Strong points for Basso despite mistake

Mathew Basso hit the road to a wet and muddy Hamilton Kart Club for the fifth Round of the Victorian Country Series.

Basso has been one of the front runners across the Championship and took out the last round of the Series at Horsham.

He utilized Saturday practice to put himself in the best place and setup window going into Saturday afternoon qualifying.

Basso put himself immediately in the fight for pole position and was looking strong.

Basso continued to drive well in the low grip conditions and was getting as much pace and grip out of his kart as possible.

In an extremely close finish, Bassostopped the clock in 2nd position and only 5 thousandths of a second off pole position.

Sunday morning was the first heat race of the weekend and Basso was looking to go one better than qualifying.

He was able to get a lightning start and jumped straight into the lead of the race.

Basso showed supreme kart control and was slowly able to open margin as the race went on.

He started his racing in the best possible fashion, grabbing the heat victory by over a second.

Heat 2 was also under wet conditions and Bassi was looking to continue his strong start to racing.

He got another excellent start and jumped straight into first but was under attack in the first half of the race from James Snaith and Jayden Dellar.

Basso was able to open a 10-kart length lead in the backstages of the race and looked certain for victory.

In unforeseen circumstances, he dropped down to fifth place after thinking the chequered flag had been waved.

This put Basso in a fight for the podium spots in the round-deciding final.

He headed into the final with determination to grab the best result he possibly could.

Off the back of another excellent start, Basso jumped straight into second.

He was right on the back of the race leader in the earlier stages and was pushing extremely hard to try and take the lead.

Unfortunately, Basso made a few mistakes across the race which resulted in him dropping off the leader.

He crossed the line in second for another podium result.

Mathew’s father Paul spoke post-weekend on a wet and wild weekend of racing.

“What a weekend., the weather was terrible and the karts look like they have been on a motocross track,” Paul said.

“We came away from the weekend with a bag full of points and except for that small mistake in Heat 2, Mathew did a fantastic job”.

Mathew rued his mistake in heat 2 in what is going to be a tight championship finish.

“I can’t believe I pulled in early in Heat 2,” Mathew said.

“The series is long and we need every point we can get.

“To lose those few valuable points could end up being costly when everything is added up after the final round in Ballarat in a few weeks’ time.

“I couldn’t hold on to the leader in the final.

“We just didn’t have the kart to keep up with the pace he was setting.

“Onwards and upwards to Ballarat.”