Timing is becoming more crucial for Warrnambool Kart Club’s Sophie Mansbridge.
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The 16-year-old is focusing on her braking and accelerating into and out of corners in her bid to improve her go kart driving skills.
“I have been working on my driving technique recently,” the teenager said.
“But I’ve still got a lot to learn and having David Sera (18-time Australian go kart champion) down here recently has helped me a lot.
“He got me to work on my braking and accelerating points around the track. He said I needed to focus on braking a bit later and accelerating early and it’s starting to show in my driving.”
The Allansford resident, who drives in the KA3 senior light class, is preparing for round four of the Victorian Country Series at Warrnambool this weekend, where she is hoping to move up the field after finishing 11th at Cobden, had a DNF at Ballarat and 16th at Horsham in the first three rounds of six in the series.
“I’d like to try and get up the field a bit more and hopefully this weekend we can aim for the top 10,” she said.
“I’m pretty keen to get on the home track as it hasn’t been a great season so far but hopefully we can get some better results at home, where I feel a bit more comfortable.”
Mansbridge, a year 10 student at Emmanuel College, is only in her second season of driving after she acquired her kart in August 2016 and began driving in February 2017. She said she was enjoying the weekends spent travelling to different parts of the south-west with her father Alan.
“I just got the idea to jump into the sport and went from there,” she said of her introduction to go karting.
“Dad raced them ages ago and my brother used to race motorbikes. Dad and I have a good relationship and we like to go for our weekends away and race.
“I’ve now raced at every track on the series in Cobden, Horsham, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Wimmera and Portland but my favourite track is Cobden.”
Fellow WKC member and Australian Kart Championship driver Jay Coul has been listed in the invited KZ2 class drivers to compete at the 2018 Race of Stars at Gold Coast’s Xtreme Karting facility on October 11-13.
I have been working on my driving technique recently... but I’ve still got a lot to learn.
- Sophie Mansbridge
Sean Hardeman
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
