2010 SPARCO ROTAX NATIONALS - Sunday notebook

Victoria still lead the State of Origin battle……just for the first time in the ten year history of the Sparco Rotax Nationals two New South Wales drivers have enjoyed success at the one event. Jonathan Venter and Simon Meyer won Formula JMA and Rotax Heavy to become the third and fourth New South Welshmen to claim a Rotax crown. Victoria is still a clear leader in the state honours with ten of the 22 Championships decided. Queensland is the next best with eight victories.

Who said wet weather racing wasn’t close?
While many of the finals held today at Sparco Rotax Nationals were convincing victories the same can’t be said about the finish in the Rotax Heavy final.

The CRG pairing of Simon Meyer and Jason Pringle exchanged the front running on a number of occasions during the closing laps before Meyer crossed the line a mere 0.543 seconds behind Meyer.

Downpour halts action at Ipswich
While the weather in the practice and qualifying days at the Sparco Rotax Nationals in Ipswich was perfect, the same couldn’t be said for finals day today.

Such was the intensity of the rain this morning, where 6.4 millimetres of rain fell in 30 minutes between 8:30am and 9:00am, the track was all but flooded leaving officials no option but to red flag the Rotax Heavy race that was on the track at the time.

Racing resumed some 45 minutes later with event organisers electing to ‘push through’ the National Championship categories in the pre-final and finals ahead of the support classes.

Ryan Luke gets back behind the wheel
Young Queensland karter Ryan Luke, who was injured during an incident at last year’s New South Wales State Championships at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway got back behind the wheel yesterday.

Luke spent the day at the Greer Park Raceway in Toowoomba with his father Michael and was scheduled to put in some demonstration laps during the lunch break at the Sparco Rotax Nationals in Ipswich. Unfortunately the inclement weather put an end to the demonstration, however, it is great news to hear that young Luke is back on track.

Changing of the guard in chassis battle?
Arrow have won nine of the ten Rotax Light titles decided since the Rotax Nationals made its debut in 2001. In Rotax Heavy the Australian-made Arrow kart have won six of the ten titles, CRG have now won two (both won by the Meyer brothers) along with Kosmic while Top Kart has one win to it’s credit.

At this weekend’s event it was one win a piece to Arrow (Rotax Light), CRG (Rotax Heavy) and Kosmic (Formula JMA)