Liam raced against 21 of the best Rookie Class drivers in Australia with his opponents coming from all over the country including Jack Doohan from QLD, son of five time motor bike World Champion Mick Doohan.  Mick travelled to the races in his black helicopter on the Saturday, landing at the track before leaving Sunday with his son after Jack become the new champion in Rookie Class and was awarded the Blue Shield.

Joining 216 other entrants for the titles, Liam regularly did personal best times for the Grenfell track.

before the state titles, Liam’s best time at the Grenfell track was in the 39 second bracket.  

He set a new personal best over the weekend, storming into the 37 second bracket to knock a full two seconds off the old time.

Thursday was a practice day and tyre allocation before the serious racing started on Friday with eight minute qualifying, Heat 1 (12 laps) and Heat 2 (12 laps).

Saturday saw two races including Heat 3 (12 laps) and a pre-final over 18 laps.

Sunday’s final was 24 laps.

Liam qualified 19th for all his three heats and started 17th in the final.  

He was hit by another driver in one of his heats on the first lap which caused a bent steering arm and broken stub axle but Liam went on to finish and also do some 38 second laps with this damage which was a great effort.  

With some repairs in the pits, the kart was ready to go again in one hour.  

Liam’s best position in the final was 15th place before he finished 18th overall.

The result gave him a ranking of 18th in Open NSW which is an awesome result for his first season of racing.

Most of the other drivers in Liam’s class had been racing between two and five years.

Liam did not do a lap time above 38 seconds in all the laps of the final. 

The race was controlled which meant Liam’s team Thunderbolt Racing were allocated four tyres for all the races.

The tyres were scanned at the start of each race and the motor was also sealed and scanned. 

Fuel was controlled and tested, similar to Formula 1 rules.

The next races on the calendar are Dubbo next month and Grenfell in December which will be the last race and Christmas party for the season.  

Anyone can get involved in go-karts.

Contact Ryan at Upfront Karting (0429 649 931) for any information in regards to getting started in karting.

Ryan has been a great help in launching Liam’s racing career.

Thunderbolt Racing would like to thank all of their sponsors.