MANNING Valley Kart Club hosted the fifth David Hamnett Memorial meeting at the Wingham track.
With flash flooding and torrential rain for the week leading up to the event, the meeting looked in doubt. Although the rain continued , the meeting went ahead with close to 60 competitors showing up to put their treaded tyres to good use.
This was an incredible turnout for such terrible weather conditions. Although numbers were down, the racing was fierce as the track dried throughout the day and into the night.
Throughout the day the track dried out with only qualifying and the first heat being held in wet conditions. The water continued to run across the circuit throughout the day and night, creating some tricky spots for all competitors. After the first heat it seemed slicks were the tyres of choice, and the ‘drifting’ onto the straight by many of the younger drivers was a sensational sight.
Earlier in the day Timothy Gresham did some demonstration laps in his gearbox KZ2 kart on slicks tyres in the pouring rain which thrilled the crowd. Unfortunately, some drivers succumbed to the slippery conditions and there were some very second hand looking karts at the conclusion of the day.
In the midget class Zac Crichton continued his incredible form of late and won three out of the four races. He didn’t have it all his own way though and was challenged by Jayden Baldwin and Zac Stocks on many occasions.
The entire field did an incredible job to provide clean and competitive racing in such trying conditions. Jake Horsey kept a clean set of wheels and was well rewarded in the end. Crichton was the overall winner from Stock and Horsey
Jordan Pike and Connor Baldwin were the pacesetters in the rookies until the pre-final when Kody Garland snatched his first victory. The young Arrow X1 pilot is a debutant in this category after taking out the Manning MTA Tri-series in the midgets. Charlotte Poynting gave the boys a rude shock with consistently strong performances. Garland won from Pike and Baldwin.
