Archie Bristow out of Bristow Motorsport took to the track over the weekend for the third round of the Golden Power Series at the Albury Wodonga Kart Club.
Archie has had a strong start to the championship with a second in round one at Numurkah and second at round two in Bendigo. Bristow coming off a strong display at the Victorian State Championship was looking to continue his strong start to the season.
Archie had the opening few practices sessions to learn the track but due to slippery conditions hadn’t got the most out of his track time. The Bridgeswade Pools and Spas backed entry put himself immediately in the top five and was looking to push his way further up the field. Bristow was able to put in a superb performance on limited track time to set the third fastest time and be starting of the second row of the grid.
Heat one came around the young Bristow Motorsport driver was looking to make his way up the field. Archie settled into third spot and was right on the back of the race leaders in the early stages. Bristow was able to make his way as high as second in the middle stages before dropping back to third spot in the front pack battles. In a close finish with only nine tenths separating the top five, Archie was able to come home in third spot overall in a great drive.
The remainder two heats of the weekend unfortunately had Archie on the back foot. An issue on the roll up lap of heat two had Bristow of circuit and out of the race. A lap two incident had Archie out of contention in heat three and starting of the rear of the grid for the final.
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The team regrouped and knew they had the pace to challenge the front group, regardless of his starting position. Archie got a great start in the final quickly making his way into the top five battle. The Bridgeswade Pools and Spas backed entry was able to put himself into fourth and be challenging the top three. By mid-race the Bristow Motorsport drive had made his way up into second spot and was challenging the podium spots. In an intense and heart stopping back end of the race, positions changed multiple times and the racing was amazing to watch. In a superb fightback Archie was able to cross the line in position four overall battling in the lead group.
Archie’s father Matthew spoke post weekend of the up and down weekend they had. “Going to a new track for the first time is always a challenge. Struggled with setup due to slippery conditions for practice. Archie had a fair crack in qualifying putting it on P3. Heats didn’t go so well with two DNF’s leaving it all to do in the final starting last. Archie kept his spirits up and knew he had a job to do. Moving up quickly through the field to join the front runners by lap 5 and challenging for P2. Lost out trying to pass which left us P4. So proud of our little man, kept his head up all weekend despite the heats not going in our favour. Awesome bunch of kids that produced some very tight and exciting racing”.
Young Archie spoke post weekend as well of his lows and fightback in the final: “Tough weekend, happy I could move up through the field in the final. Not our best weekend on the track but still has a great time hanging out and racing with my karting friends”.
Bristow will be back behind the wheel this weekend at the third round of the Australian Kart Championships.
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