From karting for fun with mates, to committing to a full season in an Excel in only a few years shows how excited Jackson Selwood is about raising through the motorsport ranks.
The Scone teenager would love to one day race the 24-Hours of Le Mans, but for now he and his team are focused on getting into the 2027 Toyota 86’s Academy to offer him the next career step.
“After we had done enough club rounds, I started my first Australian Karting Championship that was at Coffs Harbor, and I learned a lot there,” Jackson recalled.
“The strength of field is just so much greater, people from all across the country, just the best of the best, and after that I realised that I didn’t really want to stay in karting, my dream was always to be in cars.”
They began the gradual process of transitioning away from an open wheeled car, which has included track days in a Ginetta, a Toyota 86, and others with AGI Sport, all to help Jackson to become more familiar with the different style of driving.
After weighing up options for a drive this year the family decided to go with the Circuit Excel SA series, where they have joined a team offering an arrive and drive package that prepares the cars for them. Something that is a big help since Jacksons family doesn’t have a motorsport background.
Three of the four rounds will be run at The Bend Motorsport Park, with the remaining being at Mallala, and round one was held last month which Jackson said was amazing, but not without some teething issues.
“Qualifying didn’t get off to an amazing start, there was a red flag early on, we left the car on and it overheated and suffered some power loss issues from that,” he shared.
“Race one we got caught up in an incident early on, and got a penalty for that, but pushed on to gain around eight places.
“Race two went really well, we started from the back because of the penalty and pushed to ninth and then came in two kilos underweight.”
There were some big takeaways from the weekend despite the results, including knowing that the car had pace and Jackson can work his way around a busy track to move up places.
Jackson will keep doing some club karting rounds in Newcastle and will be back to The Bend at the end of June for the next round of the Circuit Excel SA series.
-JEM ANSHAW
