Joseph Mawson, of Hinchinbrook, showed true fighting spirit across the weekend to finish 21st at the opening round of the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship at the PF International circuit in England.
While not the outright result Mawson was aiming for, his performance was a significant one given the fact that he was involved in an incident in one of his qualifying heat races that led to him rolling his kart. While he emerged uninjured, his kart was severely damaged.
After charging to ninth place early in his final qualifying heat, Mawson, 17, suffered his second failure to finish in the four heat races, when his chain came adrift leaving him stranded on the circuit. The pair of non-finishes left him languishing in 46th place in the points standings entering the final stage.
Only a determined drive in the pre-final, where the top 17 finishers transferred into the final, secured Mawson a place on the grid in the main event where he started from the 28th position in the 34-kart field.
”It was a crazy weekend. I didn’t qualify too well, rolled in heat two and my engine nearly didn’t start for the pre-final but in the end I got it sorted and managed to come through and qualify for the final,” Joseph Mawson said.
“During the final, it was pretty tough to move up but I still managed to make up seven spots and finish just outside the top 20.
”Going into the weekend I was really hoping for more and confident of it as well, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now it’s time to take what we learnt this weekend and focus on the second round in the Championship at Bahrain during November.”
Mawson indicated the support from his Australian supporters across the weekend was amazing.
”I’d really like to thank everyone from Australia who showed their support across the weekend, I’ve heard from a heap of people who were watching online how I was going across the weekend and wishing me well. It made me very proud to be Australian,” Mawson said.
“It just wasn’t meant to be this weekend again, but that’s life. We’ll move on and work towards being on top at the final round in Bahrain.”
