Maximus Chudasko took to the Go Kart Club of Victoria over the weekend for the all important Australian Kart Championship Shakedown meeting. Chudasko finished the Australian Kart Championship in 2021 with a strong top five finish and is looking to move even further up the field in 2022.
Max joined the powerful and successful Tom Williamson Motorsport last season and with his CC Racing power is looking to have a massive season. After a second place at the opening Go Kart Club of Victoria club meet in January, Chudasko was looking to go one better over the weekend.
With a field of eighteen drivers taking on the weekend, Max knew qualifying was an all important step to a good weekend. The CC Racing powered driver started the session showing great pace and was right in the battle for the top spots in the field. Chudasko had fellow competitors Cooper Brown and Anthony Ackovski trading fast times with him in the battle for pole position. In a breath taking and on the edge lap, Max was able to take pole position by a minor seven thousandths of a second! The top three were only separated by four hundredths of a second with racing going to be tough and fast.
Starting off pole position for heat one and Chudasko was looking for a clean get away to go racing. Unfortunately, Max was involved in an opening lap incident taking him out of the race.
Chudasko was once again off pole position in heat two and was looking to bounce back from the disappointment of heat one. The Tom Williamson Motorsport stable driver got a clean get away and lead the first half of the race. In the second half of the race Angus Wallace was stalking the back of the race leader and looking to challenge. Chudasko dropped down to position two on the penultimate lap and was hell bent on getting the win. Max was able to hold his nerve and take the lead back on the final lap and win heat two in an awesome display of driving.
Heat three was on Sunday morning and after the highs and lows of Saturday, Chudasko was looking forward to try come home with a strong result. Due to his heat one DNF Maximus was out of position six and was looking to move forward up the field. The CC Racing powered driver got an excellent start moving up four spots on the opening lap into second. By lap three Chudasko had jumped into the lead and was looking a huge chance for victory. Max led until mid-race where state champion Zachary Heard was able to take the lead. Chudasko stalked the back of Heard but had to settle for another strong result in position two overall.
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Chudasko was looking to the final to see if he could continue his strong form and challenge for victory. The Tom Williamson Motorsport stable driver didn’t get the start of the previous heat, slotting into position four at the end of the opening lap. Max made a move for position three on lap four but unfortunately had lost time to the front two drivers. Chudasko pace was excellent setting the fastest lap of the race in the final coming home with another podium in position three overall.
Max’s father David spoke post-race of their aims for 2022. “Last season Max joined the Tom Williamson Motorsport team to try and get competitive for the nationals level. Last year’s toe in the water experience with the nationals saw Max do really well at Todd road, securing a second in one race in wet conditions and a really bad accident on day two which Max was lucky to walk away from.
“This year we have moved up to TAG 125 and Max has seen some good results getting a fifth at Monarto South Australia in round 4 last year. This year we’ve seen a second at January club day at Todd road and third at the shakedown for Feb club day at Todd road. Although we’ve made some mistakes the learning curve is very steep and with help from Tom Williamson and lots of testing and just doing laps, I think Max is ready to do something special this year. Given the quality field at the shakedown I think Max is in a great jumping off point. But Nationals is a different beast and anything can and will happen. We look forward to great racing and with the support of TWM, CC racing and everyone who has done the journey with us along the way”.
Max will be looking to the opening round of the Australian Kart Championship in three weeks for a strong start to the championship.
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