15-YEAR-OLD Thomas Maxwell has achieved his career best result to date in sprint karting, finishing second at the Open State Titles in Junior National Light at his home circuit at Hidden Valley.

The Dino Kart driver impressed from day one, qualifying pole position in both sessions by nearly two-tenths to his Australian champion rival.

Maxwell backed up his speed and set the fastest lap both heats, winning comfortably in heat one.

Heat two saw Maxwell race hard with Bryce Fullwood, passing Fullwood with two-laps to go and taking his second win for the weekend.

Maxwell once again had a tight battle with Fullwood, making a spectacular finish in the pre-final crossing the line in second by one-tenth of a second.

With the racing being close throughout the whole weekend, Maxwell started second for the final. At the start Maxwell was pushed back to fifth, but fought back passing his opponents one-by-one.

The teenager then managed to regain second position, hunting down his rival and pulling away from the rest of the field.

As the laps went on, Maxwell started to catch the Australian champion by nearly one-tenth a lap.

After lap 9, the kart started to go off after making the wrong technical change to the kart, allowing the times to drop a tenth a lap, allowing Fullwood to maintain the margin.

Thomas Maxwell finished in second place in the final to Bryce Fullwood, with the gap back to third over two-seconds.

“I was extremely happy with our results over the weekend,” said Maxwell.

“Being able to break through for my maiden pole position and podium really shows that all our hard work over the last few weeks has really paid off.

“The Dino kart showed great pace throughout the whole weekend setting numerous fastest laps throughout the races and I look forward to the next title.”

Maxwell’s next race meeting is at Darwin, then will head to Melbourne in a few weeks time to back-up his great results and race at the City of Melbourne event.