Ten-year-old takes Round 2 of NSW State Championships

Following on from his sound results after a very wet Round 1 in Griffith, the Year 5 St Mary’s Primary School student went into the two-day Dubbo round on tied first place points with Sydney’s Jaiden Pope.

After an intense qualifying session Sargent put his Arrow X4 on the front row of the grid for the three heats next to pole sitter and local ace Makk O’Neil.

Heat two saw Sargent hold out at the start and relegated back to third spot, but on lap four he made his move on Sydney’s William Seal and into second position where he shadowed O’Neill until the final lap. 

However a locked brake on the last corner while trying to pass O’Neill saw Sargent fall back to third as both O’Neill and Seal slipped back past.

In heat two, determined to make amends for his heat one mistake, Josh took the lead on the first corner and lead every lap crossing the line 0.7 of a second ahead of Seal.

A frosty Sunday morning broke over the circuit for heat three making it extremely difficult for early classes with some of the corners still covered in frost at the commencement of racing. 

Seal took the early lead but on lap three Sargent reclaimed first position and was looking good to go on with another win. 

However an aggressive move by Pope caused contact with the rear of Sargent’s kart, sending him spinning off the track.

Although his quick actions saw him recover to cross the line in forth position.

The combined results of the three heats saw Sargent starting out of position three for the final, but after heavy contact between the front pack on the first corner he was shuffled back into sixth position. 

Sargent put his head down in pursuit of the leaders with 17 laps remaining.

The question was, could he make up the ground lost, then make any passes on the lead three karts who were running nose to tail. 

The answer was yes.

With only two laps remaining Sargent had made it passed two karts and was hot on the tail of the three leaders. 

Going into the final hairpin turn before the run to the chequered flag, the front three all took a tight racing line to protect their position. 

Josh quickly recognised this and switched to a wide line then took a late corner apex which gave him a great run down the finish straight, passing all three in front of him to cross the line in first place. 

Sargent edged out Seal by 0.022 of a second who crossed in front of O’Neill by 0.001 of a second, making it one of the closest finishes ever.

Josh now goes into the third and final round of the State Championships to be held at Lithgow with a slender nine point lead over Seal.