Sport
28 August, 2023
Magro secures gold in comeback race
LOCAL racer Kain Magro is back in the spotlight with a major comeback to motorsports after more than a decade, securing gold in the North Queensland Go-kart championship.
After a major accident 15 years ago when he flipped his Mini Cooper into the crowd during a V8 Supercars support race, Magro took a break from racing to recover and started a family.
The “need for speed” ran deep within his bloodline as his daughter expressed interest in the motorsport racing scene.
“I brought my eldest daughter a go-kart, and she started getting really fast, and I couldn’t keep up with her behind her on an electric scooter,” he said.
“So, then I went to a go-kart shop and said, ‘hey, what’s the cheapest brand new go-kart you’ve got?’ and they said, ‘this is it here, this is the new class’, and I bought it.”
Magro began to drive and train his daughter at the Mako Track in Mareeba, and at the end of the year, during a function, he had a friendly race against some local drivers.
No points were on the line, but he competed at his best and had people in awe of his skills, encouraging him to compete again.
“Matt, who I raced and who sold me the kart, said to me, ‘if you think you’re so fast, why don’t you come do the series,’ so I thought I would see how I go,” he said.
“The first round was in Townsville, and I beat everyone there and qualified.
“So that was when I thought, ‘Right, I might as well keep going with this’.”
Magro became the underdog on the track. No one knew who he was or where he had come from, and they only knew he was quick, and he was determined to win.
Getting “argy-bargy” on the track, the other racers made it known to Magro they were there to win by trying to push him off the track.
Filled with excitement, determination, anxiety and frustration, the final races of the series had Magro on the edge of his seat as he learned to move around the experts on the track.
“My whole racing career, before I started a race, I got butterflies, but I used to use that to focus,” he said.
“I was butterfly shaken, and I used to use that to keep me really focused, but this year, I had to almost slap myself like, ‘c’mon, this is serious,’ and all those nerves were gone.
“Until I got to the last race, that is when it hit me there because the championships were on the line, and one of the blokes knew that and knew if I was injured or had a broken kart, I couldn’t race.
“So, it got really argy-bargy, and I actually didn’t want to drive there.
“In the first race, I got pushed off the track and turned, which was quite dangerous, and then I had a word with the driver and said, ‘look, that’s dangerous,’ but then in race two it happened again and even worse.
“I was speared into the middle of the field off the track, jumped the go-kart knee high and then landed on the track facing the wrong way.”
The intensity of the race became apparent, and Magro got out of the go-kart filled with anxiety, wondering what to do.
He didn’t know whether he could continue the race and began to question whether it was worth it.
“I didn’t know if it was worth me being hurt. It was quite dangerous, and I was quite upset,” he said.
“I was ready just to pack up and go home, and I had a phone call to my wife who said, ‘just get back out there and finish it. It doesn’t matter where you finish, so long as you finish it’.
“I ended up getting back out there and put on some of the best driving I had ever done.”
Starting in fourth place, Magro slammed his foot on the accelerator and sped into first place by the sixth lap.
Fuelled by passion and anger, he watched his opponents disappear one by one in the rearview mirror and he headed for the finish line.
“I broke the lap record by half a second and was pulling a gap on the second placer by a second and a half.”
Magro has come home victorious in his return to motorsports. Although carrying success on his back, he won’t be returning to the track and will spend time with his daughter and her career in go-karting.
