31st July 2013

Whyalla Kart Club holds festival state cup round three - From the Whyalla News

A huge weekend of racing was held over the weekend of July 20 and 21 at the Whyalla Kart Club.

More than 120 drivers attended the weekend of racing, some travelling from Mount Gambier to give the local track a try.

Most drivers and pit crews arrived early to the track on the Friday morning prior to racing, allowing for the premium pit places to be snapped up and some early practice and testing to occur.

Local drivers competed in most events, some drivers competing in multiple events.

This did create some stress levels in the pit area, drivers scrambling to get one kart ready for its next race and another to the grid ready for racing

Racing started on Saturday afternoon with the junior national light drivers leading off.

This class had seven drivers competing with close wheel to wheel racing at the start of the competition, setting the tone of the level of competition for the rest of the weekend.

The first round of racing continued with few incidents but close competitive racing. Mother nature on the other hand had a different view and decided to throw a little rain into the mix, causing the track to be damp and greasy for the last couple of races for the first heat with. Eventually the race was called a wet event for the second round.

This caused chaos in the pits as teams darted around to change from dry tyres to wet tyres, adjust tyre pressures and kart set up.

You could tell the teams that nailed this as they gradually pulled away from the rest of the field.

Those that did not get it right were sent spinning down the track like a ballerina on an ice skating rink, making for some exciting racing for the 150 to 200 spectators that attended over the two days.

Sunday morning proved to be cold and wintry, however the rain had cleared and most drivers headed to the track for the days warm up before racing.

Racing commenced with the last two races of the weekend.

There were a couple of minor incidents during the pre-final, however last race for each class of the day came and so did the carnage.

There were karts left in the gravel traps left right and center.

This was probably most noticeable in the 125 restricted light and TAG 125 heavy races. As a result of an accident, one driver was caught under another kart.

Coming down the front straight the rear wheel came off and due to brilliant kart control the driver parked it nicely up the run off track.

The most incident filled race was the final race of the weekend, the TAG 125 heavy karts.

These drivers drive a 125 kart capable of over 100 km/h.

Within the first couple of laps there was a kart driven over resulting in a driver not being able to continue.

Three laps later, two drivers bumped each other and ended in the gravel trap in the top corner of the race track.

Most incredibly was the last lap last corner incident, where two drivers collided taking each other out and handing third place to the fifth place driver.

Proves that if you finish you will get points when it counts.

Whyalla Kart club again would like to thank all of their sponsors and hope that the community continues to support the club in the future.

Results

Junior National Light
1. Tyler Morrison SGKC
2. Jordan Tasker GKCSA,SGKC
3. Jordan Pianezzola SGKC

Clubman Super Heavy
1. Simon Enright SGKC
2. John Ellis BGKC
3. Jeff Redjepi WGKC, SGKC

Clubman over 40’s
1. Sparky Marquis GKCSA, BGKC, SGKC
2. Stephen Blee BGKC
3. Keith Bartlett DGKC, SGKC

Sportsman SA
1. Darrol Jones WGKC
2. Jake Burrows SGKC
3. Grant Edwards SGKC

TAG 125 Heavy
1. Paul Pittman SGKC
2. Michael Smith SGKC
3. Christopher Wood SGKC

Cadets
1. Blake Purdie SGKC
2. Michael Jones GKCSA, BGKC, SGKC, MGKC
3. Adam Stattery jr BHKC

Clubman light
1. Hayden Miller SGKC
2. Brett Fortainier SGKC
3. Aiden Sossa WGKC

Clubman Heavy
1. Clancy Venables BGKC, SGKC
2. Peter Zacharia SGKC
3. Sparky Marquis GKCSA, BGKC, SGKC

TAG 125 Light
1. Luke Bergens MILD
2. Paul Pittman SGKC
3. Jonathon Mangos SGKC, BGKC

Junior Max
1. Jordan Murphy SGKC, BGKC
2. Brodie Cook SGKC,GKCSA,BGKC
3. Joshua Denton SGKC, BGKC, DGKC

Rookies
1. Sam Henderson BGKC, SGKC
2. Jack Hutchins SGKC
3. Jacob Dowson SGKC, BGKC

Restricted 125 Light
1. Daniel Borman SGKC
2. Neil Schmidt WGKC
3. Dennis Cumerlato WGKC

Restricted 125 Heavy
1. Frank Graham SGKC
2. Brian Sampson WGKC
3. Stephen Oliver BGKC,WGKC,SGKC

Junior National Heavy
1. Jordan Murphy SGKC, BGKC
2. Jordan Tasker GKCSA, SGKC
3. Tyler Morrison SGKC