Bradford-born Jack Hawksworth admitted that his oval racing baptism in the fifth round of the 2012 Star Mazda Championship at Lucas Oil Raceway “didn’t go to plan”.

But he said he came out of the high-profile ‘Night Before the 500’ meeting stronger for the experience and is still very much in the driving seat in the chase for the coveted crown.

Hawksworth followed his brace of victories and two second places in the first four outings with a seventh place in round five.

“Oval racing is a strange entity,” reflected the 21-year-old Cullingworth ace. “One day you can be right on the pace, the next miles away.

“While in testing we were very fast, the race weekend didn’t go to plan and we definitely underperformed.

“As soon as we put the car down on the track for Friday practice, we were struggling with oversteer and didn’t have the pace – we weren’t remotely where we thought we were going to be.”

Lining up ninth on the starting grid, Hawksworth initially conceded some ground before gradually settling into a rhythm and grittily battling his way back to seventh position at the chequered flag, ensuring he left Indiana with a 12-point championship lead.

“My first time racing on an oval was always going to be a learning curve,” he said.

“It requires a very different style and being in the middle of the pack, I perhaps didn’t always make the best decisions on where to go on the racetrack in the early laps, but I learned a lot as the race progressed and managed to get my head round it in the end.”