As racers converged in Hamilton for round two of the DPE Country Series, KA3 Junior Heavy protagonist, Mathew Basso, set his eyes on competing in the ultra-competitive KA3 Junior Light class instead, with a view to further hone his race craft.
Coming off a frustrating weekend at round two of the Australian Karting Championship that saw Basso qualify in the top 15 before retiring from injury; Mathew was keen to make a strong statement to the junior field in his debut race in the class this year.
After hopeful timed practice sessions that saw Basso topping the timing charts, confidence was high heading into qualifying. Mathew was able to continue his hot run of form of recent, throwing down a time to start himself out of P2 beside South Australian front runner, Noah Enright. Mathew utilised his race craft and strategy to remain unbeaten through the heats, setting fastest laps in heat three.
Moving into the final, Mathew looked to maintain his consistent form, bringing in a solid haul of points towards the championship whilst continuing to hone his racing ability in the cut-throat junior class. Lights out and Mathew got to work, stretching a slight lead over the competition of Noah Enright and Jayden Dellar. As the final progressed, Basso found himself wrestling the kart, struggling with a significant amount of oversteer in trying, cold conditions. Mathew displayed a fighting spirit and maturity beyond his years, jostling with Enright and Dellar to maintain the premier position, however, was succeeded by Enright with five laps to go.
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The team at MBR were overall ecstatic with the result, a class Mathew hadn’t competed in for several months whilst also overcoming injury to showcase a return to form.
Mathew’s father, Paul, had this to say for the weekend: “Mathew drove really well all weekend. Unfortunately, we really messed the kart set up in the final but finishing 2nd in the KA3 Junior Light Class was a good result” as Mathew echoed a similar upbeat view of “I’m really happy to be back in the junior light class again and had a great time. I really have to thank James Sera from Melbourne Kart Centre for all his help with my driving and even though we got it wrong in the final, I’m still happy with the result”.
The team at MBR thank their sponsors: Melbourne Kart Centre, Castrol Racing, UNIT Clothing, NGK Spark Plugs, MEARTH Electric Scooters, Atlas Neck Braces, Oakley Australia, Platinum Potions, Mayhem Tools, Ethika, PREPD Hydration, Albek Luggage, SAKA Water, 808 Dude, BODIE’Z Protein Water, Raceline Motorsports Racewear, New Balance and MotiV8 Training.
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