2nd May 2015

MIX OF WINNERS IN PRO TOUR BATTLE ON THE BORDER

A variety of different race winners are creating an intriguing build-up towards finals day at round three of the 2015 Rotax Pro Tour at the Albury Wodonga Kart circuit with the Junior classes getting their first taste of the tight and fast track on Saturday while the senior classes prepare for their finals on Sunday morning.

DD2 Masters
Albury’s own Danny Wright showed the early pace in DD2 Masters, taking pole position in qualifying with a 32.628, securing the number one placing by 0.1 seconds over Ryan Rannard. Victorian Hamish Leighton secured the third fastest time with the trio all setting their quickest times on lap ten. BirelART pairing Dean Wanless and Scott Howard qualified fourth and fifth respectively with New Zealand’s Aaron Cunningham in sixth.

An early race lead was enough to help Danny Wright secure the victory in heat one, taking the win by 1.2 seconds over Hamish Leighton. Aaron Cunningham achieved his best result on Australian soil to date taking third over series points leader Daniel Richert with Adam Hunter and Jason Hryniuk in fifth and sixth. Ryan Rannard opened up a gap to kick start heat two from his front row start.  The Sydney driver went on to take the win though a postrace penalty for a starting infringement relegated him to eleventh, promoting Daniel Richert to take the win. On his way to the victory, Richert took the fastest lap of the race ahead fellow Praga driver Danny Wright with Scott Howard and Jason Hryniuk finishing third and fourth from Hamish Leighton and Adam Hunter.

Danny Wright returned to the winners circle in heat three, taking a convincing win by 1.3 seconds over fellow Praga driver Daniel Richert. Ryan Rannard worked his way to finish third from a hard charging Adam Hunter with Dean Wanless and Jason Hryniuk rounding out the top six.

Mini Max
A continued change in the fastest lap time throughout qualifying for Mini Max saw multiple drivers sit in provisional pole position before Callum Bishop secured the quickest time late in the session to take pole position from Jai Stephenson ahead of Dubbo round winner Bayley Douglas with Luke Pink and Jaiden Pope rounding out the top five.

An engaging battle between Callum Bishop and Bayley Douglas saw multiple lead changes throughout the first heat race of the weekend before a last lap pass by Douglas saw him go on to take the race win ahead of Bishop with Jai Stephenson in third with James Wharton working his way to fourth from Sean Larkin in fifth.

Rotax Heavy
Chris Farkas backed up his round winning performance in Dubbo by taking pole position in Rotax Heavy with a gap of just 0.004 seconds over Aaron Rintoul. Queensland pair Clem O’Mara and Regan Payne took the third and fourth fastest times respectively from Rick Pringle and Lane Moore.

In a continued close battle for the lead, it was Chris Farkas who managed to take the win in heat one finishing ahead of Clem O’Mara with Aaron Rintoul being relegated back to third from his starting position of second throughout the 16 lap race. On double duties, Danny Wright took fourth with Regan Payne in fifth and Scott Simpson sixth.

Chris Farkas continued his impressive start to the weekend by taking another victory in heat two. Farkas’ win came by just 0.2 seconds over Aaron Rintoul with Clem O’Mara making a charge for the lead pair in the closing laps of the race. Rick Pringle, Lane Moore and Danny Wright completed the top six.

After just one lap in heat three, Chris Farkas suffered a mechanical drama, ending his race at turn four, allowing Clem O’Mara to move to the lead, sharing top spot with Aaron Rintoul throughout the race. O’Mara managed to go on to take the win by 0.3 seconds over Rintoul with Rick Pringle in third from Lane Moore and Danny Wright.

Junior Max Trophy
Following his victory at the second round of the series in Dubbo, Reece Cohen broke out to set the quick times in the early stages of qualifying, subsequently taking pole position with a 33.416. Todd Road round winner and New Zealander Matthew Payne secured second with Cody Burcher and Wil Longmore sharing the second row for the heat races just ahead of Lucas Lichtenberger in fifth.

Polesitter Reece Cohen set about with an early lead in heat one before a move on lap eight saw Kiwi Matthew Payne move to the top of the order in a hotly contested battle in the onemake class. A last lap pass saw Cohen return to the lead at turn one as he held on for the win from Payne in second with Cody Burcher securing third, Wil Longmore took fourth and Mitchell Kerrison rounded out the top five.

Rotax Light
On the back of his victory at the opening round of the Rotax Euro Challenge Series, Sydney’s Pierce Lehane took pole position in Rotax Light with a 32.548 with a gap of one tenth of a second to relative new comer to the category, Cody Gillis. Team mate to Gillis, Nathan Tigani qualified third over reigning Australian Champion Brad Jenner with Dubbo round winner Nicholas Andrews taking the sixth time overall.

