Ashton Cattach returned to the Go Karting circuit over the weekend at the opening meeting of the Karting Victoria season. Ashton had a strong back end of the 2021 season, continually running in the top ten and often pushing the top five of the ultra-competitive KA3 Senior Light class!
Cattach in his Tony Kart spent the day Saturday familiarizing himself with the new tyres for the 2022 season, before hitting the track before Sunday morning qualifying. In a quality and large field of twenty-two KA3 Senior drivers, Ashton was going to have his work cut out in a hectic start to 2022. With multiple state champions and Australian Kart Championship front runners doing battle Cattach had to show a clean pair of heels to be in the battle. The young driver was driving his heart out and put himself in the first half of the field, qualifying in position ten overall and now looking to heat one to make progress forward.
Heat one came around but unfortunately Ashton wasn’t even able to make the starting line due to chain snapping on the role out laps.
After a rough start to his racing weekend, Cattach was looking to bounce back in heat two. Ashton got a clean get away from position ten, moving up a couple of spots of the opening few laps. The Tony Kart was on rails and the young driver was running well, jumping inside the top five by lap four. In one of the best races of the Cattach’s senior career. The young driver was able to come away with a strong third spot, matching the two drivers ahead of him on pace.
Due to the DNS result in heat one Ashton was out of position ten. The young driver made another clean get away and made his way into position seven by the end of the third lap. Cattach made another move on lap five, moving up into position six overall.
advertisement
Ashton had another strong performance in the third and final heat, coming away in position six overall and the fastest lap of the race. With the pace strong, Cattach was now looking to the final to come home with a strong result!
Ashton was further up the grid for the final but his race was hit right from the start with an unfortunate mechanical drama. Cattach had an issue with his throttle cable and was losing power down all the straights. In a fighting drive and with a never give up attitude, Ashton was able to cross the line in position eight overall.
Post-race Ashton’s mum Cin spoke of the weekend. “We had a mixed weekend but Ashton drove his heart out. He had great races in heat two and three. I’ve never seen so many roll overs at a meeting so was more then happy for Ashton to get through the meeting unscathed and move on to the rest of the season”.
Cattach will return to the track next month to continue his 2022 season!
advertisement