Round 2 of the Australian Kart Championship was one of those weekends where nothing really went our way. From the outset on Friday, we were chasing pace and battling small issues. Despite a few decent signs during practice, we couldn’t quite dial the kart in, and the day ended with an engine seizure on our first flying lap of the final session — not the lead-up we were after heading into qualifying.
Saturday was a continuation of the struggle. We couldn’t find speed in qualifying, and although I got strong starts in the heats, we just didn’t have the kart underneath us to stay forward.
A drop-down bumper penalty in Heat 1 set us back, and in the second heat I moved forward early but couldn’t hang on. Heat 3 started well too, but I got caught up from behind in Turn 2 and spent the rest of the race trying to recover.
After a tough day, Saturday night was about taking a step back, looking at what we could control, and keeping perspective. It wasn’t a dramatic reset — more just a quiet chat with the team, a chance to regroup, and a reminder to focus on the job ahead. The weekend hadn’t gone to plan, but I still had races to finish and lessons to take from it.
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Sunday started with a DNF due to mechanical failure in Heat 4, and it would’ve been easy to call it there. But I decided to suit up for the Final and finish what I started. I got a great launch and moved forward a few spots early, but unfortunately got hit into Turn 1 on lap eight. That contact ended the race, damaging the airbox, Nassau panel, and radiator curtain. Not the weekend we wanted — far from it — but I’m still proud we kept pushing and made the most of every chance we had.
We’ve got work to do with pace and my own driving, and I’m looking forward to testing and building back ahead of Round 3. Big thanks to Country Kart Spares, TB Kart, and JFM for the ongoing support. We’ll bounce back stronger.
Chadd
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