Jonathan has vowed to put his frustrating
start to the domestic kart racing season behind him, and return to form at the
first round of the European Championship at Angerville, France (26 /27 April
2008).
The 19-year old crashed heavily during testing ahead of the first
round of the Super 1 Championship, spraining his wrist, which then plagued him
for the remainder of the weekend.
The Three Sisters circuit at Wigan
leaves little room for error. Unfortunately, with the meeting hit by sudden and
frequent rain showers, judging where the grip was became impossible. Jonathan
explains: "I went down the 'Valley' section and hit a patch of water and
speared straight off into the barriers. It was a big accident, and I wrote-off
a brand new chassis in the process."
Matters didn't improve when his
motor seized during Timed Qualifying. Walker had only completed four laps when
the engine let go. His frustration was further compounded when he discovered
that he was 6th quickest and just a tenth of a second off the 3rd fastest time
- "I think I could've gone quicker, but the pain in my wrist was getting so bad
that I couldn't pull the (hand-operated) front brake."
This forced him
to consider abandoning the heats in favour of racing solely in the two finals.
However, as the organizers called the drivers to the grid for the first race,
Jonny put his kart down on the third row of the grid. Driving through his
obvious discomfort, he battled to a creditable 9th place.
In the second
heat, he managed to get up to 4th before dropping back to 5th.
The
first final proved to be a trial for the Blackburn driver. With his motors off
the pace, his team tried desperately to cure the problem - even putting a
little jacket around the engine to maintain it's temperature down the circuit's
long, wind-blown main straight. "We just couldn't get the engines to rev over
15,000 rpm" he said dolefully. "I was losing a second up the straight".
Sticking gamely to the task in hand, Walker climbed back into his kart
for the second final, despite describing his wrist as "…mangled. It just
killed all the time."
The race proved to be a disaster. Smashed off at
the first corner, Jonathan rejoined the circuit only to tangle with Irishman,
Raymie Eastwood. With the floor-tray of the kart detached in the crash and
lifting the front wheels off the ground, Jonny decided enough was enough and
called it a day.
"I just need to write Wigan off and look forward to
Angerville" he said. "Hopefully I'll be able to break into the top fifteen and
make the cut for the Championship finals".
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