind might have caught us up, so it was better to play safe.”

Another podium finish – his fourth from the last six Super 1 outings, including a brace of triumphs – and another trophy to accompany it, the result vaulted James from fifth in the points table to third, and whilst the top two are now arguably out-of-reach following his early-season misfortune, at Buckmore Park, he ably proved that he has the speed to take the fight right to them out on the racetrack…not to mention to beat everybody else in the field.

“Things really seem to be picking up in the second part of the season,” the 15-year-old pondered in conclusion, before adding with a steely gaze: “We’re on it now!”

James headed to Glan Y Gors – barely a 45-minute trip – buoyed by five straight successes in 2011 in the previous FKS meeting at Three Sisters near Wigan, fellow British series Super 1 and the Rowrah ‘O’ Plate, and aiming simply to keep it consistent to continue racking up solid points towards the championship.

Sitting just fifth in the title standings following a technical exclusion earlier on in the campaign but with his eyes firmly on the prize, the highly-rated Conwy-based speed demon knew that local knowledge meant he had a theoretical advantage right from the outset, and having pounded around Glan Y Gors in testing on countless occasions, if anything, he probably knew it even better than the back of his hand.

“All we wanted to do was stay inside the top five all weekend,” he reasoned, “although of course, deep down, we wanted to keep our winning run going as long as possible. I was feeling pretty confident. Glan Y Gors is not an easy circuit to learn, and having driven so many laps there, we know the ideal set-up, which is definitely a help. It’s a very technically-demanding circuit and one of my favourites; I know all the corners off-by-heart and have always been quick round there.”

Up against some fierce opposition in FKS’ 26-strong Junior Max class field – including a clutch of fellow local specialists – the opening day could scarcely have gone any better as James claimed pole position followed by a peerless clean sweep of victories throughout the heats and the final, and fastest lap in all-bar one of his races. Stealing a march on his pursuers at the start each time and leaving the chasing pack to duel over the scraps in his wake, he sped to a trio of unchallenged triumphs.

Even a brief downpour ahead of heat two that made a muddle out of tyre choice – “we didn’t want to get it wrong, as we obviously didn’t want to lose valuable points,” the Penmaenmawr hotshot confessed – failed to knock him off his imperious stride.

“The kart never seemed to go off, and we could just keep consistently putting the lap times in,” he recounted. “As other drivers’ karts did go off, mine was only coming on stronger, which I think was testament to the set-up we had found and that enabled me to pull away.

“I treated the final as just another heat race, to be honest, only a little bit longer and we set the kart up in accordance with that. From the start, I was able to edge gradually away and nobody seemed to have an answer to us – they dropped off the pace as we remained strong. I was really happy with my performance – it was probably my most consistent race all year – and we were over-the-moon to get the win, especially with it being our home track and meaning maximum championship points.”

James’ consistency, indeed, was hugely impressive to behold, as he produced an absolute masterclass in flawless precision and set six consecutive lap times to within the same hundredth of a second of one another. Despite again claiming a dominant pole position in qualifying, however, Sunday would transpire to be somewhat less straightforward, as things went rapidly awry…

“I got pushed on from behind at the start of heat one, which sent me over the kerb on the outside of the first corner and allowed another driver to get ahead of me,” explained the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. “He then defended all the way up the straight, but ran a little bit wide going into the hairpin at the top. I tried to go down the inside, he squeezed me and we collided. The kart didn’t feel right after that and I knew I wasn’t going to catch anyone, so I just tried to save the tyres as much as possible and get to the finish to score some points at least.”

With his distinctly bent Coles Racing chassis palpably in no fit state to fight for positions, James went on to take the chequered flag plum last, and with the help of Dan Holland Racing, his team performed a heroic job to straighten it out as much as possible in the limited timeframe in-between races. With the pressure subsequently on in heat two, the 15-year-old fought a gritty rearguard battle and defended doggedly to retain fifth place – damage limitation in the circumstances.

A longer break ahead of the all-important final enabled the kart to be repaired more comprehensively, but following his trials-and-tribulations during the heats, James would take the start from just 17^th. Still, he had come from even further back to prevail at Wigan, so all was far from lost.

