Milton Keynes-based youngster ‘boosted’ after switching to a new engine supplier
Samuel Oram-Jones bounced back at Rowrah in the fifth round of the 2012 British Super One MSA TKM Series last weekend (August 18-19) and moved back up to sixth in the KF3 Championship standings.
Samuel Oram-Jones, KF3
Sammy has made the step up to KF3 this year and has shown great promise with a quartet of podiums at the end last month in the second and final round of the 2012 CIK-FIA European KF3 Championship at PF International. However at that very same event, the Milton Keynes-based youngster was afflicted by a mysterious technical issue in both finals, which left him severely down on power. That eventually culminated in a switch to a new engine supplier ahead of the trip to Cumbria and the 14-year-old immediately found himself right back in contention and right back on the pace.
Indeed he was one of the quickest in practice and carried that form through to qualifying where he ended up joint fifth fastest in a tricky wet-dry session, with the conditions ever improving at the end as the track dried out.
“Straight from the start we noticed a difference with the new engine,” Sammy said. “The power felt good and I was very optimistic going into the weekend. In qualifying though, it was really about who got over the line last due to the conditions. Still fifth place was alright and wasn’t too bad a place to start from in the heats.”
In the opening heat, Sammy finished third, but a ten-second penalty post-race dropped him back to ninth: “I got hit off on the rolling-up lap,” he explained, “but still came back through to re-gain my fifth place on the grid. That’s why I got a 10 second penalty. It’s a shame, but life goes on!”
The second heat also ended in disappointment and after being taken out half-way through the first corner, while running in fifth, he finished 17th. That left him 13th for the first final, but a great start saw him jump up the order and he came through to take sixth in his Millennium Motorsport-run kart, a result he repeated in the second final, despite a very different opening lap…
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Info Rob Wilkins / © Photo Chris Walker