In the oversubscribed format of heat races, Pierce Lehane drove to a comfortable victory for group A & D, taking the win over Brad Jenner and Nicholas Andrews. Daniel Rochford worked back from qualifying 13th overall to take fourth from Kyle Rethus and Thomas MacDonald. In group B & C, it was Nathan Tigani who managed to get past Cody Gillis for the win with Gillis settling for second. Albury pairing Bret Mullavey and Jordan Boys took third and fourth from Blake Worboys and Wayne Bourke.

An early race pass back to the lead after starting in pole position was enough for Pierce Lehane to pull away to take the win by over one second over Nathan Tigani. As the field gradually spread throughout the race, Nicholas Andrews cemented himself in third, likewise Daniel Rochford in fourth with Jack Richardson in fifth and Wayne Bourke finishing sixth.

Cody Gillis took full advantage of a front row start for group B & D taking a comfortable 2.1 second win over Blake Worboys with Spencer Ackermann in third ahead of Thomas Prascevic and Kyle Rethus.

Pierce Lehane continued his successful form in the Rotax Light heat races, taking the win by 1.6 seconds over Nicholas Andrews in their final 14 lap dash ahead of Sunday’s finals. Cody Gillis backed up his impressive results so far to claim third over Jack Richardson and Spencer Ackermann. After progressively working his way towards the front in the early stages of the weekend, Brad Jenner brought home the win in heat three for group C & D.

Jenner’s win came just 0.1 seconds ahead of Nathan Tigani who shared the race lead with the Victorian while Jordan Boys, Adam Lindstrom and Wayne Bourke all rounded out the top five in an evenly contested race.

Junior Max
The lap records tumbled in the early stages of the upper 50% of qualifying for Junior Max with Canberra’s Zane Morse recording a 32.395, well under the category lap record. New Zealand’s Dylan Drysdale had his share at the top of the order throughout the session before eventually qualifying second ahead of Dylan Hollis in third overall from Joshua Fife and Reece Sidebottom. In the lower 50% of qualifying from practice five, Hunter McElrea secured the quickest time with a 32.718.

After slipping back to third in the early stages of heat one for group A & D, Canberra’s Zane Morse worked his way back to the lead, opening a gap of 0.2 seconds by the half-way point of the 14 lap race. With just two corners remaining, Victorian Reece Sidebottom made a strong move to take the race win ahead of Morse with Joshua Fife settling for third from Liam Ford and Aaron Cameron. A blistering start by Dylan Drysdale saw him take the lead by 0.8 seconds at the completion of lap one before the remainder of the top six began to grind down the Kiwi’s race lead. Joshua Car was the closest of Drysdale’s opposition, finishing second, 0.2 seconds behind with Alec Morse taking third over Cody Brewczynski and Dylan Hollis.

DD2
Queensland’s Ryan Kennedy stunned the DD2 field, taking pole position with a 32.211, marginally ahead of Jason Pringle by 0.012 seconds. The closeness in the field continued into third where Troy Woolston was just 0.028 seconds behind Kennedy with Jack Smith qualifying fourth from William Brown and Lucas Ward in sixth with the top three rows being separated by only 0.129 seconds.

Kennedy continued his impressive beginning to the weekend taking the win in heat one by a narrow margin over a hard charging Jason Pringle and Troy Woolston. The front running trip opened up a considerable lead over Travis Millar who finished fourth from Joshua Crossingham with Lucas Ward maintaining his starting position to finish sixth. An early lead for Jason Pringle saw him go on to take the win in heat two over Ryan Kennedy and Troy Woolston. A post-race penalty for an overlap under a yellow flag saw Pringle relegated two places to third, promoting Kennedy to the win from Woolston and Pringle. Jordan Boys took fourth over William Brown with a further 3.5 seconds back to Lucas Ward in sixth.

Victorian Jason Pringle went to the lead from the outset of heat three, just ahead of the pole sitter Ryan Kennedy and it is where he would remain for the final 16 lap event before the weekend’s finals. An incident mid-race saw Troy Woolston, William Brown and Jace Lindstrom taken out of contention for the top five where they were in the early stages, promoting Jordan Boys to finish third from Jack Smith in fourth and Lucas Ward in fifth.

Round 3 of 2015 Rotax Pro Tour takes place at Albury Wodonga, VIC from May 1-3.

To follow the event online throughout the weekend, Like Rotax Pro Tour on Facebook, Follow Rotax Pro Tour on Twitter and tune into the live audio commentary via Ustream at www.ustream.tv/channel/internationalkarting