“We didn’t really know what to expect in the final, and it’s not that easy to overtake around Glan Y Gors – particularly from 17^th on the grid!” he quipped. “I was just aiming for the top five, to be honest. I got a big hit from behind and pushed forward going into the first corner at the start but I managed to hold it, and then going up towards the top of the hill there was a crash ahead, so I made up a few places there. I was in eighth at the end of the first lap, with one driver just in front of me but the top six having already broken away a bit.

“I passed the driver in seventh and then really got the hammer down. The kart felt great – we had got the set-up spot-on – and after a few more laps, we were right on the back of the top six. I worked my way through them into third, but then I knew Steven Handford in second was not going to give the place up easily so I decided to not take any risks and just push him round so we could both catch the leader Sam Marsh, which we eventually did.

“When Handford went for a move on Marsh, I followed him through, and because Steven didn’t get a great exit from the corner, I got past him too going down the hill and was then able to just pull away from them both over the last few laps. I looked behind me with two minutes left on the clock and saw them fighting, at which point I simply tried to take it easy and not do anything stupid. We were just ecstatic to win – and it was brilliant to do the double again, another really good weekend!”

A comparatively comfortable victory when the flag came down – with a new fastest lap right at the end for good measure, the only competitor to dip beneath the 43-second barrier – James has not only stormed into the championship lead, but he is turning this winning-from-the-back lark into something of a speciality, almost as if it is too easy winning from the front so he gives himself a sterner challenge.

Confessing that ‘I never thought we’d get up as high as we did’, the former FKS ‘Driver of the Day’ similarly reflected that he would have found it difficult to believe back at the start of the season that midway through he would have seven straight triumphs to his name – but that is precisely what he has. Preparing now for the resumption of Super 1 hostilities at Larkhall in Scotland – scene of his maiden Junior Max podium in Britain last year – James Singleton is on a real roll right now, and the goal is simply to keep it going.

James arrived at Rowrah – a true drivers’ track, undulating and demanding in equal measure and one that rewards genuine talent like few others – buoyed by recent successes in the prestigious ‘O’ Plate meeting there a week earlier and in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars Championship at Three Sisters near Wigan.

“I knew Super 1 was going to be the toughest of them all,” reflected the highly-rated young North Wales star, “because it’s just such a strong grid with all the best drivers in the country there, but I was feeling confident. Since we were pretty much out-of-contention for the championship after the first two meetings, we weren’t really looking for points; there was only one aim over the weekend – and that was to win.”

The first two meetings to which James alludes had been at Whilton Mill and Shenington – weekends that had all-but torpedoed the chances of a driver who had entered the campaign widely-tipped as a Junior Max class British title favourite. An appalling run of ill-fortune had seen the Conwy-based speed demon turfed unceremoniously off-track in round one, and then beset by engine issues in round two, denying him the kind of results his pace palpably deserved and leaving him an entirely unrepresentative ninth in the points standings.

Happily, at Rowrah, a superb pole position in his qualifying group represented an immediate step forward and lifted James well clear of ‘the crash zone for the heats’ into which he had been blamelessly dragged at both Whilton and Shenington. And from there, the only minor fly in the ointment for the remainder of the weekend was a slightly less-than-perfect set-up in heat one; the rest of it was simply flawless.

“I got a good start to hold second place in the first heat, and within a lap I had passed the leader going into the first hairpin,” recalled the Penmaenmawr hotshot. “I had a fair lead with only a few laps to go, but then the kart just went off massively and I fell back to second again. I was still quite happy with that, though, because it was good points towards the finals.

“We knew what we had to change set-up wise for heat two – we had tried something different for the first heat to see if it worked, and it obviously hadn’t – and I started from pole and just ran away with it, really. We had learned from our mistake, and this time, the kart got better-and-better and came on particularly strong at the end.”

A comfortable win to the tune of nearly five seconds – with fastest lap a mere formality – the results earned James P2 on the grid for the pre-final, in which he fully anticipated a no-holds barred duel with arch-rival Jack Barlow, the pair of them having proven to be head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field all weekend. As it turned out, even a brief brake drama on the grid was unable to throw the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil off his stride.

