Safe Evolution Making History At Superkart Nationals

from Mark Jones

It is now just a week away from the final round of the 20th Australian Superkart Championship and an upset victory, utilising an Australian designed and constructed engine, driven by a driver better known for his exploits in another category in just his second full season in Superkarts is a distinct possibility.

After promising signs in 2007 Darren Hossack leapt into championship calculations after racing reigning Australian champion Warren McIlveen hard to the finish at a one-off V8 Supercar support program appearance earlier this year at McIlveen's home track, Eastern Creek Raceway. Hossack took his first Superkart race victory at that race meeting as well. A fast and consistent run at the Eastern Creek championship round a month later put Hossack into the championship lead.

"I'd certainly rather have the points break than to be chasing," said Darren Hossack of the 19 points break he enjoys over Sam Zavaglia after winning the previous round of the series at Eastern Creek.

"I'm under no illusions that it is going to be a tough weekend. We raced the South Australian title and probably didn't go as well as what we would have liked, but we've done a lot of development work since then and we'll go there with our A game. We can only really do our best. The other guys are chasing us, we've got that luxury of not having to win every race, but that's certainly what we'd like to go and do."

"Of all the weekend to go bad, we were glad it was that weekend." said Scott Ellis, designer and constructor of the Safe Evolutions racing engine. "We had brake failures and the gearbox vibrated out and oil vented onto the back tyres and because of that Darren actually beached it twice in the sand. To come away third was the best we could have hoped for really."

"We got a lot of data though, so we have some gear ratios changes to make and we have another three and a half to four horsepower from the engine and a little bit fatter powerband. They only have an RPM band of about 2000rpm band, either side of that they just fall over, I don't think the Hondas have that sort of issue."

"I think the Yamahas and Hondas are going to be pretty strong, Sam (Zavaglia) and Warren (McIlveen)," said Ellis of the competition. "And some fierce competition with Wizzer (Garry Pegoraro) and Carlo (Chermaz) as well. So it’s fingers crossed and finish every race."

Notable about the Safe Evolutions team is a little more than just the relative newcomer status within the Superkart paddock. Most notable is the engine mounted in the back of the teams Anderson Maverick chassis. A large number of Superkart competitors source their engines from Japan in RS Honda Grand Prix motorcycle engines, with TZ Yamahas becoming increasingly popular. Some prefer the tandem style race engines pioneered by Rotax but in more modern configurations like the FPE-RCS engines, the Canadian BRCs or the Danish PVP package.

The Safe engine is a modern derivative of the 20 year old Rotax tandem twin engine. Constructed from modern aviation grade alloys the engine has substantial gains in torsional stiffness, which reduces air leakage at higher rev ranges. Starting from effectively a blank sheet also allowed the Safe Evolutions team to remove any dead spaces in the mechanicals, the geaboxes does not carry any more fluid than it needs to for the applications and crank spaces are minimised, maximising compression. The engines are slightly narrower allowing for a more even weight distribution with the chassis. The Safe Evolutions team design and build the engines with the assistance of Drew Price Engineering utilising an European top end on the engine which is then dyno-tuned by Rod Prickett of Rockett Race Engines.

The Safe Evolutions engines are now racing in New Zealand and the United States with eight teams running locally in Victoria. Winning the Australian championship has never before been achieved by an Australian engine. Added to that is the challenge of breaking the ten year stranglehold the Stockman Superkarts team has had over the title between drivers Brian Stockman, Warren McIlveen and Sam Zavaglia.

"It has always been the aim to succeed at the top level of Australian motorsport," said Ellis, "and having Darren drive the kart is the best I could have hoped for. If anyone could get the kart up the front of the pack consistently it's going to be Darren."

The one doubt about the Eastern Creek round was how Hossack was going to perform with double duties, racing the Audi A4 Sport Sedan in the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series, which also included a change of race suit after each race, exchanging the nomex cloth suit for the motorcycle style leather race suit that 250cc Superkart racers wear. Out of the challenge, emerged a career highlight and the championship lead in two categories, reminiscent of Marcus Zukanovic's success in V8 Utes and Commodore Cup two years ago.

"I expected to go to Eastern Creek competitive but the question mark was running a kart and a car on the same weekend, whether I was going to be able to adapt to both quickly and we came away winning in both the Sports Sedan and the Superkart," said Hossack, adding more cautiously, "Mallala is a different track though. It's probably a track I've had some good results over the years but I wouldn't say  it's a track I generally drive as well as say Eastern Creek or Phillip Island, which is why we went over for the SA title."

Sports Sedans though will not be at Mallala next weekend however, having run the South Australian circuit earlier in the season.

"So as not to break with tradition I'm also running Commodore Cup as well," said Hossack. "I figure it worked OK at Eastern Creek, it might keep me away from the kart between race and I won't be tempted to detune it over the weekend."

Some drivers it seems just can't get enough challenge in their careers.

The Australian Superkart Championship finishes its 20th championship season over the November 1-2 weekend as part of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships at Mallala Motor Sport Park, just outside of Adelaide. Superkarts will race four races over the course of the weekend.

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