Date: 23.05.10
James Walker took a leap up the Superleague Formula rankings
this weekend after putting in top performances in each of today's
three races at Magny Cours in France. The Jersey racer is now
in tenth place in the championship and on target to move rapidly
upwards from here.
The race weekend got off to a tricky start when James' Liverpool FC
car had a small electrical fire during the practice session. It was
soon fixed but this meant that James had little running on fresh
rubber before the all-important qualifying sessions on Saturday
morning. Even though he attacked it head on he just missed
out on the quarter-finals and had to settle for a ninth place
starting spot for race one.
The luck turned back in James' favour today and, combined with a
lot of hard work, he achieved some great results. The team
made a few changes to the car before race one so it was soon
running like a dream. James' race pace and a slick pit stop meant
that he got right up to sixth place before the chequered flag
fell.
In race two he started from 13th place and made it up to eighth by
the end. This time though the race wasn't quite so straightforward.
"To cut a very long story short there was a safety car period in
the middle of the race so I pitted straight away," explained James.
"There are four cars in the team and only two crews and everyone
decided to pit at the same time. In the confusion someone
else took my pit position. This was okay as I could stop further
along but of course my tyres weren't there so we lost a few seconds
while the guys ran and grabbed them!"
It all worked out in the end though and James finished eighth on
the road. The combination of this and his sixth place in race
one earned him a fifth place start in the final race: the 'Dash for
Cash'.
James leapt up to fourth at the start and was immediately pitched
into a battle with Julien Jousse. The Frenchman was on new tyres so
eventually got past James but not without a fight. James
bagged fifth place and another good haul of points to round off a
good weekend.
"Overall it has been a good weekend and we need to make sure we
score points at every event now," said James. "That's the only way
we will claw our way back up the points table. Losing the time we
did during practice had a knock-on effect through the weekend but
we made the best of it and came out okay in the end."
James is on his way home now before travelling to Liverpool on
Tuesday for the city's "Pageant of Power" which will see James
driving the Superleague Liverpool FC car through the streets of
Liverpool City Centre.