The young Nuneaton ace is a regular front-runner in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow - the same series that first set none other than newly-crowned Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton on the fast track to super-stardom - and since ending his maiden national campaign a brilliant ninth in the country in Mini Max, has stepped up to the more powerful Junior Max class over the winter in preparation for an all-out assault on glory in 2009.

Six tenths of a second faster than any other driver in the 24-kart field in dry practice on the Friday - and eight tenths up on club champion Josh Parker, and a full second clear of ex team-mate Matt Parry - was an excellent start. And then came the rain...

"I'd been to PF twice before in Junior Max," Ash explained, "but it was wet all weekend this time, and driving there in the wet is harder than at most other circuits. The Saturday morning was really bad - we were a second off the pace to begin with - but by the last session of the day we had closed to within four tenths and were second-quickest, so on race day we were hoping to do quite well."

Indeed, only one other driver - Bill Cowley - could live with the Maple Park teenager come the end of practice, and with a new engine in the back of his P1 Racing mount and a score to settle after being unceremoniously turfed off the track in his previous meeting at Kimbolton, Ash's tail was clearly up, come rain or shine.

"I still needed to learn the track a bit better in the wet," he admitted, "but the kart felt really good and was handling well, so we knew we would be there or thereabouts. People know I'm really quick in the dry, but I needed to prove I'm good in the wet too. "I think I just worked the kart a lot better, going into corners much deeper and braking much later. I was able to hold the kart more; it was hard to get my head around at first, but once I did my confidence improved a lot and it was much more fun."

Beginning his opening heat 14th, Ash was knocked wide into the first hairpin and subsequently found himself heading flat-out and head-on towards a rival who had spun in the middle of the circuit, with the unavoidable collision leaving him in last place and with a bent chassis to contend with.

Though he acknowledged that ‘it was quite hard coming through the pack, because whilst some drivers would work with you to make up ground, others would insist on fighting you for the position and keep lunging you at every corner', nonetheless a superb charge had hauled the George Eliot School pupil back up to third position on the last lap of the eight-lap encounter when a rare mistake saw him slip back four spots to seventh almost within sight of the chequered flag.

Be that as it may, his fastest tour was just a hundredth of a second off the best of the race in spite of the damage to his kart, and an even more impressive showing in heat two - despite again receiving a hit on the first lap - took Ash from tenth to the runner-up position at the close, with no other driver able to get within a gaping half a second of his quickest lap. Allied to his heat one result, it was enough to secure him fourth on the grid for the all-important final.

"Over the first five laps I was battling with Parry over third," he related. "I kept overtaking him into the first corner, and he would get me back again into the second hairpin. That was annoying, because it allowed the two leaders to build up a gap of about three seconds.

"Then on one lap I passed Matt into the first corner, held him out wide and managed to get away. I caught and passed Matthew Mason on the tenth lap and started to chase after Jack Marshall in the lead, but it was too late - if I'd had just another three laps I could have won it.

"There was a point where I thought ‘if I can keep catching him at half a second a lap and he makes a mistake in the last two laps I might be able to overtake him', but ultimately I had just lost too much time fighting with Matt..."

With comfortably the fastest lap to his credit again - once more half a second quicker than anybody else could produce - the fact that Ash finished just 1.17 seconds adrift of Marshall bore out his mathematics, but no matter. The only driver to lap below a minute in the wet weekend-long - faster than competitors in the far more powerful Senior class - it was a truly phenomenal performance, and one that caught the eye of everyone in the paddock.

"I was quite happy with second," he concluded. "I knew how much quicker I had been, and the main reason we are doing the club meetings is to test and get quicker still for next year. Both Stars and Super 1 are racing at PF in 2009, so it's really important to go well there.

"Considering the last time I had raced there in the wet I had been 1.6 seconds off the pace, to be half a second up the road this time was a huge gain. I was really pleased with that, and it's all shaping up well."

Indeed it is.

Article : www.formulastars.com