Elora boy wins big at Oktoberfest Grand Prix

ELORA – He can’t use a knife on his own, but Hudson Yuhasz can drive a go-kart at 70km/h.

And after winning the Oktoberfest Grand Prix at Flamboro Speedway on Thanksgiving weekend, the seven-year-old, who attends St. Mary’s Catholic school in Elora, is attracting interest from some high-placed sponsors who want him to wear their shoes and racing suits.

And Desjardins is sponsoring Team Yuhasz next season.

Hudson has been interested in motor vehicles since he was 10 months old and was driving a 12-volt vehicle since before he could walk, said his mother Taylor Yuhasz during an interview at their Elora home.

“As he grew, we noticed the go-kart community and when Waterloo Regional Kart Club (WRKC) opened the kid kart division, we signed him up,” she said. 

“And we bought him a kart right away.”

Hudson was five and the go-kart could go 45km/h. His parents wondered how to teach him how to drive it.

“The seller said we should tie a rope to the kart and use hand signs for stop and go. But he figured it out in 10 seconds,” said his father Aaron Yuhasz.

WRKC started a rookie division this year, so Hudson had his first competitive season. It started in mid-April and was to end on Oct. 17 in Hamilton.

“The season started rocky,” said Taylor. “The first four or five races we had kart issues. And he was the youngest one out there.”

But by mid-June they had fixed the kart, and Hudson made the podium for the first time. 

He placed first in August and swept the Grand Prix on Thanksgiving weekend and finished the season in second place, based on overall points.

“I didn’t expect it,” Hudson said. “I just pay attention to me and what I’m doing when I’m out there.”

Because of his practice with the kart club, Hudson was able to find his “line” in the practice run and he kept to it, taking corners and passing other drivers on the course, even lapping a few.

LS Motorsports has taken an interest in Hudson and wants him to race in Daytona next October, his father said.

“They want us to go to Quebec in May too. It’s a really big racing team,” Aaron said.

Hudson has never taken to other sports, his mother said. Not hockey or soccer or baseball.

“But this, this he loves,” Taylor added. “And when he’s at the track, he’s incredibly dialed in. I think that’s why he’s done so well.”

He’s a normal kid with dreams of racing in Formula 1 and NASCAR events when he gets older.

“This is where it begins,” she said.