Jack Doohan has finished on the podium during his championship karting debut at the Victorian Karting Championships in Geelong today.
Competing in the Cadets category, nine-year old Doohan, son of five-time MotoGP World Champion Mick Doohan, showed tremendous race craft and raw speed across the weekend to finish in third place.
After qualifying 18th on Friday, Doohan came back from an incident in heat one to record a sixth placing in the pre-final to secure a third row start for the 22-lap final.
He battled with fellow front-runners Benito Montalbano, Harrison Hoey, Joshua Smith and Joel Jamieson throughout the journey, enjoying several laps in the lead.
At one stage, there was a nine-kart freight train at the front of the 26-driver field. When Hoey and Doohan had a slight coming together mid way through the race it separated the leading pack and allowed Benito Montalbano, Jai Sparey and Joshua Smith to open a buffer over the field.
As the race progressed the leading trio exchanged the front running on a number of occasions which allowed Doohan, Jamieson and Sam Dicker back into contention.
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Following a number of frantic laps, it was Smith who won the drag race to the chequered flag by 0.022 seconds ahead of Montalbano and Doohan.
In other categories, it was In another hard fought battle it was Melbourne driver Leigh Nicolaou who held on for a narrow victory in the highly competitive Clubman Heavy category while Joseph Mawson took out the Clubman Light title.
Drivers from the home state claimed nine of the 14 titles on offer.
2012 VICTORIAN KARTING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Geelong, Victoria
Cadets
1. Joshua Smith (Vic)
2. Benito Montalbano (NSW)
3. Jack Doohan (QLD)
Rookies
1. Josh Rogers (QLD)
2. Dylan Hollis (Vic)
3. Reece Sidebottom (Vic)
Junior National Light
1. James Abela (NSW)
2. Liam McLellan (Vic)
3. Joshua Buggy (NSW)
Junior National Heavy
1. Damon Strongman (Vic)
2. Zac Phillips (Vic)
3. Nicholas Rowe (WA)
Junior Clubman
1. Thomas Randle (Vic)
2. Nicholas Rowe (WA)
3. James Golding (Vic)
Junior Max
1. Joseph Burton-Harris (NSW)
2. Jake Klein (Vic)
3. Jordan Boys (Vic)
Clubman Light
1. Joseph Mawson (NSW)
2. Andrew Mercuri (Vic)
3. Jason Burns (QLD)
Clubman Heavy
1. Leigh Nicolaou (Vic)
2. Kip Foster (WA)
3. Matthew Wall (Vic)
Clubman Super Heavy
1. Scott Simpson (QLD)
2. Ben McKinlay (QLD)
3. Jason Stania (Vic)
Clubman Over 40s
1. Remo Luciani (Vic)
2. Steve Riddell (Vic)
3. Phillip Smith (Vic)
Leopard Light
1. James Sera (Vic)
2. Daniel Rochford (Vic)
3. Justin Francis (Vic)
Leopard Heavy
1. Lee Mitchener (Vic)
2. Daniel Richert (Vic)
3. Kris Walton (QLD)
Rotax Light
1. Daniel Rochford (Vic)
2. Pierce Lehane (NSW)
3. Josh De Maio (Vic)
Rotax Heavy
1. Matthew Wall (Vic)
2. Aaron Rintoul (Vic)
3. Troy Woolston (Vic)
