AT 58 years old, Remo Luciani is still winning karting titles.
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Luciani won the KA3 Medium class at the Victorian State Karting Championships at the Port Melbourne track, known as the Go Kart Club of Victoria, in wet conditions at the weekend.
The championships were competed over two legs, the first in April in Geelong and the second in Melbourne at the weekend.
There were four heats and a final at each leg, Luciani won seven out of 10 races over both legs, he finished with 172 points. Second placed Brayden Flood finished with 140 points.
Luciani said his age group was called masters, if he were to race with similar aged karters, but he raced in the open categories because he said “it keeps me going and it keeps me active”.
“I still have a passion for it, so, as long as I still have a passion for it I will keep racing,” he said.
“It’s not normal for someone of my age to win in an open class. I’m not saying age is a barrier but there is a masters class I could have raced in, racing with the young kids keeps me young.”
Luciani said the reason he continued to perform at a state and national level was because he didn’t look for barriers or excuses.
Luciani won the championships by 2.45 seconds.
“It was very trying conditions. We turned up on Friday and the first two practice runs were damp and slippery,” Luciani said.
“They meant nothing.”
Luciani said qualifying started on Saturday, he said “the heavens opened up” and the karters needed to qualify on wet-weather tyres.
He said racing in damp and wet conditions wasn’t his strong point but managed to qualify in an outright second position.
Luciani continued to dominate in the heats, he came 1st, 6th, 2nd and 2nd in the four heats.
The final was a 21-lap race, the track was roughly one kilometre each lap.
“I started from third and got into second, followed second for a little bit, took the lead. I got challenged a couple of laps later and he passed me back,” Luciani said.
Luciani said he followed in second spot for two laps before he felt comfortable with his tyre pressure.
“I felt confident with the car and around lap 11 I went for the lead and just kept going, kept pulling away each lap. I set the fastest lap of the race,” he said.
Luciani recorded the fastest lap time of the championships, blitzing the Port Melbourne track in 42.927 seconds.
