Known as the "Home of Champions", the venue of Genk has again lived up to its name. The OK category had gathered a very high quality field with 69 drivers representing the most talented hopefuls of motor sport. The official Qualifying session was very important because it determines the starting grid for the Qualifying Heats, but it did not put James Wharton in the best of moods for the rest of the event. "As in the previous race in Italy, my kart is not effective enough when we put new tyres on it," lamented the Australian. "It's definitely something we need to keep working on for the European Championship, because it's never easy to start a race when quite far back from the front rows."

Competitiveness restored in Prefinal

Fortunately, the Ferrari Driver Academy driver was not to remain in his initial 45th position for long. As he has been able to do on numerous occasions since the start of the season, James Wharton managed to gain places in all three of his Qualifying Heats, including two notable recoveries of eight and 13 places. In addition, the time gap with the drivers in the leading group was considerably reduced. On Saturday alone, he gained 19 places to come back to 26th when the heats had been completed.

Determinedly the young Australian did not stop there. "In the Prefinal, we made some excellent technical choices with the team, despite the track being quite slippery at that time of the day. I made a perfect start and tried to make up places on every lap. It was a really good race where I managed to move up from 26th to 10th place. All the efforts I had made since the beginning of the meeting were finally starting to pay off."

Unfortunately, the improvement was short-lived. "I got into trouble on the first lap of the Final, stuck on the outside of the track and started to drop back in the pack. I was hoping to regain these lost places quickly, but no matter how hard I pushed, my kart lacked performance this time. My weekend ended with a disappointing 27th place. The important thing now is to take stock of this preparation race, to identify the positives and negatives, and to be able to improve everything that can be improved in a fortnight at the first of the four races of the OK European Championship. I am looking forward to coming back to Genk more motivated than ever."

About James Wharton

James Wharton is a 15-year-old Australian kart driver, currently competing in his first international season in the KZ2 class alongside the OK class, a dual programme with the official Parolin Motorsport team.

James started racing karting in Australia at the age of seven. He then shone in the most important single-brand world challenges before making his debut in FIA Karting competition. 13th in the World Junior Championship in his first season in 2018, he also won the KA 100 Junior class in Las Vegas at the SKUSA SuperNationals.

In 2019, in his first full season in OK-Junior, he achieved top results: 9th in the European Championship, 4th in the Italian Championship and 2nd in the legendary Winter Cup in Lonato. He was again victorious at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas in the X30-Junior category.

An official driver for the Parolin Motorsport Srl team, James is involved in the development and tuning of the equipment thanks to a very good rapport with Albino and Marco Parolin. Despite a 2020 disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, he has rapidly progressed in the category hierarchy and is aiming for a season rich in results.

Thanks to his competitiveness and fighting qualities, James Wharton was selected to join the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy. Managed by All Road Management, Nicolas Todt's company, James Wharton will continue his career in karting in 2021, before taking the plunge into single-seater racing in the near future.