NEW STARS SHINE BRIGHT IN IPSWICH (includes video)

KF3 winner Jayden Ojeda (Pic: AF Images/Budd)

New faces have come to the fore at the opening round of the Castrol EDGE CIK Stars of Karting Championship, while a pair of old masters continue their all-time win battle in KZ2.

Jayden Ojeda came into the weekend as a relative unknown in the KF3 Junior division, however leaves having shown a level of dominance that has not been seen for some years in the elite junior division of Australian karting.

He topped every session from qualifying onwards and put the exclamation mark on the weekend by winning the final by over six seconds. He beat home a fellow debutante in Zane Goddard and Exprit team-mate Christopher Sandrone. It looked like a podium full of debutantes until late in the race when Aaron Cameron’s kart expired.

Scott Sorensen leading Harrington Doyle Racing Arrow Karts team-mate Jarryd Ebzery (Pic: AF Images/Budd)

In the KF2 division, Scott Sorensen continued his good form of yesterday to win the two remaining heats this morning. In the first final, he had a battle royal with Troy Loeskow, who ended up sneaking home in front to win three Stars of Karting finals in succession.

In the second final though, the Harrington Doyle Racing squad wouldn’t be denied, firing Sorensen home to win by over five seconds from Loeskow and the super impressive Nathan Tigani who staged a dramatic forward surge from deep in the grid during the first 10 laps of the final.

In KZ2, the all-time Stars of Karting final victories statistic will stay locked between 2013 Champion, Joey Hanssen and Queenslander, Kyle Ensbey, after they shared victories tonight.

KZ2 winner Kyle Ensbey (Pic: AF Images/Budd)

Hanssen had mirrored Ojeda and Sorensen by winning all three of his heat races and then stormed away in the first final to take the win over 15-time Australian Champion, David Sera, debuting the Deadly Kart in the Championship.

Off the start of Final two, however, it was mayhem throughout the opening laps, with Queenslander, Kyle Ensbey emerging at turn two in the lead having started fourth. Hanssen (who elected to start from grid two) was the big loser being shuffled back to fourth.

The action that ensued guaranteed this was one of the most memorable KZ2 finals of all time. Ensbey skipped away at the front to the tune of a two second lead, while the swapping and changing behind continued.

Sera battled with Chris Hays, ultimately, that battled ended with Hays taking second place and charging to within 0.9s of Ensbey at the end of the race. Sera finished third, with Hanssen holding off a charging Kel Treseder to come home in fourth and score some more solid Championship points.

In the support categories, wins were taken by Jack Doohan (Rookies), Ryan O’Sullivan (TaG Restricted Light), Nicholas Hobbs (TaG Restricted Heavy), Kris Walton (TaG Light) and Brendan Nelson (TaG Heavy).

A memorable opening round held under lights was a fitting way to get the Championship underway with the next round due to take place on the weekend of May 4-5 at Adelaide’s Bolivar Raceway.