City of Melbourne TitlesJames Sera had done all the hard work in Clubman Light at the City of Melbourne Titles on the weekend. On a brilliant Winter's day, and after winning both heats and the pre-final, Sera was holding a comfortable margin over Macauley Jones in the final with just 4 laps to go. But then he lost pace, his kart slowing off the corners, allowing Jones, who had himself driven well all weekend, to catch and pass the stricken FA Kart prior to the last corner. "It felt like fuel serge" Sera explained, "but there was still plenty of fuel left" (it was subsequently found to be a loose axle due to grub screws falling out).
Fastest qualifier Jordan Ford had led the opening laps after a good shove from Ryan Sanderson at the start. However it wasn't too long before Sera got by and slowly stretched a margin. Ford held on for third ahead of veteran Shayne Piper (now running Light weight) and Jordan Nicolaou. While he lost out in Clubman, James enjoyed an almost unflustered win in Leopard Light. Adam Willison had been fastest on Saturday, winning both heats after qualifying fastest. But come Sunday, Sera had the edge and, despite getting shuffled from pole back to 4th in the opening lap of the final, soon worked his way to the front for a comfortable win. Unfortunately the final was marred by a huge crash on the last lap when former motor-crosser Joshua King (coincidentally, a James Sera customer) was flipped into the barriers and carted off to hospital for a couple of hours. Rotax Heavy and Rotax Over 40s shared the track at the same time. Zeke Edwards was undefeated in Heavy. Troy Woolston was 2nd after recovering from a pre-final DNF. Darren Day was the class of the Over 40s. Running as high as 7th outright, he strangely backed off to run closer with some of the other Over 40s.
Chris Sanderson led the entire 16-lap final of Clubman Over 40s, but Ian Branson was fastest on track, finishing 0.6s behind after starting 5th. Gavin Harvey was third ahead of fastest qualifier John Pringle. Peter Gooch and Glen Chadwick brushed themselves off after a spectacular pre-final crash to finish 6th and 7th. Matt Wall picked up two wins; Clubman Heavy and Leopard Heavy. In both categories, Wall engaged in a brilliant scrap with Lee Mitchener, the two regularly passing and re-passing in a display of hard but very fair racing that many other karters could learn by...
The Junior Rotax final was red-flag affected when Joshua Angus hit a flag point. Fortunately he was able to walk to the ambulance on his own two feet. The interuption had little effect on the result, Pierce Lehane simply continuing on his merry way, undefeated all weekend. The Junior Clubman final was a cracker and it was Justin Francis who got to the end of the 16th lap ahead of the rest. Francis, Anton De Pasquale (who had won everything up to the final), Luke Marquis and Jason LeCocq were embroiled in a thrilling battle late in the race. WA's LeCocq had a small gap over SA's Marquis entering the final lap and the two interstaters appeared to have shown the locals how to do it. But then disaster struck as Marquis made a move for the win that didnt work. Jake Klein ended up second ahead of De Pasquale, Kyle Rethus and a recovering Marquis.
DePasquale dominated Junior National Heavy, beating home Damon Strongman and Nicholas Rowe. Strongman made amends in Junior National Light, forcing a last lap pass on Jake Klein. Chelsea Angelo had a strong run to third. Thomas Prascevic and Zane Morse jumped out to a big lead in the opening lap of the Rookies final which had a lot of congestion in the mid-pack of the 20-kart field. Prescevic went on to win as Rhys Wooley recovered for second. Deadly Dave Sera was the winner in Rotax Light. Despite being shuffled to 4th in the opening lap, Sera and Josh DeMaio were soon into first and second and held position to the end. Early leader Luke Rochford grabbed third off Macauley Jones with a surprising infield move.
Jordan Caruso replicated his state title result to win Midgets, while James Cornfoot took out TaG Restricted. Final results below; full results on AKA CM:s (choose VIC, then Go-Kart Club of Vic). Clubman Light: 1 Macauley Jones, 2 James Sera, 3 Jordan Ford, 4 Shayne Piper, 5 Jordan Nicolaou
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