Finals Day, Rotax Pro tour III
press release
The rivalry between David Sera and Tyler Greenbury has gone up another notch at the Rotax Pro Tour event at Melbourne’s Todd Road, with the two colliding on the final lap, Greenbury emerging the victor on the Melbournite’s home turf – after Sera crossed the line first.
Sera led the Rotax Light final from the beginning, his Arrow kart shadowed by the Subway Restaurants Tony Kart. Despite the lead being out to eight kart lengths at one stage, Greenbury closed the gap, bumping the rear crash bar of the Australian Champion with five laps to go.
Greenbury had superior pace in a straight line and Sera opened the door on the final lap, making an uncharacteristic mistake exiting turn one. Greenbury got past, only to have Sera push him wide at turn three and re-take the lead. Whilst Sera crossed the line first, officials reversed the result post-race declaring Greenbury the winner.
Equally as enthralling was the battle for third. Whilst it was occupied by a fast Luke Rochford, he lost a wheel with a handful of laps remaining, leaving Josh DeMaio to take the final podium place. His fellow CC Racing pilot, Troy Woolston was looking good for a big result, however spun when he got into third – but recovered for fourth in front of Sydney-sider, David Whitmore.
Although the cold, changeable conditions carried over from yesterday, by and large, finals were conducted in dry conditions.
Jonathan Venter was the other big winner in Junior Max Light. The NOVA FM/Top Gun Racing Arrow kicked away at the beginning only to have a charging Pierce Lehane in the Rockstar Energy Drinks CRG and Michael Stewart in the Berco Engineering Tony Kart provide some nervous moments for Troy Hunt and the Top Gun team.
Lehane had to do it the hard way after a disappointing Pre-Final where he dropped back through the field in the wet after starting on the front row. He charged past his opposition to slot himself into second. He shut the gap down to Venter, but wasn’t able to get past. Stewart was the impressive one though, setting the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, the top three crossing the line nose to tail.
Interestingly, Lehane has stood on the podium in every single Junior Max Rotax Pro Tour event since its inception in 2009.
In the first final of the day, Paul Mapperson had to come from the rear to take out Rotax Over 35s after he didn’t complete the Pre-Final due to not fitting his transponder prior to the race. He found himself in a three way battle with Hamish Leighton and Steven Johnson and on a drying track, eventually got clear and went on to victory. Frank Falla took pole after winning the Pre-Final, but was the only one in the field that elected to run on wet weather tyres, a decision he would later rue.
The Junior Max Heavy final fell the way of Dale Corbett once again. Lachlan Marshall led early in his Arrow, but drifted backwards as the race wore on. Jaymee Frampton looked as though she was going to keep Corbett honest early, but had no answer for the Grafton based youngster. Frampton had issues of her own battling with Ben Cooper from Canberra. Cooper came from the back after a litany of problems in the Pre-Final and it went right to the wire with Cooper securing second placing over Frampton, followed by Alex Griffiths, American Nils Musaeus and Michael Saller.
Damian Ward finally got a handle on the Pacific Kartsport Arrow DD2 machine and blitzed the Rotax DD2 field obtaining his first win in the category. Pole-sitter, Kyle Ensbey had a coming together with Ward at turn one, both dropping to the back of the field. Ward picked his way through to take the win, but it wasn’t easy with early leader, David Whitmore and Chris Hays providing some tough competition.
The triumvirate swapped the lead on numerous occasions during the 24 lap distance, ultimately Ward proving superior. Fourth place went to a charging Travis Millar, who had a fair bit of work to do in traffic to make his way forward. Ensbey recovered for fifth in his Ensbey Earthmoving/Kaos Karting machine, with Jim Beam Racing’s Daniel Baker sixth after missing the Pre-Final due to a battery that had no charge.
In Rotax Heavy, it was a Pringle brother’s benefit, Jason Pringle stamping his authority on the meeting in the Pre-Final. He took the Pre-Final victory over brother, Rick, by over 30 seconds.
In the Final, it was a similar scenario, kicking away at the beginning and he never looked like being headed. Rick, on the other hand, had Paul Rodgers in the CC Racing/Prodgersracing.com Intrepid keeping him honest. Rodgers was unable to get on racing terms with the vastly experienced CRG pilot, in the end settling for third. Brad Wyatt and Daniel Stein completed the top five, with James Reynolds coming home sixth putting yesterday’s misfortune behind him. The Kart Equip team elected to be one of the few on slicks for the Rotax Heavy Pre-Final – with the gamble paying off, finishing third.
The Rotax Pro Tour now takes a break until October 29-31 when it re-visits Newcastle in New South Wales.
The focus for Rotax competitors is now on various State Titles and major open meetings around Australia, then, of course, the big one – The Rotax Nationals – at Ipswich across the weekend of September 3-5, 2010.
For more information on the Rotax Pro Tour and Rotax Racing in Australia, see www.rotax.com.au, check out the Rotax Pro Tour 2010 fanpage on Facebook or follow the twitter feed – www.twitter.com/RotaxProTour.
Full results HERE.
