“Friends in the pits, enemies on the track” is the motto of Blake Horseman and his two Junior TAG 125 rivals down at the Southside track.

It is a small but competitive class this season but with little separating the 14-year-old, Ryan Lopes and Owen Decosta, it is clear they all relish the wheel-to-wheel combat.

Horseman, who has been racing for five years, has a 20-point lead heading into Sunday’s race day, but revels in the prospect of having his buddies on his tail.

“The most enjoyable thing is the competition with two of my friends,” he said.

“Last year my rival was Ryan and he’s in the mix again. All three of us are. Some race days they’ll have a good one and I’ll have a bad one and the other way around.

“It gets pretty competitive. Last year we actually had a really close race, half-a-nose cone on the finish line.”

It is to the Mount St Agnes student’s credit that he does not even let collisions get in the way of his friendships.

“I had a big crash last race day, me and Ryan got into a big accident,” he said.

“We were fine after the race. I was a little mad at him but you have to let these things pass, it’s part of racing. I don’t want to point the blame, though.”

If Horseman is looking to the pitlane for encouragement, it is unlikely he will find too much from his sparky 11-year-old sister Ashley.

That is because she has her own races to think about in the Junior Cadet class.

Having raced rentals since the age of seven, Ashley admitted she is just getting to grips with her new kart and the pace now at her disposal after a slow start to her season.

“It’s faster and smaller so it’s easier to get around the corners and it has more power, so when you get into the straightaway you can feel it,” she said.

“I had a bad start to the season because we just got my kart and it wasn’t perfectly tuned yet and I was new to it as well.

“So it took me until December to get into the mix. I’m aiming for fourth and I’m in fifth place now so I just have to beat the person in front of me and I know I can accomplish that.

“I just have to keep fighting. I feel like I’m getting faster.”

Last race day, Ashley clocked her best finish of the season, an impressive podium finish behind runaway leader Jamie Newton. She is building up a head of steam and it is clear she will not let small things like crashes get in the way of her race-day enjoyment.

“I had a bad accident in December, I’m not saying who caused it, or I’ll end up getting sued or something!

“But they changed the track and there was this really tight corner where we started off, so we went into it and the person tried to overtake me and he wasn’t patient.

“He spun out. I don’t know how but I got airborne and I had nowhere to go and hit my back. I was back the next race day, though.”

While Ashley, who also attends MSA, gets a handle on her new-found speed and bids for another podium finish, her brother is eyeing up a move into the senior class next season, with this his last one as a junior.

He is in the sport for the long haul and also hopes to build on his experience of racing in Washington last year, with another trip to the United States in the summer.

“I’m going to be allowed to race some Senior TAG races this season to get more experience,” he said. “I can’t wait — there’s more competition.”

It may not be too long before he is joined by his sister’s #26 kart on the grid.

The Horseman siblings would like to thank the following people for their help in preparing and racing their karts: their parents, Reggie and Suzanne, Michael and Wendy Corrado, Uncle Stephen, Jason “Skuzzy” North and Ryan Rebello.

Rental karts are available during Sunday’s race day, 11am to 11.30am sign-up on a first-come, first-served basis. It costs $60 for a 15-minute race/session with potentially all seven karts on the grid.

Cost includes all equipment, gas and safety gear. Sunday’s races start at 12.15pm.