May's Championship Challenge Resurrected

press release

Luke May had a good weekend at the Phillip Island round of the Dunlop Australian Superkart Championship. The revived 250 National class, which had seen only three competitors in 2009, now had a strong field.

May, on his return to gearbox superkarts after a twelve month lay-off from the class, won the round. But he'd been racing a borrowed kart with 'For Sale' stickers on it. His performance it seemed had found a buyer and now May was unable to make the trip to Queensland for round two.

With the support of Dunlop Kartsport, Wizzer Race Engines, Marron Excavations, the RMR Superkarts team has been enlarged by another kart and Luke is ready to defend his slim two point lead at the Morgan Park round of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships on August 14/15.

"I got the phone call maybe the week before Phillip Island entries closed from Gary Pegoraro saying we were going to run the single cylinder kart," explained May. "It was good for me as I had not raced much since running V8 Utes and my licence was about to expire. When the opportunity arose Gary said we'll chuck in the Anderson."

May stepped aboard the YZ250 Yamaha powered Anderson Maverick owned by Chris Jewell's Velocity Management team in the 250 National class, the middle of the three classes that race at the Dunlop Australian Superkart Championships. The kart was run out of the RMR Superkarts/Wizzer Race Engines team that was also running the 250 National of Wayne Sprostan and the 250 International of outright points leader Gary Pegoraro.

May and Pegoraro have raced against each other before. May raced with and against Pegoraro in the now defunct 100cc non-gearbox Superkart category ten years ago. As a junior May won the 1999 Australian Championship event in the class at Mallala, the same year that Pegoraro won his first Senior Light Australian Championship in the class. The following year at Queensland Raceway with insufficient Juniors to run their own class the Juniors were folded into the Senior classes and May finished third in Senior Light as Pegoraro successfully defended his crown.

May has his own family connection in Gearbox Superkart racing. His father Les is a dual Australian Champion, last winning a title in the 250 International class in an Anderson-Rotax in 1994. Luke May raced a Falcon XR8 in the V8 Ute Series in 2005, and last raced a Gearbox Superkart in 2008 when he took a guest drive with the South Australian Zip BDH team in 250 International which started with a top five finish in his first race. While racing mainly in sprintkarts since then the indications were there that he might be able to rival class favourite Martin Latta in the Viper Racing UK supported Anderson-Honda.

"Phillip Island went well and we won the round but the kart was sold that night at the meeting! Gary rang me and said, you're going to do the next round, you're leading the Australian Championship you'd be silly not to go."

A kart had become available, an older Stockman MR2 again powered by a Yamaha YZ250 engine. But a kart with special pedigree, having won an Australian Championship in the class and currently owned by a three time champion in the 250 National class.

"We'll go to Morgan Park, which I don't think anyone has been there before so we'll learn the new track and the new equipment. It's a kart I've seen a fair bit of over the years, it was Graeme Williams kart originally, when Graeme and my Dad used to work and race together. Now Jason McIntyre owns it. It's been around for awhile, but I know the kart's history, I've known Graeme all my life and I've been long time friends with Jason and he's offered it to me to drive. I'm sure it's a good package."

"I'm under no illusions though, Marty Latta's package that he's taken to the championship is pretty fast. We got lucky at Phillip Island, I didn't have the outright pace of Marty's Anderson-Honda but we had a good race strategy and got away with it. But it's a new track it'll be exciting. You've got to finish all four races, that's the main thing. Then try to stay in front of Marty then we'll end up Australian Champion, if not we would have had a ball with whatever we finish up with."

The 250 National class pointscore sees May lead the class 79 points to Martin Latta (Viper Racing UK Anderson-Honda) on 77 points. David Yuill (Crispy Racing, Aardvark Polishing Anderson-Yamaha) is in third place with 68 points, but is a doubtful starter for Morgan Park. Frank Giglio is next in the GR Industries Stockman MR2 on 46 points.

"The perfect situation is if Gary can win the twins and I can win the singles."

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