Mason Martin salutes to the crowd as he flies past the chequered flag at the 2024 Tasmania Kart Championships.
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Sometimes it can be tricky to get a pre-teen to clean their plate.
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Not Mason Martin. He’s too busy winning them.
Last weekend, the 12-year-old Shepparton racer flew around the bends at Launceston Kart Club to snare a chequered flag finish at the 2024 Tasmania Kart Championships in the Cadet 12 class.
By doing so, he earned himself a fancy bit of decoration for his go-kart, according to his dad Steven.
“The highest accolade is that you win the national championships which is conducted over five rounds and you get a green and gold number one plate to go on your go-kart as your number for the next 12 months,” he said.
“The next most recognised thing is that if you win any of the state titles in Australia (which Mason did), you get to run a number plate with a blue background as opposed to everyone else who has a white background with red numbers on it in his age group.
“You get to run that for the next 12 months as one of the state champions; I guess when you turn up to each of the tracks, it can be good and bad.
“It’s a nice bit of bragging rights for Mason, but it also puts the target on you that you’re the kid to beat sometimes.”
Martin’s victory was a welcomed belated birthday present, arriving just days after he turned 12 on November 20.
What’s more, he’s barely been in the sport 18 months.
Martin first kicked into gear about May in 2023, skidding into action at his home club Numurkah where he discovered a newfound love for whipping around bends at breakneck speeds.
It didn’t hurt that he was bloody good at it, too.
Steven, Melissa and Zoe Martin headed to Tasmania to support Mason (front) during an epic weekend of go-kart racing.
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While 2023 was more of a testing year to get Martin acclimated to the sport, 2024 has been all about honing his craft and transforming him into a speed demon of pint-sized proportions.
In his proud dad’s eyes, the hard work is all starting to come to fruition.
“He’s still reasonably new to the sport, so I guess (winning the state title) makes it extra special from our perspective,” he said.
“The last couple of months he’s had some fairly big interstate results and podium finishes.
“He’s had a couple of thirds at some big recognised events, but this is his first big win.”
Martin’s massive month of racing began at the break of November when he notched third at the Ultimate Club Racer event in South Australia.
He backed it up with another podium placing the following week during the Dash for Cash at Eastern Goldfields Kart Club in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
A well-earned rest arrived the week after, then it was off to the Apple Isle.
Having never driven at Launceston Kart Club before, Martin had to learn the track during his four total practices before heading into qualifiers.
From there, the pre-teen prodigy impressed during the heats and bossed the final to land his first major victory — and a shiny new blue plate to boot.
Mason Martin proudly displays his blue plate after winning the Tasmania Kart Championships.
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Pace Images
“He was really excited,” Steven said.
“It was quite good timing because essentially you have to forfeit (the plate) after 12 months if you haven’t done anything to win one of the other state titles to retain it.
“His birthday, being a couple of days before the event, he’ll go into the next size kart and age group at the end of next year, so he’ll get to retire that kart with the number plate on and never has to peel it off.”
So, what’s next on Martin’s plate?
The high-octane Year 6 student heads to Melbourne this weekend to contest rounds three and four of the Australian Summer Series before the Christmas period and, when 2025 rolls around, it’s time for the big leagues.
“The big objective is that he’s going to race the Australian Championships in its full capacity for the first time next year,” Martin said.
“We did two rounds this year that were only the Victorian ones just to test the waters and see if he had the speed and just to get past the awe of it all.
“When you first turn up and there’s a lot of big trucks and race teams — you get stuck being a fan rather than realising that you’re one of the drivers I think is one of the issues.
“The national championships are a really big task to take on with all the travel and it’s part of why we’ve done some of the events we’ve done in the past month.
“Part of the skill set in that is to turn up to tracks that you’ve never driven before so you can get good at learning a track really fast and try to compete with the best kids in the country.”
