ALL REVVED UP FOR STEP UP
AS a fresh-faced seven-yearold, Michael Clemente was too scared to get behind the wheel of his first go-kart.
Now, 11 years later, the rising star is fronting his own car racing team and is on track to rise to the top of motorsport.
It was at Corio’s Geelong Karting Club that Clemente first learnt how to steer, after some support from his father, Danny.
“On my first day driving in a go-kart, Dad had just picked it up that day and we went to the club,” Clemente said.
“I said to Dad, ‘I’m scared, I don’t want to go out there, I’ve got butterflies’.
“Dad loves telling this story. Apparently when I went out there eventually, I was supposed to come in after a certain amount of time but I didn’t come back. I was out there for half an hour just circulating.
“I was just a kid with a little dream who was looking at Formula 1 drivers and thinking one day I want to do that and now I’m sort of on the pathway there. It’s really cool.”
The Point Cook resident spent close to a decade perfecting the routes at the karting club before deciding to step into the car.
After looking around, Clemente and his father settled on Excel racing as a path forward.
“We built our own car, Dad and I. We spent about six months doing that,” Clemente said.
“Once we built that in 2016, we did one race at the end of the year and finished in the top 10 in a full field of 40 cars.”
Accolades followed for Clemente on the Excel circuit, even though he wasn’t legally allowed to drive alone off the track.
He won the South Australian Circuit Excel Championship and Australian Circuit Excel Nationals in 2018 and juggled Year 12 last year to seven podium finishes and a win in nine races.
Heading into this year, Clemente decided to pursue another challenge, and alongside his father and a close team of seven, he will run his own Touring Car Series team.
“They’re all coming in and volunteering, we have a pretty strict budget,” he said.
“I’m so lucky and grateful everyone wants to be on the ride with me.”