Young Drivers Lead The Way At Superkart Championships
from Mark Jones
Young drivers have claimed pole position in all three Superkart classes in a day of upsets on Friday at Eastern Creek for the Australian Superkart Championships.
Russell Jamieson claimed his first ever pole position in the 250 International class for the Coach Design team in his Anderson-DEA. Dalton Rowell has claimed pole position in the 250 National class in his DLR Racing Stockman and Tim Philp was fastest in the 125cc class in the Floth Sustainable Building Consultants Avoig-Honda at the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships.
The most impressive part about Jamieson's pole time is the margin. The 2006 125cc Australian champion has taken pole position by 1.3 seconds over the current Eastern Creek lap record holder Warren McIlveen.
McIlveen improved his best lap time by eight tenths of a second in the Stockman Superkarts/Mac's Marine Stockman MR2 Honda but the gap to pole position was too far to bridge, even with the home track advantage.
Gary Pegoraro was slower in the second qualifying session and will start third on the grid in the Dunlop Kartsport/BRC Engines Anderson-BRC.
Young South Australian racer Yiani Harpas improved his qualifying time by two seconds in the second qualifying session to climb into fourth grid position in the Zip BDH fettled Red Ice Racing Zip-BRC.
Fifth fastest will be defending champion Darren Hossack in the Safe Evolutions Anderson-Safe alon. Like third row partner Sam Zavaglia (Stockman-Honda), Hossack was slower in the second session and lost a grid spot to Harpas.
Kristian Stebbing will start the Suburban Accounting and Taxation Services Stockman-Yamaha in seventh position alongside Jason Smith in the Fuji Xerox Anderson-FPE. Vince Livaditis (Smash Solutions Racing PVP-PVP) and Brett Purdie (Martelco Equipment Hire PVP-PVP) will share the fifth row of the grid just ahead of the 2010 125cc champion Steven Tamasi in the Domain Prestige Homes Stockman-Honda.
Alongside Tamasi is Carlo Chermaz giving the national series debut for the startling looking new chassis design the SKE (Super Kart Evolutions) which looks more like a Le Mans sportscar than the traditional Superkart design.
Dalton Rowell sprung a suprise in the 250 National class, improving his lap time by almost three seconds in the DLR Racing Stockman to snatch pole position away from the STR Truck Bodies/Dunlop Kartsport Anderson-Honda of Luke May. Rowell recorded a 1:34.4326 lap time. The margin between Rowell and the former V8 Utes racer was four tenths of a second after May could not improve in the second session.
Defendin class champion Martin Latta will start out of position three in the Viper Racing UK/MJR Bricklaying Anderson-Honda. Young Victorian racer Brendan Luneman will start fourth in the Soma Building Services/Wizzer Engines Anderson-Yamaha. May's team mate Matthew Palmer was next in his Anderson-Yamaha. After Palmer there is a two second gap with Brett Campbell best of the rest in the Betta Calibrations Anderson.
Times were largely static in the colder second session in the 125cc class which meant Tim Philp did not have to defend his pole position. Brad Stebbing will start the Suburban Accounting and Taxation Services Stockman-Yamaha on the class front row with Jeff Reed third in his Stockman-Honda, despite Reed improving by half a second. Robert Xerri will start the Bakker Superkarts Bakker-Honda in fourth position. Matt Bass (Top Torque Engines Stockman-Honda) and Stewart Bell (Linra Property Group Stockman-Honda) will share the third row of the grid.
Two races will follow on Saturday and two races on Sunday as the opening round of the Australian Superkart Championship continues at the Shannons National Motor Racing Championships.
* Results & times during the event on natsoft HERE
