Bodhi Bright made his first start in the KA3 Senior Medium category over the weekend at the Victorian Kart Championships. Bright took out last year’s Golden Power Series and was having his first start of 2022 in the class and at the Eastern Lions Kart Club.
With a field of around twenty five drivers hitting the track, Bodhi was up against some of the state and countries best and was ready to do battle. Bright had a rough start to his weekend, only being able to complete two out of the five sessions of practice due to mechanical issues.
Bodhi and the team made some changes for Saturday morning qualifying and was looking to get as far up the grid as possible. Bright made his way inside the top ten in the early stages of the session and continued to push hard up the order. After limited practice on Friday, Bodhi did a sensational job to get himself inside the top five and set the fifth fastest time of the qualifying session! Bodhi was now excited for heat one and trying to get the best possible start to his racing weekend.
Bright got an excellent start and had maintained his spot in the top group and the top five. Bodhi had an incident that meant he was able to close in on the drivers ahead of him. Due to the bottle neck of the drivers Bright was unfortunately driven over and out of heat number one resulting in a DNF. Bright and the team were looking to turn around their misfortunes from heat one and get back in the front battle.
Bodhi was once again right in the top drivers and settled into position six of the start. The young driver made his way back inside the top five mid race and was pushing hard to close in on the top four drivers out in front. Bright was able to come through and finish his Saturday on a high, coming home in position five overall only two tenths off fourth spot!
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Sunday morning came around and due to his DNF in heat one Bodhi was starting outside the top ten in position fourteen and was keen to move forward through the field. Bright was able to get a superb start and move up inside the top ten in position eight by the opening lap! By lap three Bright had made the move for position seven. By race end Bodhi was able to make his way once again into the top five but was classified in position seven due to a drop down penalty.
After the great fight back in heat three Bright was starting out of position ten and once again looking to move forward. Bright was in a chaotic opening lap battle and after moving forward a spot was unfortunately ruled out of contention after being hit and causing bent steering.
Bodhi spoke post weekend of his pace across the weekend and the disappointment in the end result. “It was a up and down weekend, I had good pace but a bit of bad luck. I had the speed to run top five which I did in the second and third heat, but unfortunately having a DNF in heat one had me starting mid pack for the final.
“We found something in the setup for the final and were very confident heading into it but unfortunately ended up with a DNF. Disappointed not to get the result I felt I could have but happy with the pace I had”.
Bright will be one to watch for the rest of the 2022 season!
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