Junior Top Guns - Night 1

The Oakleigh Kart Club enjoyed the largest ever turnout of drivers in the history of Junior Top Guns at the opening round on Friday night with 157 nominations across the seven classes.

As in the past, the meeting is witness to many movements in the junior ranks as drivers move up to the next class, quite often aboard new equipment and sometimes of a different brand. Many interstaters were down in Melbourne to race Top Guns as well as test at Geelong for the Victorian Championships. And once again, it rained for the finals...

Round 2 is this Friday night. Qualifying starts at 6pm (Supp Regs etc in our Events Calendar).

The drawcard class, Junior Clubman, was won by Jordan Ford. Britek Scholarship driver Scott McLaughlin qualified fastest in the 21-kart field and led Matthew Brabham home in the preliminary race. A downpour prior to the final virtually flooded the track and it was this that caught Brabham out, the Queenslander leading the opening lap until he hit a puddle that violently spun the kart off the track and out of the race.

McLaughlin therefore led but it wasnt long until Luke Rochford took over P1. But going faster than them both was Ford, carving his way through from grid 9 to hit the front with 5 laps to go. Only 8 drivers finished the race.

1. Jordan Ford (Arrow/ARC)
2. Luke Rochford (Arrow/ARC)
3. Scott McLaughlin (Arrow/ARC)

Engine choice was of interest in the Midget class. Of the 20 runners, 5 used Yamaha KT100J, 5 used Comer SW80 and 10 used Comer S80. Damon Strongman put his SW80 on pole but Yamaha powered Jake Dixon won both races.

1. Jake Dixon (Arrow/Yamaha J)
2. Robert Titherington (CRG/S80)
3. Damon Strongman (Tonyt Kart/SW80)

Nicholas Ellen put in a great drive in the Junior National Light C & P final. Starting up the back after a pre-final DNF, Ellen carved through the field to hit the lead with three laps to go. Prior to this both Shyla Golding and Andrew Carey had a run in the lead.

1. Nicholas Ellen (Tony Kart)
2. Shyla Golding (Tony Kart)
3. Andrew Carey (Arrow)

Cameron Waters had the pace in Junior National Light but the wet final saw him come unstuck in a big way. Drizzle while the karts were on the grid saw the majority elect for slicks, but then it rained during the formation laps and that meant karts firing off the track at regular intervals. The drivers on wets had the advantage, Warren White Jnr taking the win.

1. Warren White Jnr (CRG)
2. Steven Mackenzie (Phoenix)
3. Liam Sager (Phoenix)

A grandstand finish to Junior National Heavy saw Jayden Brog pip Andrew Rae and Clancy Purdie to the line. Garry Jacobson had earlier qualified fastest and won the pre-final.

1. Jayden Borg (Tony Kart)
2. Andrew Rae (Monaco)
3. Clancy Purdie (Arrow)

In the C & P division of JNH, Joshua Sarton won both races by over 2 seconds, the final win coming after a batte with Michael Brohan.

1. Joshua Sarton (Monaco)
2. Michael Brohan (Tony Kart)
3. Justin Pivopoulos (Arrow)

In a 27-kart field of Rookies, Liam Morey poled and won the pre-final. The final was a race of changing fortunes, Morey leading the first half as Ricky Capo fell to 5th before making a recovery and winning the event. Interestingly, around 50% of the field used clutches.

1. Ricky Capo (Maranello)
2. Daniel Wiles (Tony Kart)
3. Giacomo Dichiera (Tony Kart)

Full results from the meeting are on mylaps.com HERE. Top Guns series points HERE.

Above: Jordan Ford slips and slides his way to the Junior Clubman victory.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Scott McLaughlin was fastest JC in the dry, qualifying pole and winning the pre-final. He salvaged a third in the wet final and leads the series. His kart remains in last year's Cummins livery until the new Britek scheme is officially launched.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: The kids played tag in qualifying, Jordan Rae #9 and Nicholas Binney #17.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: On his move to juniors, Matthew Brabham has switched back to Arrow and raced JNL and JC. A 2nd and 3rd in the pre-final of each class was the highlight for the Queenslander as he DNFd both finals.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Another to change colours on the move up to juniors was Cameron Waters, now decked out in the pink and purple of Kosmic. He won the pre-final of Jnr National Light but a series of spectacular 360s in the wet final saw him finish at the back of the field.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Vodafone sponsored Queenslander Christopher Hays made the trip south for his second career start in Junior Clubman. While he struggled to find the pace in JC he was right on the money in Junior National Light, losing the pre-final by less than 1 tenth.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Jake Dixon won both Pre-final and Final in Midgets, using Yamaha power.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Rookie Pre-final winner Liam Morey.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Rookie Final winner Ricky Capo in qualifying.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Bucking Bronco.
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

Above: Jack Wynack, Junior Clubman
pic - Ash Budd, snapshotsa.com

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