Round 3 of the Australian Kart Championship was at Newcastle last week — a tough, twisty track that I hadn’t raced on in two years. I was excited to get back out there in my Parolin kart for Project X Racing, with support from Next Level Motorsport, my coach William Yarwood, and of course, Mum and Dad.
Friday went pretty well. I felt more comfortable each session and kept getting quicker, but in practice three and four I got stuck in traffic and couldn’t improve as much as I’d hoped. I knew I still needed to find a bit more pace for qualifying.
Saturday morning was really cold, and we struggled to get the engine started with the new 2-second starting rule. Because of that, I missed out on an extra flying lap and ended up qualifying 31st, which was a bit disappointing. But I stayed focused for the heats.
In heat one, I started 16th and had a good run, finishing 11th after some post-race penalties helped me out. Heat two was a bit tougher, but I still moved up a couple of spots and ended up 13th. Heat three felt great — I started 15th and pushed up to 10th, which was my best result of the day.
On Sunday, I started heat four from 10th, but at turn three I got rammed off the track and dropped right back. I didn’t give up and fought back to finish 18th on track, which felt like a letdown at the time. But after the race, a bunch of penalties were handed out, and I was promoted to 12th, which helped my grid spot for the final.
advertisement
In the final, I started 19th and finished 20th. I made a few moves but just didn’t quite have the pace to go further forward. Still, I gave it everything from lights out to the chequered flag.
One of the best parts of the weekend was having my mate Lennox Carson racing too. Even after a DNF in heat four, he made it into the final in 40th, and it was awesome to share the weekend with him.
Next up, I’m racing at Toowoomba for the Winter Carnival, then back at Ipswich for Round 5 of our club championship. I’m really looking forward to Round 4 of AKC at Ipswich — it’s my home track and I’ll be pushing hard to fight up the front all weekend.
advertisement