LOCAL driving superstar Max Winfield celebrated his first junior win in the opening race of the National E-Karting Junior Championship last month. 

Winfield, 12 from Stroud, started the race in sixth-place on the grid, but picked off each of his competitors, including a final lap overtake to take the lead, to record his first-ever win in the competition.

Winfield qualified in second to put him in a great place on the clean side of the circuit for the pre-final race at the Dorchester Clay Pigeon Raceway circuit. Winfield took the lead at the first corner and held off other drivers but unfortunately, contact with another driver pushing him off the circuit on lap two meant he then re-joined the circuit from the back.

Some determined driving saw him climb up to finish in 6th position for the final. Winfield then drove the race of his life, reeling in every driver in front of him over 16 laps. On the last lap, he took the lead crossing the line in P1 to take his first Junior Win.

The Ecotricity backed driver went on to say: "It was an incredible race for me following the set back in the pre final. In those situations, you have to do a ‘mental reset’ and believe that you can still do something special.

"You are not thinking about where you will finish when the lights go out, you just concentrate all your effort pushing as hard as you can to catch the drivers in front of you.

"Everything felt good, and I felt confident in executing all my overtakes when the opportunity presented itself. It's definitely up there as one of my best performances to date.

"I have a lot of respect for my co-competitors and it means a lot when they all congratulate you afterwards on a great drive’."

Winfield also finished with fastest lap to add more great points in the championship. Next race is at the Lydd circuit in Kent in June.