McHugh's Queensland Championship
press release
In what was only his fifth race meeting in the Junior National Light class, Lockie McHugh has managed to capture the biggest win of his short career by taking out the Queensland Karting Championship at Mackay in North Queensland recently.
The recently turned 12-year-old showed the field, which is made up of 15 and 16-year-olds, a clean pair of heels throughout the Queensland Championship deciding final for the Junior National Light class and scored a comprehensive victory.
McHugh, whose recent wins includes both a South Australian Championship and a City of Melbourne event, had plenty of pace throughout the qualifying events despite some misfortune and consequently he qualified for the final deep in the field from position 12.
“This was the first time I’ve competed at Mackay and the surface was quite tricky as it was a concrete not tar like most other tracks that I compete at, which took a bit to get used to,” commented McHugh, who had qualified fifth and then finished second, fifth and 13th in his three qualifying heat races. “I made a good start to the weekend by qualifying fifth and finishing my opening heat race in second, but in the remaining two heat races I had a bit of bad luck. In my second heat race I was battling for third only to come together with another competitor and drop back to finish fifth and in the final heat race I was fighting for a top three position when contact was made with another rival and it damaged my steering and I dropped back to finish 13th.”
Due to his tough run in the final two heat races, McHugh qualified for the final out of position 12 but despite starting further down the field than he would’ve liked it didn’t damper his confidence very much.
photos - Paul Carruthers, Kart X
“I knew starting so far back in the field that I had to make a good start and pass as many karts as possible in the opening lap and that was what I did,” explained McHugh, who had charged his way from 12th up to fifth within the opening lap. “I was quite surprised that I managed to move up to fifth so quickly, but I just put my head down and drove down the inside of them as they were all bunched up and that opened up a passage for me.”
After a blinder of a start to the 21-lap final, McHugh then quickly moved into second place and that was when he chased after the runaway leader. By the middle stages of the final McHugh had caught up to the leader and that was when his winning aspirations nearly all came undone.
“I was following the leader when a lapped kart ahead of us ran off the track and brought up some dirt onto the track and when I went to into the corner I hit the brakes and lost traction and I hit the back of the leader and lost a fair bit of ground on him,” McHugh said.
With a determination to fight his way back, McHugh then set off to make up for lost ground on the leader and he was successful in doing so. McHugh in the closing stages was able to chase down the leader and with two laps from the finish he executed the race winning pass. Once he moved into the lead, McHugh drove away into the distance and scored a comfortable victory to clinch his maiden Queensland Championship crown.
“The key to my victory was my start and to come away with my first Queensland Championship victory is a great feeling,” he added. “We had good speed throughout the weekend and it was great to carry it all the way through to the final as I knew we had what it takes to challenge for victory.”
Special thanks must go to his parents Sharon and Jamie, along with Graham Powles, Kosmic, Shane Piper Race Engines and Glenn Powles for all their support.
McHugh will next compete in the City of Melbourne event in Victoria on August 14 and 15. The City of Melbourne was an event that McHugh won last year in the Rookies class.
