A magnificent Melbourne spring day for the September Club Day at Oakleigh, and nearly 100 karters turned up to go for a spin. Unfortunately we had no one to do the flags, so I looked after them and therefore just a very brief Race Report this month.
Congratulations should also go to President David Bell and the new committee (who look a lot like the old committee) following the Club’s AGM a couple of weeks ago. There are still a couple of vacancies on the committee I believe. If you want to get involved in the running of your Club, contact David Bell.
TAG 125 Light
Both Heats won by Jamie Westaway, Justin Carless then Andrew Sotiropoulos followed him home in Heat 1 as Daniel Frencham retired with a mechanical problem while running 2nd, and in Heat 2 Frencham and Kain Kugimiya across in 2 and 3 behind Westaway.
The Final was all Westaway again, and Sotiropoulos and Carless swapped their Heat 1 spots to finish 2 and 3.
Clubman Heavy & Clubman Super Heavy
With only 2 karts in each class the Heats were a snooze fest – no fault of the drivers, but we gotta get some more entries from somewhere. Brenden Jenner and Patrick Garner in Heavy, then Aaron Hocking and David Martin in Super Heavy the order.
The Final provided a change as Garner dropped back with a problem throughout the race, Jenner still victorious, and Hocking and Martin unchanged in Supers
Junior National Light
Heat 1 and Angelo Mouzouris by a mile, then Benjamin D’Alia and Jai Sparey, but no such luck in Heat 2 as Mouzouris out on Lap 1 while dicing for the lead, so Sparey away to a big lead and the win, then Christian Pancione, Henry Johnstone and D’Alia all close together for the minor placings.
Great drive by Mouzouris in the Final to come through from 7th and take the win, also from Nicholas Schembri who finished 2nd after completing Qualifying but then missing both heats with a kart problem, then D’Alia home in 3rd ahead of Pancione
Restricted 125 Heavy
Both Heats and the Final finished the same way – Peter Gigis, Trevor Payne, Kim Sherlock and Rafe Todd the top 4, and this was also how they qualified – so you would think not the most interesting racing, but every time they went out, these 4 were nose to tail. Gigis drove a controlled race out front, Payne loomed up behind in several occasions and Sherlock and Todd were always there, but if the order ever looked like changing, it was back to the original sequence by the chequered flag.
Cadet 12
Heat 1 saw pole sitter Kobi Williams win by a huge margin, leading home Joshua Hocking, who also had a big lead ahead of Kai Upiter, who in turn just pipped Braydon Callaghan on the line for 3rd. Heat 2 saw the same top 2, Williams only winning by half a mile this time, with Callaghan sneaking into 3rd ahead of Matthew Hillyer who had DNF’d Heat 1.
Finals time and Williams, Hocking, Upiter was the order of the day.
Clubman Light
Matthew McLean back after a break of several months from Club Days and blitzed them in Qualifying setting a new Lap Record for Clubman Light of 40.796 along the way, then taking Heats 1 and 2; Heat 1 ahead of Michael Carless and Ash Arora, then Heat 2 ahead of Carless and Ben Mouritz. In one of kartings more bizarre incidents, Arora missed Heat 2 after sustaining a back injury while lifting his kart onto the grid, but after some healing hands were applied from the Doc he was at least able to get around, if not race.
The Final saw Carless lead home McLean and Mouritz, McLean later rueing some changes made to the kart, but credit to Carless who had to do the business to get the win.
Restricted 125 Light
Lucas Filikotzias the man in Heat 1, leading Jack Scanlan and Hirotaka Chong home by a country mile, these 2 followed by Domenic Pancione who just got through on Darran Wade for 4th, then in Heat 2 Chong took the win ahead of Filikotzias who had pulled away from Scanlan after initially not getting the best of starts.
A much closer affair in the Final as Filikotzias took the win from Chong and Scanlan
TAG Masters
Ash Seward looked like he would take all before him in the old guys class today, leading Vern Kranz and Robert Barnes home in both Heats, but he was not able to compete in the Final and Kranz made the most of it to take the win, Anthony Westaway home in 2nd, then Steve Griffin and Mick Fisher close together in 3 and 4 after Barnes had suffered a problem of some sort and dropped right back
Junior National Heavy
All Benjamin D’Alia here as he won both Heats ahead of Bryce Woollard and Kyle Frencham, then went on to take the Final as well, but Woollard suffered a setback that I didn’t’ see on lap 1 of the Final and recovered for 3rd right behind Frencham who took 2nd.
Cadet 9
Another class where every heat was the same as the Qualifying order – at least these guys were the Feature Class, so would have had Qualifying anyway, Damon Woods the victor, Steve Tsesmelis 2nd and Liam O’Donnell 3rd, surviving a concerted challenge from Chloe Potter in the Final who just fell short in 4th.
I hope members enjoy the October Club Day; I’ll be at the Gold Coast 600 watching a few former karters go around the streets of Surfer’s Paradise! Cheers…