Date: 20.06.10
James Walker continued his rise through the Superleague Formula
rankings with a strong drive to fourth place in the second of
today's races at Jarama in Spain. The Jersey racer, driving the
Liverpool FC car, now sits in eighth position in the title
chase. Brilliant progress after being way down in 18th after
round one at Silverstone.
James had a good start from seventh on the grid in race one and was
running well when he was unceremoniously hit from behind by Julien
Jousse just a few laps in. The Frenchman's front wing cut James'
right rear tyre, leaving him with a nasty puncture.
There was a very short gap between the races at Jarama - not much
more than 10 minutes - so James was keen to make sure the flailing
rubber didn't do any damage to the Liverpool FC car. He
crawled back to the pits for a new tyre and rejoined the
race. He ultimately finished in 16th, disappointed with the
result but pleased to still have a healthy car for race two.
The positive side of finishing 16th in race one is lining up in
third place on the grid for race two so James was ready to
attack. Unfortunately Borja Garcia, the man on pole position,
was caught napping when the lights went green and his side of the
field, including James, could only watch as the other side flew
past at the rolling start.
"I couldn't believe it at the start as you assume the guy in front
is going to go when the race goes green," said James. "The
start dropped me right back to around 10th place so I had to get my
head down and go for it. I got stuck behind Narain
Karthikeyan for a long time, until he pitted. After my pit stop I
came out side-by-side with Craig Dolby in the Spurs car. He
got the corner and then I used up all my push-to-pass to take him
but it wasn't enough. I ended up in long queue of cars, all
stuck behind Craig, as there is nowhere to pass at Jarama."
Fourth place in race two provided James with enough points to move
two places up the standings but unfortunately he missed out on the
Super Final by just one place. He'll be back next weekend to
do it all again as the series moves straight on to the Nürburgring
in Germany. It's one of James' best tracks so he can't wait for the
action to begin on Saturday.
"It's disappointing to get a bad result in race one through no
fault of my own," said James. "But we showed we can turn it around
for race two. Nürburgring is next and I love racing there so I will
be doing everything I can to make sure I take my place in the Super
Final."