Event Sponsor Fields Team

Naming right sponsor of the 36th City of Melbourne Titles, Panduit, field their own three driver team for the major title. The team had the three drivers across two classes in Ava and Mason Stefanovic in Cadet 9 and Darren Formosa in the Victorian Combined Masters class. All three drivers were looking to put their best foot forward and come away with strong results at the major event.

Formosa was first to hit the track and showed on Friday he was going to in the hunt for front positions. Darren put in the seventh fastest time of qualifying landing him just outside the top five positions. Formosa was consistent across his three heat races, never leaving the top ten with a pair of seventh the highlight. Darren got a clean start in the final and was able to work himself up into second position. Formosa drove his heart out battling for a podium position in a highly skilled field of drivers. Darren was able to come home with his best result of the weekend inside the top five in fourth position overall!

Ava and Mason Stefanovic hit the track next in the youngest class of the weekend, Cadet 9. Ava started her weekend in dramatic fashion on Friday with a big incident resulting in her kart being beyond repair. Both young drivers came back on Saturday and were able to qualify inside the top fifteen with Ava in fourteenth and Mason in fifteenth. Ava was consistent in all three of her heats, finishing inside the top fifteen with position eleven in heat three the highlight. Mason unfortunately had two DNF’s in the heats but showed his true pace in heat two with a brilliant ninth place overall. Both drivers were able to push hard and come home as finishers inside the top fifteen in the final with Mason in position thirteen and Ava right behind in position fourteen.

Team manager Aleks Stefanovic spoke post weekend on the teams racing and Panduit’s involvement. “It wasn’t the team’s weekend unfortunately. Darren did a great job to fight through to fourth in the final. Ava was involved in a big incident on Friday and karting community rallied around her and the team. All three drivers gave it their all over the weekend. Panduit would like to thank the Go Kart Club of Victoria and the great work from all the volunteers for making the Panduit 36th City of Melbourne Titles a huge success for all”.