“I knew I had the kart underneath me to do it, but I knew Barlow did, too,” he confessed. “We were never going to drop him – he was always going to be there-or-thereabouts – so it was all about making sure I kept my head. I got a pretty good start and managed to pass Jack into the second hairpin on the first lap. The two of us broke away, but then as we started battling a bit towards the end, the group behind began to catch us.

“Jack passed me into the first hairpin, but I could see a few other drivers were closing in on us, so I knew I had to get him straight back again, which I did into the next corner. After that, he fell back into the pack, and as they all started fighting amongst themselves, I was able to establish a gap. It was my first-ever win in a Super 1 final, and it felt great – it was obviously good points, and a massive confidence boost ahead of the second final, too.”

With his timing absolutely crucial, James entered the second final – one carrying the same number of points as the first, but generally regarded as more prestigious as it is when the trophies are handed out – psychologically fortified and fired-up to make it cause for a double celebration. But if he had enjoyed the luxury of having no pressure on the last lap earlier on, he would experience plenty this time around…

“I got a good start again to take the lead, but I could sense Barlow was a little bit quicker than me at the beginning of the race, so I didn’t try to hold him off, because that would only have cost us both time and it was better to push him round to build up a buffer over the drivers behind,” the Coles Racing ace maturely reasoned.

“As the race progressed, I noticed his kart seemed to be starting to go off a little as mine came on, and I overtook him into the first hairpin and pulled out a gap of about three kart-lengths. It stayed that way until the last lap when I made a bit of a mistake going into the chicane, and suddenly he was right on the back of me and breathing down my neck, which meant I had to really defend.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking, to be honest! He pulled right alongside me and tried to go around the outside of the second hairpin to undercut me on the exit, but I was able to hold him out, which forced him a little bit wide and gave me the breathing space I needed – and after we had got through the two hairpins, I felt more confident. We were over-the-moon when the chequered flag came down.”

A magnificent achievement and one secured by a scant two tenths of a second, having twice defeated 48 of the finest Junior Max competitors in Britain on what was arguably the most impressive weekend of his burgeoning career, James Singleton will travel next to his home circuit of Glan Y Gors – one that he knows like the back of his hand – with his tail firmly up…and eager to turn the famous five into the magnificent seven.

“We had a tough start to the season, but this definitely makes up for that!” the 15-year-old grinned. “We’re still learning, of course, but as the year goes on, I think we’re getting stronger-and-stronger – and hopefully we can just keep this winning run going!”

He couldn’t so much as buy a break back at the beginning of the season, such was his ill-fortune, but James Singleton has incontrovertibly been making his own luck of late – and a magnificent triumph in the Rowrah ‘O’ Plate meeting means he is very much the driver in-form in the Junior Max class as the 2011 campaign races towards its midway stage.

Having thoroughly dominated proceedings to claim a sublime double victory in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship at Three Sisters near Wigan just a week earlier, James headed to the challenging Cumbrian circuit of Rowrah in optimistic mood – eager to lay claim to one of the most coveted trophies on the British karting calendar as well as to get some timely practice in ahead of the resumption of hostilities in the fiercely-fought national Super 1 Series around the same track a week later still.

“We wanted to win the ‘O’ Plate, obviously, but it was also a good testing opportunity and warm-up for Super 1,” explained the talented young North Wales speed demon. “After doing the double in FKS, we knew the kart was in good form and that we had the motors to win. I love Rowrah – it’s more of a drivers’ circuit than a power circuit, and definitely one of my favourites. There were some good drivers there which made it pretty tough, but we were feeling confident.”

With his Coles Racing kart performing well in the dry and even better in the wet, a damp qualifying session enabled James to ease to a comfortable pole position for both of his heat races, more than a third of a second clear of any of his 24 pursuers – a margin that he confessed left him somewhat surprised, even if he knew after practice that he had a slight edge.

