The 15-year-old was set to complete his final year in the KA2 class in the Victorian Country Series and the Australian Karting Series but now switches his attention to preparing for next season.

Johnstone, who has been racing go karts since he was seven, will graduate into the X30 senior class and the rest of 2020 will be dedicated to testing his new set up.

The Warrnambool College student said the X30 class is the highest performance class in the seniors but is not too different to the KA2.

"Not as much (difference) performance wise but they are a lot better tyres so it should make a bit of difference in lap times," he said.

"I just want to see how I go against Australia's best and see where we can go from there."

Listen to this week's edition of The Standard's football podcast - The Main Break

READ MORE:

Johnstone, who has raced in the national series for the past four years, spent most of the coronavirus break competing in iRacing series in both cars and karts.

He took part in the Erebus Racing Series and Speedcafe E Series as he waited for the green light to race outdoors again.

The dedicated racer said it was good to be back on track at Warrnambool Kart Club's race day on Sunday but he was the only one racing in his class.

"It feels good I haven't had much racing in a while so it's good to be back practising," he said.

"February (was the last time). It was at the country series (in Portland) and I finished on the podium so it was a good way to start the year.

"We would've been up the front in the championship so it's disappointing we couldn't see where our potential was throughout the year."

Johnstone and his father Andrew, who has returned to racing karts after the coronavirus break, said they would use the day for more testing.

Andrew, who has not raced in 11 years, said he thought this year would be a good time to get back into the sport.

"Jaxon has been doing a lot with the national series and that sort of thing and this year I thought I would have a go with one of the other karts we had," he said.

"I used to have a drag car and did that for the last few years and then when Jaxon started racing we sort of followed that around with the national series and country series.

"This year I had a bit more time and thought we will get both karts out and do some testing when the track opened up again."

Andrew, who is racing in the senior medium class, said the pair had a bit more time to do things now they weren't travelling across the country to compete.

"It saves a lot of money that is one bonus," Andrew says with a laugh.

"He (Jaxon) has a bit more time to do other things and we have two other children (twins Cooper and Noah) so we can do a little bit more with the younger kids as well."

Andrew said it has taken a bit to get back into racing but it was good to be back in the seat.

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.