Matt Mason won his first senior level race at the weekend, in the Rotax Max O Plate at Shenington. Racing for Tim Parrott Motorsport, Matt was one of the youngest drivers to win a major Rotax race this year.

He didn’t have the smoothest of paths through the heats, but was a frontrunner in two of them, didn’t finish another when his chain came off at the start, and was fast but stuck in traffic in the other.

This gave him 8th on the grid for the Final, and Matt quickly moved up to join the leading group. He took third when the leaders, Joe Reilly and John Stewart made contact and he was well placed to follow Jack Whelan through into second when he took the lead.

Less than a lap later, Matt took the lead at Wilkins and from lap 14 on had to defend for the rest of the race. Stewart had now recovered from his early race mishap and Matt pulled out a small margin of safety while he fought for second place. However, Stewart was soon back to challenge for the lead.

On the last lap, there was a long trail of karts behind him and at the hairpin Matt stayed ahead with hard braking and tight lines. He was pushed wide at one point, but just managed to hold on to the lead and stayed in front to win the race.

“I’d like to thank Tim Parrott Motorsport, especially Tim, ‘Big Al’ McKay, and my mechanic Tom Arme. It was my first time winning with Tom as my mechanic so he deserves a lot of credit for the result. Thanks also go to Steve Ogden who prepared me a great engine, and my parents for supporting me and giving me the opportunity to race in the first place.”