With the weather changing and the track beginning to dry out ahead of the heats, though, the Conwy-based hotshot admitted that there was ‘a bit of a panic’ to alter his kart’s set-up in time – but as the first of them progressed, that would transpire to be the least of his concerns.

“I established a good, solid lead and just focussed on pulling away,” he recounted. “The kart kept on getting better and better, but then with only three laps to go, my back bumper began trailing on the ground and I got shown the mechanical flag, which meant I had to come in and get it fixed. I think it just hadn’t been fitted on properly and had come loose.

“That dropped me from first down to 16^th, which was obviously a big setback because we knew then we would be further back on the grid for the finals – but we still had the second heat to go and I was starting from pole again, so I just concentrated on keeping my head.”

In the second encounter, James was indeed quick to make amends, speeding away to a textbook triumph to cement his outstanding raw pace with a solid result. That also secured the Penmaenmawr ace sixth spot on the grid for the pre-final, and when he woke up the next morning to see that the heavens had opened with a vengeance, he rubbed his hands in glee.

“Unfortunately, someone tapped me from behind at the start and spun me round,” he related. “I got stuck in the gravel, so I had to get out of my kart and drag it out – and that cost me quite a bit of time and left me half-a-lap down. I was just completely focussed on getting going again as quickly as I could and making back as many places as I could ahead of the grand final – though I didn’t expect to come through as far as we did!

“We were such a long way behind after the first lap that I thought we might get to about 18^th if we were lucky, but I had a lot of confidence with the kart performing as well as it was, so I was able to make the overtaking moves that I wanted.”

Scything his way through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter and all-but driving the wheels off his kart, James stormed to an incredible seventh place at the chequered flag, setting the race’s fastest lap by quite some margin along the way. What’s more, from that same starting position for the all-important grand final, despite the rain having abated and the circuit having dried out, he knew he could do something special.

“I immediately moved into fourth going into the chicane for the first time, and then I gained another place to third when someone ahead spun on the exit and we all had to avoid him,” recalled the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil. “As the kart came on, I closed in on the front two, and I passed them pretty much as soon as I caught them.

“After that, I just tried to keep my head, but then about two-thirds of the way through, someone had gone off at the first hairpin and brought water onto the track upon rejoining. When I braked, I hit the water, lost the back end of the kart and shot straight across the grass, which dropped me to second. I stayed behind the new leader for the next lap in case the water was still there, and then got him back going into the second hairpin.

“I knew I had to push hard to break away from him again as quickly as I could, because my team-mate was coming along quite fast in third, too, and I didn’t want to have to defend on the last lap or allow it to turn into a big battle. We were just ecstatic when the chequered flag came down – it was the first plate I’ve ever won.”

A truly stylish and thoroughly well-deserved victory for the weekend’s standout performer, with three national-level triumphs in swift succession to his name, James is clearly eager to keep that imperious run going as he turns his attentions towards Super 1, what he dubs ‘the big one’. Overdue a change of fortunes in the series following a torrid run of luck thus far in 2011, the 15-year-old is on fire right now – and fired-up in the extreme.

“Everything seems to be going well at the moment,” he mused in conclusion. “Winning the ‘O’ Plate has definitely been a confidence boost, and we know what the best set-up is at Rowrah now and that the kart should be good – and if we can win there again in Super 1, we might just be able to drag ourselves back into the running for the British Championship, too.”

From illness to ill-fortune, James Singleton took everything that was thrown at him in the second round of the 2011 Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship at Three Sisters near Wigan and brilliantly rose above it all – sealing a superb double victory and firmly laying down the gauntlet to his British title rivals.

Having been on the front-running pace all year but without the results to show for it for one reason or another, Lady Luck again seemed to have turned her back upon James when he was struck down with chicken pox the week before the meeting – casting his very participation into serious doubt.

“I felt really rough,” confessed the talented young North Wales karting star. “On the Wednesday, I finally started to feel a little bit better, but it was only the Thursday – the day before official practice – when we knew we were definitely going to be racing.

“I hadn’t been out of the house all week, which meant I hadn’t been able to do any exercise, so the main concern going into the weekend was my fitness. Three Sisters is a really bumpy, physically demanding track and I was worried that I might find it hard to hold onto the kart, especially in finals that were 15 minutes long.

