Peter Virgulti on his way to second place in TaG Heavy
Customers of Yatala’s Pacific Kartsport store made their marks across many of the classes in the 2011 Australian CIK Stars of Karting Series Round 1 at Ipswich recently. The distinctive red/white/black PKS liveries stood out not only on the track, but also atop of three of the Event’s Podiums.
Club Class – TaG Heavy
Peter Virgulti (#10), Luke Turner (#99) and David Johnstone (#6) flew the Pacific Kartsport flag high in the Ipswich Club featured Tag Heavy class for the weekend, with an impressive 2nd, 3rd and 4th placing in the Final. The trio had clearly demonstrated that they were on the pace throughout the weekend, all qualifying inside the Top 5 fastest for the round and all featuring in Heat racing and the PreFinal results.
Yamaha Challenge – Clubman
Ben Stewart (#48) led the PKS charge on the 2011 Yamaha Challenge Clubman class, ahead of fellow PKS customers Matt Goddard (#81) and Robert James (#25). Although having an average qualifying day and average Heat race results like many of the pre-event favourites early in the weekend, Stewart shone through on Sunday when it counted most, to finish in 2nd place atop the podium in the all important Final. Matt Goddard finished 9th just inside the Top 10 of the 23 Kart Final and Robert James took a solid 15th place in his PKS Arrow.
Yamaha Challenge – Junior National
Bringing the crowds to the fence each time they journeyed out, the Junior National competitors in the 2011 Yamaha Challenge were certainly providing some action packed, close racing all weekend. It was simply terrific racing to watch.
With PKS customer entries taking up 5 grid spots for the 17 Kart Junior class, it was evident that Pacific Kartsport was fostering much of the new local talent at the Ipswich Round. Standing out in Qualifying, Heat racing and the PreFinal was young HDR driver and PKS customer, Callum Walker (#71). After completing driver development training with Dale Verrall, joint Proprietor of Pacific Kartsport and committing to the weekly PKS Fitness program at the Beenleigh Police Youth Club, Walker was certainly showing his peers the benefits of a holistic commitment to racing this season.
Fellow PKS customers Jamie Grohman (#43), Daniel Milne (#77), Thomas Pomroy (#19) and Michael Fabri (#2) also featured highly throughout the weekend’s Junior National program of racing. Grohman delivered the best performance with a well deserved 5th place in the Final and was followed home by Milne in 6th and Pomroy in 10th, with Fabri just outside the Top 10 in 11th place. Walker had to watch the Final in the closing stages from the sidelines, after racing incident destroyed his lead.
“This was a great performance by our young PKS customers in the Yamaha Junior National field”, said Verrall. “It’s good to see such a solid class of tomorrow’s stars competing at an event like this, alongside their older peers in the elite Pro classes of Australian Karting. It gives them an inspirational taste of what’s to come for them in top level Karting.”
Pro Light (KF1)
PKS Pro Light competitor, Scott May (#6) qualified in 10th place on Saturday morning and managed to hold on to mid field results throughout some competitive Heat racing and a blistering 22 Kart field PreFinal. May finished just outside the Top 10 on Sunday in his PreFinal in 12th place and 14th on the Final.
Pro Junior (KF3)
Young KF3 Pro Junior Pilot, Jaxon Evans (#55) achieved a good Qualifying result of 7th amidst more seasoned factory supported competitors, some of whom had raced internationally in the past 12 months. Although Evans suffered a DNF in Sunday’s Final, the youngster ran inside of the Top 10 of the 21 Kart Pro Junior field during all Heat racing and the PreFinal.
