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Callum Bowyer was given his first taste of what the future may hold in-store for him when he was invited up to Yorkshire for a day’s testing in a closed-top sportscar – and the experience evidently left a strong impression on him.

The young Peterborough karting star this year pulled off the rare feat of clinching the crown in both major national championships, Super 1 and BRDC Stars of Tomorrow.

As a reward for his impressive achievements Callum was invited to participate alongside four karting rivals in a Ginetta day at Elvington Airfield, during which the five young guns were all given turns behind the wheel of a Ginetta Junior and Ginetta G20.

The Playstation Ginetta Junior Championship features on the same bill as the prestigious and popular British Touring Car Championship, and though the temperatures on the day may have been close to freezing, the Gunthorpe teenager’s enthusiasm and motivation were – as ever – clearly burning bright.

“It was really good,” he enthused, “a great day and just an awesome experience! I didn’t really know anything about the series until I went to watch a round at Donington Park a few months ago, but I’ve watched it on TV since too and it’s just a huge championship, and definitely something to possibly look at for the future.

“I’ve driven a car before, but not a racing car with racing brakes. Driving at race speeds around such a tight and twisty track was brilliant!

“In the first session it was quite hard for all of us I think to get used to the gears – I’ve never driven a gearbox kart before, and the gearchange is totally different to a road car, far more sensitive. By halfway through the first session I was picking it up a lot better, though, and by the second session it was no problem at all and I was really ripping it round!

“There’s just so much more acceleration and top-end power than in a kart too. Because you’re going so fast and because the car is so much heavier than a kart, you have to brake so much earlier and slow it down so much more for the corners, and then open it right up again on the straight.”

A learning curve it may have been, but it was one Callum handled with aplomb, and much the same could be said for the self-presentation he gave afterwards at Ginetta’s Leeds headquarters and the fitness tests the five young pretenders were put through – even if he did joke that they had all learned an important lesson in terms of how much water to drink when you still have a running trial ahead of you…

“I thought I would be a bit nervous about the presentation but I wasn’t,” the Ken Stimpson School pupil affirmed. “I had to talk about how I started, and my past, present and hoped-for future in motorsport.

“After that we had a tour of the factory and were able to see all the cars – the Juniors, G20s, G50s and everything – which was really good, and then there was the fitness test. We had to do as many press-ups and sit-ups as we could in two minutes, following which there was a bleep test. We were gasping after the press-ups and drank lots of water, but that meant we all had stitch on the bleep test!”

Nonetheless, it was a challenge with which Callum dealt admirably, and even if he was ultimately unsuccessful in securing the prize drive for 2009 on offer to the most impressive candidate, no matter – as the youngest driver present at only 14 years of age, that was far from a disgrace, and he certainly made sure of making his mark.

“The whole thing was brilliant really,” he concluded. “We went there for a great day out and experience, and that’s exactly what we got. I was the youngest person there, so even just to be thought of for the shoot-out was fantastic. I wasn’t disappointed not to win in the end; it was an honour simply to be picked for the day.”

Of more pressing concern for the reigning dual Mini Max Champion is getting back behind the wheel of the new, more powerful KF3 mount with which he is bidding to repeat his phenomenal 2008 success in 2009. Callum’s first competitive appearance in the class will be at Rowrah up in Cumbria in mid-December, and he is aiming to hit the ground very much running.

“Every time I go out in the kart I’m getting faster and better,” he underlined. “It’s just about getting used to the power and grip and everything else. There’s definitely a lot more power than in Mini Max – you don’t really appreciate that until you approach the corner, when you have to slow down a lot sooner because you’re going that much quicker.

“It’s brilliant fun, and we’re hoping to be there or thereabouts at Rowrah and learn where we need to improve for next year.”