By Russell Atkins

HARRY Crawley proved his pace as he warmed up for the third round of the hotly-fought British super one series at Whilton Mill.

But the highly-rated young Dartford karting star was made to work hard after reliability woes during the heats left him with a mountain to climb come the final.

Crawley travelled to the demanding circuit aiming to lay down a marker ahead of super one’s visit a fortnight later and despite being up against some 43 junior max class rivals of national calibre, he was right on the leading pace from the word go.

The 13-year-old converted pole position in his first heat into an unchallenged victory courtesy of a peerless lights-to-flag performance.

But then the Hawley speed demon’s luck abruptly ran out, with a faulty fuel pipe and an engine failure bringing a premature end to his charge in heats two and three.

This left him needing to battle his way through the B final, unaccustomed territory for one of Britain’s undisputed front-runners.

Following a straightforward and impressively focussed passage through to the all-important grand final, Crawley went on to soar through the pack with aplomb to gain 20 positions from his starting slot and take the chequered flag in sixth.

His time was barely a second-and-a-half adrift of the runner-up.

The Wilmington Grammar pupil is now readying himself to step things up a gear again as he bids to improve upon the fourth place he achieved in the PF International 2010 super one curtain-raiser by taking his first podium finish in his new class.

He said: “I got a good start and overtook a couple of drivers into the first corner.

“After that, it was just a case of getting my head down and overtaking as many people as I could.

“By the last lap I was up with the leading group, so I’m sure I could have fought for the win if I had only started nearer to the front.

“It was another learning curve overall and we learned a lot that will make me a stronger driver for super one.

“Obviously the competition will be even harder still there, but I’m feeling confident and hopefully the outcome will be my best national result yet in junior max.”