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As he heads into one of the most important meetings on the 2009 British karting calendar, Callum Bowyer has his tail up off the back of a weekend where he not only achieved his maiden rostrum finish in his new class – but was also crowned Junior Sportsman of the Year at a prestigious awards ceremony.

The young Peterborough ace was selected out of some 30 candidates as the most promising young sportsman at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph’s annual Sports Awards, in the process seeing off the challenge of the defending title-holder, rower James Fox, to lift the trophy. It marked the highest accolade of Callum’s burgeoning career to-date away from the race track, and surrounded by sporting luminaries such as Beijing Paralympic shooting gold medallist Matt Skelhon, he acknowledged that it was ‘a real privilege’ to be a part of such a special evening – let alone one of its star attractions.

“It was just brilliant,” he enthused. “I only knew I was in the top three at the start of the evening; none of us had any idea who had actually won until they read my name out. I was gobsmacked when they announced it; 30 people were nominated for Junior Sportsman of the Year, so just to get down to the final three was an achievement in itself I thought.

“I was stunned; I didn’t really know how to react! I really want to thank everyone who voted for me, but unfortunately there wasn’t time to celebrate too much, because straight afterwards we went home for an early night ahead of Saturday morning.”

That much is a mark of Callum’s supreme dedication and professionalism to his craft, as ‘Saturday morning’ marked the beginning of the fourth round of the KF3 Winter Series for him at PF International. Having made steady and consistent progress both with his team JKH and in his new class since stepping up from Mini Max at the end of last year, the Gunthorpe teenager was ready for the challenge – albeit a touch cautious at the same time.

“I feel like I understand the kart now almost as if I’ve been driving it the whole year,” he stated. “I know how the engine works and how the team works, so we don’t really need any more time to bond together – we’re already there.

“I knew the weekend was going to be tough, though. The weather was up-and-down and we had missed a day of testing because we couldn’t be there on the Friday, but we got there on the Saturday morning and were there or thereabouts straightaway to be honest. We then just built upon that throughout the weekend.

“We were on the pace all day Saturday, even though we didn’t have new tyres on when most of the other drivers did. It was really good that we were still knocking on the door despite being at a disadvantage tyre-wise.”

With a point to prove after a disappointing previous outing at the Lincolnshire circuit, and a calibre of opposition not far below that of a national meeting, topping the timesheets out of the 25 drivers present in three-lap practice on race day morning was undeniably a shot in the arm – even if the weather was continuing to test every competitor’s skills to the absolute limit.

“Everyone was on new tyres at last, which meant we were finally able to see where we really were,” the 14-year-old related. “Being fastest was a real confidence boost.

“The conditions were really tricky, though. It was really slippery, and as people were going off they were bringing snow back onto the track again with them. The circuit was changing every lap, so we had to concentrate so hard and keep looking out for snow.”

From a lowly starting position of just 20th in heat one, Callum stormed his way through the pack into a superb second at the chequered flag, barely adrift of race-winner Alex Albon, and from third on the grid in heat two he was into the lead as early as the second lap – and would go on to triumph by more than 3.5 seconds, a near-eternity in karting terms. It was impressive work indeed, and earned him pole position for the all-important final – when the snow returned with a vengeance.

“I hadn’t expected to do that well in heat one,” he admitted. “I knew the first few corners would be hard, especially being on wet tyres, but I just had to keep my eyes out. I had to go onto the grass to avoid a crash at the second hairpin which didn’t help either, and someone’s radiator had split in the impact which deposited water over two corners of the track.

“That was something else to try to avoid, but the kart felt really good and it was great to be able to come through the pack like that. Another couple of laps and I reckon I could have caught Alex, but I was still pleased to have come from virtually last to second. That was brilliant.

“In the second heat I was starting high up the grid and all the opening lap crashes happened behind me. We were out on slick tyres in the wet, so the conditions still made it very demanding, but towards the end I knew I had quite a big gap, so I didn’t have to push so hard and could just back off a bit and save the tyres. When I went over the start-finish line to win, the next kart still hadn’t even come onto the straight.

“Going into the final I knew we definitely had the pace from the rest of the weekend, and I knew what I had to do. I got across for the first corner, but going round the track the snow was melting, which left the surface wet. We had new wet tyres on, but hadn’t really had enough time to scrub them in and so didn’t know exactly how they would be. Going into the first corner in the lead, I braked, turned – and just went straight on and off the track, rejoining dead last!

“There was no grip there at all, and I went literally from first to last which left me feeling a bit gutted, but within three corners I was already back up to fifth, and I came back through the field again to third in the end. It was a bit of a mix of red mist and sheer determination, I think, because I wanted it so much!

“Third was still a good result, though – it was my first podium in KF3, and I got the highest score over the day with where I had finished in the three races. It was a brilliant weekend overall, and now we’ve just got to build on that throughout the year. It’s given us all the incentive to go back there again for Super 1 and Stars and go two places better.”

Indeed, such was Callum’s awesome pace that he crossed the finish line a full nine seconds clear of fourth place, and the stunning performance capped a weekend that he described as ‘ten times better’ than the last time he had competed at PF – and signified a real breakthrough for him in his new class.

What’s more, with the two national series’ – Super 1 and BRDC Stars of Tomorrow, the latter being the championship from which a certain Lewis Hamilton first sprang to prominence, and in both of which the Ken Stimpson School pupil swept to glory last year in Mini Max – visiting the circuit during 2009, it has handed him an important psychological edge as he bids to repeat that double title success 12 months on.

In the meantime, though, he has the small matter of the coveted ‘0’ Plate to try to win too, at Rowrah in Cumbria – the scene of Callum’s KF3 debut in December, when he finished a strong fourth. Having claimed the Mini Max ‘0’ Plate laurels last year at Clay Pigeon in Dorset, he is clearly keen to defend his crown.

“I like the track and have always had good results there,” he mused. “I think my chances are pretty high given how fast we were at PF, so depending on what the weather does hopefully we can come away with the trophy again…”

Photo from the Peterborough Evening Telegraph