T

o paraphrase the great Chinese thinker Confucius, find a job that matches your hobby and you'€™ll never have to work a day in your life. Such a path has obviously been chosen by a group of young drivers eager to challenge themselves at various go-kart competitions.

Veteran go-kart driver Senna Noor and his teammates were racing for one purpose only on Friday: to enjoy themselves and to get comfortable with their engines. Friday'€™s drive was part of their training for the big day on Saturday '€” the Asian X30 go-kart championships '€” happening at the Sepang go-kart circuit in Malaysia from March 19 to 20.

'€œWe are still figuring out the best engine tuning now. The chassis still doesn'€™t feel good enough. We are still working it out so we can enjoy the competition,'€ Senna, who has been karting since 2003, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Shaquille Pasha, another driver, acknowledged the same problem with his chassis. He shared another concern also: That if the heat reached a certain level, the asphalt would become slippery.

'€œI have experimented during my laps but it'€™s still a problem,'€ he said.

Shaquille also said he was still trying to get to know the circuit'€™s characteristics.

For Senna, the circuit offers no new challenges. He has regarded it as his playground for a long time. Senna also considered his opponents all equally threatening and thus wants to take all of them seriously.

Senna made it to the 52nd Rotax Max Challenge grand final in 2015, and in 2011 at the same championships, he came first.

Along with Barrichello Noor and Sergio Noor, who are in the cadet class, these drivers are with the Riser Shadaff motorsport team, a respected Indonesian go-kart team.

Race steward Afrian Djafar, who has followed the team'€™s performance for a quite some time, said these young drivers have shown great talent and good mentality while racing.

'€œWhen watching them drive from the tower, I could see their eagerness to comply with the regulations. Off course, as youngsters, they do sometimes get emotional, but they haven'€™t caused any trouble so far,'€ he said.

Afrian, who holds an international steward'€™s license, said that karting could be considered ideal grooming for the speed aficionados.

Many Indonesian racers, he added, including Rio Haryanto, who is now driving for the Manor Racing Formula 1 team, started their careers karting.

In fact, Senna, the most senior driver on the team, used to be a regular sparring partner of Rio.

Commenting on Rio'€™s debut as a Formula 1 driver, Sena said Rio remains a humble person despite the glorious achievement.

'€œRio deserves his place right now in Formula 1,'€ he said.

When asked whether he considered following in Rio'€™s footsteps, Senna said, half-smiling, that he was in a different lane in that regard.

'€œI like driving go-karts very much. We have more of an emotional relationship here. And a driver can also design their own machine. That is something that the Formula 1 does not allow,'€ he said.