6th July 2012

Diary from Australia's World Under 18 drivers - Thursday

This weekend Australia will have two representatives at the opening round of the CIK-FIA World Under 18 Championship in Portugal, Joseph Mawson and Jake Parsons.  James Abela is also competing in the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy.

Across the weekend they’ll be sharing their thoughts here on karting.net.au.

Mawson’s Diary – Thursday
We arrived at the circuit early in the morning to sign in and fill out the entry forms. We received at package which gave us the highly important information and strict rules about the weekend. I met a some friends from the rotax world finals last year as well as seeing Richie Mcloed who was the 1993 Australian Formula A champion in CIK. After signing in, I met the Topkart team, Antonio (Team Manager), Guilio (Parsons Mechanic), Federico (Team Mate) and Paolo (Federico Mechanic). After meeting the Topkart team, we started putting the karts together. Then we did the seat position, adjusted my steering position and my pedals which had to be bent back and highly adjusted for me to be able to reach it as I have very short legs. I then collected my 2 new sets of practice tyres and fitted them to the rims which capped off the day. Tomorow I will collect my engine and it’s compartments and get the kart ready for practice tomorrow which will consist of 4x 15minute sessions. Be sure to follow my Athletes page on Facebook for updates 🙂

Cheers Joey

Parsons’ diary – Thursday
Back at the hotel after meeting the team at the circuit today, we received a parolin package which had components such as the radiator. I woke up this morning with food poisoning and felt really sick for most of the day, after throwing up I started to feel better and was able to work on the kart with my mechanic. Not feeling 100% still but much better, luckily we didn’t have a test session today, should be all good tomorrow I hope. My mechanics name is gullio, he’s a funny guy and very Italian. I felt right at home with the team they are very welcoming. Setup seat and pedals today, engine collection is tomorrow.

Jake