“It’s also one of my local circuits, though, and I’ve done a lot of testing round there so I’ve got plenty of experience of it. I really enjoy it, too, and I’d won a club meeting there from seventh on the grid a couple of weeks beforehand, so overall I was feeling quite confident – and as soon as we put the kart down on the track on Friday morning, we knew we were going to be fast enough.”

Up against 24 fiercely-competitive adversaries in the Junior Max class of FKS – a series that boasts the prestigious official backing of both 2008 F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and the sport’s influential ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone – James was indeed on it right from the word ‘go’.

Unfortunately, clutch failure in Saturday’s qualifying session left his Coles Racing kart down-on-power around one of the most high-speed, power-dependent circuits in the country and a lowly 16^th on the grid for his two heat races that day. An early blow to his prospects it might have been, but the Conwy-based speed demon would be unbowed – and impressively undeterred.

“I knew what to do at the starts, because I’d done it so many times at Three Sisters before,” he explained, evincing the benefit of ‘local knowledge’. “I went around the outside to about eighth position in both races, and after that I knew I had the kart underneath me to go forward. I just had to concentrate on getting my lines right, and I picked them off one-by-one.”

Scything his way through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter, James proceeded to triumph in his opening heat and finish runner-up in the second – a tremendous recovery from his qualifying woes, some way above his rather more modest ‘top five’ expectations and securing him pole position for the all-important final. Buoyed by that and with the temperature, wind direction and track conditions changing increasingly in his favour, he would go on to breeze it.

“I got a bit of a break at the start, and behind me, the next couple of drivers began battling,” recalled the Penmaenmawr hotshot. “That enabled me to pull away, but I still had to stay consistent, keep my head down and not look behind – and it was fantastic to win! We were over-the-moon with that!”

Taking the chequered flag comfortably clear of his closest pursuer, he might have made it look easy, but James admitted that the legacy of his lack of pre-weekend training showed, revealing that ‘as the laps went on, I felt increasingly drained and I could really feel my arms beginning to give in going round some of the faster corners’. Dehydrated into the bargain, he quipped that ‘I spent most of the evening in bed…not the best way to celebrate my first national win of the season’ – but he would come out fighting again on day two.

Fortified by painkillers, in Sunday’s qualifying session, the Ysgol Aberconwy pupil saw off every single one of his competitors to secure pole position, but a commanding victory in the first heat would be taken away from him when a small crack in his exhaust saw his kart unexpectedly fail scrutineering. Notwithstanding a peerless triumph in heat two as he left the chasing pack trailing more than four seconds in his wake, James would have to begin the final from 25^th place. Or, to put it another way, plum last.

“I was anticipating quite a battle from there!” he acknowledged. “I knew I had to keep my head throughout the race, and the aim was to maybe finish inside the top seven. I made a big gain into the first corner; I decided to go round the outside again, and thanks to a bit of bumping on the inside, I came out of it 13^th. I gained a few more places when some drivers came off ahead of me in the second corner which put me into the top ten, and after that, I just slowly picked them off one-by-one.

“As the leaders started battling towards the end of the race, I got onto the back of them and managed to take the lead. I was still under a bit of pressure after that because I knew Wigan was the driver behind’s ‘home’ track, too, so he knew all the tricks round there as well and he’s a good racer – but I held on to win. We were ecstatic to come from last all the way through to first – we couldn’t believe we had actually done it! It was just a perfect weekend.”

It was a truly awesome performance and a thoroughly well-deserved result, as the 15-year-old banished the bad luck that has seemingly been following him around this year with a magnificent back-to-front charge to seal a popular double success. More than making up for a week spent confined to his bed, but for the exclusion, he would have taken near-enough maximum points away from Three Sisters, and as it is, he has closed to within touching distance of the championship lead.

Better still, FKS will head next to Glan Y Gors in North Wales – James’ ‘home’ circuit, and one he knows like the back of his hand. Indisputably in the groove now, he is palpably targeting more of the same.

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