ONE of Portland’s finest young go-kart racers Beau Chambers reached new heights on the weekend as he came first in the Junior Top Guns event held at Oakleigh Go-Kart Club in Melbourne.

The event, held over Friday and Saturday, saw Chambers take on some of the best kart racers in his age bracket the state has to offer, with over 160 competitors at the event.

Beau’s father Todd said while his son was able to achieve his ultimate goal of coming away victorious, their campaign wasn’t without its challenges.

“The overall winner was taken from the total points accumulated across the two days, and we had a very bad qualifying on Friday due to bad tyre selection which pushed him all the way back to 16th place,” Todd said.

“He was able to do really well in the actual races and push himself into the top five on Friday, so the day ended up being ok all up.”

But while Beau was making some positive strides and looked in good form on the first day of racing, nothing could have prepared his father for his performance on the Saturday.

“He came out and was the fastest in practice, fastest in qualifying and won all three of his races which was just incredible, it all just came together for him,” Todd said.

“Coming into the competition and especially into that second day, I was thinking we’d be pretty happy with a top 5-10 finish, there were some state champion racers there so there were multiple strong competitors there.

“Sometimes you can have a lucky qualifying lap where it all just falls into place, but he just got a great start and never really looked back.

“He was pretty chuffed with himself afterwards; he was definitely walking around like he was the man… I had to rein him in a little bit because I know with karting one day you can be on top of the world and the next you can come back down.”

Todd said his son has a very busy calendar on the horizon, starting with the Portland District Karting Club’s first club day of the year tomorrow.

“He’ll be there for that and from there we’re planning to do all six rounds of the Country Series and five in the Australian Karting Championship, plus some others here and there, if possible,” he said.

“We’re hitting the track pretty hard this year, it’s (Beau’s) last year of cadet nines and when kids turn nine that’s often when they start to take that next step, so we want to make the most of it.”