by Remo Racing
This weekend just passed young Victorian junior driver Alex Ni competed in the IAME X30 Junior class at the IAME Asia Cup held at the renowned Shanghai International Circuit (SIC Kart Land) whilst most of his friends and teammates were competing at Round 1 of the Australian Karting Championships at Todd Road.
Having only recently returned from a 6 month break from Karting and discovering KA3 Junior at AKC was oversubscribed (initially), Alex took a different route and decided to take on the huge challenge of going to another country, learning a new track and racing in a whole new class and tyre compound against some of Asia’s most talented drivers, all fighting for a golden ticket to the IWF25 (Iame Warrior Final) in Valencia, Spain later in the year.
For such a lightly raced driver compared to many of his peers this would have been quite a daunting challenge, but Alex took on the Shanghai International Circuit (one of only 25 FIA Grade 1 kart tracks globally) considered one of the most formidable karting tracks in Asia representing Australia with pride as he went wheel-to-wheel with karting champions from Italy, China, Japan, HK, Singapore and beyond.
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He made good progress over the weekend learning a new track, tyre compound and engine class pushing forward in each of the heats from his starting grid position and finishing a very respectable P7 in the Final.
His Mum Jade who made this opportunity possible said that she was incredibly proud of Alex adding “although Alex didn’t take the podium this time for the lAME Asia Cup, the growth Alex has shown in just 5 days has been incredible. His talent, determination, dedication and fearless drive has left me in awe”.
She went on further to say “from mastering tricky corners to pushing his limits against the best, Alex proved that champions aren’t made overnight, they’re built lap by lap, race by race! This is just the beginning!”.
His Dad Clint, watching from back home in Melbourne, was proud of how Alex overcame challenges both on and off the track, including racing for the first time without him by his side as well as the setback of the shipping container with his race engine not being released from customs in time for the race. He went on to say “this whole experience has been incredible for Alex and has really shown him how much work he needs to put in going forward to continue to progress, but I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do as part of Henry Johnstone’s HJR Driver Coach team the rest of the year in juniors”.
Plans are already being made for future races internationally later in the year so we look forward to seeing Alex progress both here and overseas.
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