Karts thunder at Beckley Park

FOLLOWING three days of frantic action at the Beckley Park Raceway, the champions in the Victorian Open Sprint Kart Championships were crowned yesterday.

While they may be small in stature, the drivers aged between seven and 11 years-old in the cadets category put on a scintillating display during their 22-lap final.

The front-runners of Benito Montalbano, Harrison Hoey, Joshua Smith, Jack Doohan and Joel Jamieson battled within centimetres of each other while racing at speeds in excess of 80 km/h.

At one stage during the race, there was a nine-kart freight train at the front of the 26-driver field. When Hoey and Doohan had a slight coming together mid way through the race it separated the leading pack and allowed Benito Montalbano, Jai Sparey and Joshua Smith to open a buffer over the field.

Following a number of frantic laps, it was Smith who won the drag race to the chequered flag by 0.022 seconds ahead of Montalbano and Doohan.

In another hard fought battle it was Melbourne driver Leigh Nicolaou who held on for a narrow victory in the highly competitive Clubman Heavy category. Nicolaou shadowed Travis Kodric during the final stages before making his move on the last lap.

‘‘Its a great feeling, Ive been racing for 14 years and my last State Title came when I was a youngster in the Cadets category, so to finally break through for another title is just amazing,’’ said Nicolaou.