Superkarters Assemble for Australian Championship Opener

by Mark Jones

The front runners from five states are gathering for the Opening round of the 2009 Australian Superkart Championship with a healthy field of 34 karts entered at Mallala Motor Sport Park as part of Round 4 of the Shannons Motor Racing Championships.

Leading the field is defending champion one of Australias most versatile drivers, Darren Hossack. Hossack clinched the 2008 title at Mallala last season and is relishing a return to the South Australian venue. The success of the last season has seen an increase in demand for the teams self-developed SAFE Evolutions engine.

"We've potentially made things better for ourselves but maybe a bit harder by purchasing a new Anderson chassis," said Hossack during the week. "We'll go to Mallala untested in that department. Scott Ellis has been doing a lot of work to get that together, that along with the new Bridgestone tyre which we haven't run yet, but we do have stock of the old tyre if we're struggling we can go back to the old tyre if need be. Unfortunately we're not in the situation where we do a lot of racing other than a test day at Winton, I haven't sat in the kart since Mallala last year. Which will make it a little difficult compared to the guys who typically race just the karts, Sam Zavaglia, Gary Pegoraro, Warren McIlveen and the rest. I expect them to be strong as always."

As with the Eastern Creek round last year, Hossack will be performing double-duty with the Audi A4 Sports Sedan over the weekend. It will be both harder and easier this year. While there is the logistics issues of jumping from Superkart leathers to Sports Sedan cloth race suit, this time around there is not a championship lead to defend. But the Safe Evolutions team were more at home last year at Eastern Creek, than at Mallala.

"Our speed last year was not too bad. The two dry races we had carburetion problems where the kart just loaded up off the line, to come from 20th at turn 1 in the last race then come back to second, our speed of the kart was not too bad in the end, but out of Eastern Creek and Mallala this will be our worst round."

Over 20 of the twin cylinder rocket-sleds of the 250cc Class head the 34 kart entry with strong teams travelling from New South Wales and Victoria with some potential spoilers from Queensland and Western Australia to take on the local South Australian contingent.

Stockman Superkarts have former champions Sam Zavaglia from Sydney and eight time national champ Tamworth's Warren McIlveen (Soundy's Electrical/Mac's Marine Stockman) both bringing their motorcycle powered Stockman MR2s, with Stephen Castles (Top Torque Engines Stockman) another likely front runner. The Harpas brothers Yiani and Ilya in their Internode/Metaplanners/Davtec Zip Eagles lead the local contingent along with Stockman racer Robert Oakley. Two other young drivers are former 125cc champions Kristian Stebbing (Suburban Accounting Stockman) and Russell Jamieson (Coach Design Stockman). Another kart to watch for will be 250 single cylinder champ Martin Latta stepping into 250 International class and top New Zealander Anton Stevens in his PVP should also be fast.

Two powerful Victorian teams though contain the biggest threats. At Mallala last year RMR Superkarts driver Gary Pegoraro won the round and Safe Evolutions driver Darren Hossack won the championship. Pegoraro and Colin McIntyre and back with their Anderson-FPEs for the Marron Excavations RMR Superkarts team while Hossack will be joined in the SAFE Evolutions supported garage by former Perkins Motorsport V8 Supercar driver Shane Price.

The Australian Superkart Championship will have two qualifying sessions on Saturday ahead of an afternoon race, followed by three races on Sunday.

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