Mathew Basso looked to continue his strong 2021 Karting season at the third round of the Golden Power Series. The Eastern Lions Kart Club, a track Basso has struggled at and by his own admission isn’t his favorite track, had a big weekend of racing ahead.
With a near forty kart field of Cadet 12 drivers the Tony Kart Australia driver was looking for a strong start to the weekend in Saturday qualifying. Basso ran inside the top five in morning practice and looked to qualifying to get his weekend running. In a hotly contested and fast paced session the Tony Kart Australia driver ran in the top five and looking for a clear lap to grab pole position. Late is the session, with a quick time Mathew put himself up into position two which placed him on the outside of the front row.
With a near full field of thirty-nine karters, Basso looked to heat one with a daunting outside spot at the fast pace turn one. Basso got an even start but due to the slip streaming of the inside drivers he was shuffled back to position six at the end of the opening lap. The Tony Kart Australia driver made a move for position five mid race but was too far back to gain any slip stream help from the leading group to came home in position five in heat one only nine tenths off the race winner.
Sunday morning heat two was under damp wet conditions. The Tony Kart Australia driver got the jump and led out of the opening turn. On the opening lap in the tricky conditions, Basso made a small mistake dropping back to position twelve. Mathew in tough conditions made his way back into top ten by race finish putting him out of position eight for the third heat with work to do.
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Basso again didn’t get the start he was after in drier conditions in heat three. The Tony Kart Australia driver dropped as low as position eleven before putting his head down and going on a fight back. Mathew drove his heart out getting back up to position seven overall, resulting in good points to his championship.
Once again starting out of position eight for the final the Tony Kart Australia driver dropped back to position eleven being pushed wide off the start. Basso with strong pace made up three spots in a shortened seven lap final, coming home in position eight in a strong recovery in the ultra-competitive Cadet 12 final.
Basso spoke of the mistakes that cost him of a stronger result after qualifying on the front row of the grid. “I really had a mixed bag of results this weekend. Pucka isn’t one of my favorite tracks so qualifying 2nd fastest was a welcome surprise. I started on the outside in all 4 races which is such a hard thing to do at this track which meant getting pushed out wide going into turn 1 each and every time. Starting in 2nd and finding myself rounding the first turn in 8th just isn’t fun. I managed to get a great start in heat 2 rounding the leader on the outside into P1 for about half a lap but got caught out in the mornings slippery conditions, ran off the track and found myself back in the pack. Not one of my greatest moments for sure. We will be back here next weekend for Round 2 of the Metro Series which I am currently leading so hopefully we can do better and fight for the win”.
Mathew would like to thank his supporters: Tony Kart Australia, Baron Engines, Bakers Delight Dromana, PREPD Hydration, First National Real Estate, Secure Max & Co, Oakley Australia and MotiV8 Training.
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