Ipswich Kart Club Round 2, Wet/Dry Day/NightTweetby John Goddard Friday was hot, 37 degrees, very humid and typical of Queensland weather, not a cloud in the sky, but the heat and humidity did not stop over 80 Karters attending day/night practice, intent on tuning their karts and dialling themselves in for Saturday’s race meet. Many people set up their gear and left their trailers at the track for a quick easy start on Saturday morning. Saturday’s forecast was for fine weather and 30 degrees, perfect for go kart racing. We all woke up Saturday morning bright and early looking forward to another great day of racing; the shutters were opened in eager anticipation of a beautiful fine balmy Queensland morning. Guess what? It was “stealthily” bucketing down and obviously had been for most of the night with 100% cloud cover over South East Queensland. The weather bureau had got it WRONG AGAIN. Silent rain can be very very wet, believe me.
As usual, we left the Gold Coast and headed to the track an hour away, safe in the knowledge that it would clear up as per the forecast with a “she’ll be right mate” attitude and “it never rains in Ipswich” comment. Practice was to start at 10am, racing at 11.15am, we knew it would be fine by then because the forecast said it would. When we got there, many people didn’t have wet weather tires, us included. The shops had sold out to the early birds so we put our new slicks on ready to qualify. 10am came, STILL RAINING, the meeting was declared WET; 11.15am came, STILL RAINING. The stealth of that bloody rain! Along with many others, we packed up and left, feeling a little, shall we say, deflated and maybe a touch spongy but we rationalised it because a bunch of us agreed that it was “the right thing to do” under the circumstances. You know how you convince yourself and everyone starts “white anting” each other but no matter how you try and justify it in your own mind, no wet tires, no wet gear, new kart, new engine, the word “soft” keeps creeping into the psyche. But hey, we were misled, after all, who needed all that wet gear, the weather was supposed to be fine and 30 degrees!
Lucky for the club, not everyone was unprepared, in fact the majority, in true karting spirit were well and truly prepared. Probably 40 or 50 upped stumps and left but well done to the 132 stalwart racers who stayed. They showed true grit and plenty of dedication in adverse weather after all, it was only a matter of waiting it out.... wasn’t it? Once again there were big junior fields and the TAG RESTRICTED and TAG OPEN classes were also well attended. Classes dropped were Senior National 150kg and JMAX.
CADETS New kart racer Rusty Ross has joined our ranks and raced very well at his 1st meeting. Conditions throughout the day kept pit crews working hard trying to keep up with the track. Pre-final saw Harrison Hoey win over Nathan Herne from Zak Hudson on a greasy but drying track.
The Final was very interesting with favorites Harrison Hoey, Zak Hudson and Jai Brown (winner heat 2) all going out on the 1st lap. Then on the 2nd lap Oliver Bayliss, Thomas Shields both departed the race with incidents on the back straight. Nathan Herne coming off the track on the 3rd lap left a four way battle for the lead with Jarrod Costello, Fraser Ruane, Josh Radford and Broc Feeney. Herne made his way back into the lead and won after Costello’s race ended with an incident into turn one. Broc Feeney still on his P plates had an awesome drive for 2nd with Fraser Ruane 3rd and Josh Radford 4th, Bailey Hall 5th, Austin Wells 6th. All points counted for the day with final Placing 1st Nathan Herne 2nd Harrison Hoey 3rd Josh Radford. See you all at round 3 on the 1st April. Troy Hoey JUNIOR NATIONAL HEAVY After showing good form early for a 4th and 2nd, Matthew Kennedy had some bad luck in the pre-final and final to finish down the order. Special mention to P Plate driver Tom Qualischefski who showed consistency in the trying conditions to finish 13th in the big field. JUNIOR NATIONAL LIGHT Brock Lannoy showed his talent and was consistent despite the difficult conditions and came in a solid third for the day. Joseph Spain-Vink showed solid form to finish a strong 4th a few points ahead of Jordan Kindas in 5th.
ROOKIES TAG 125 LIGHT Patrizi came out early winning the first two heats, showing she was the rain master with Ashley Lester and Shaun McNamara close by. When there was a break in the weather Oliver Etter stepped up to take out the pre final and final. Patrizi, with a little help from someone out-braking himself in the wet conditions, found the bark chips in the pre final and ended up starting at the rear of the grid for the final. The winner of the day was the consistent Shaun McNamara in first place, Ashley Lester 2nd and Ben Whittam coming home strongly with a close third. Terry Leerentveld and Holly Patrizi were close and unlucky on the day. Les Antrobus
TAG 125 HEAVY Peter Virgulti and Scott Howard shone through in the wet, winning one and two heats each respectively. The final was set to be a close race, with Scott Howard, Ashley Waardenberg, Patrick Mather and Daniel Creed all dicing for positions in the first few laps, until a coming together between Scott Howard and Patrick Mather seen sparks flying that put them back down the pack leaving the road clear for Ashley Waardenberg to take a convincing win with fastest lap in the final. Peter Virgulti was all set up for a round win, but in what seemed like shifting mountains, Pete came in under weight in the final after being over 10kg too heavy earlier in the day and losing the day to Scott Howard, but still picking a respectable overall 3rd. Consistency by Daniel Creed seen him taken the second place on the podium. Melissa Henderson TAG RESTRICTED LIGHT Jack Wood showed he was out to win it right from the start with a great effort in heat 1 driving from 15 through to finish 2nd on a damp track and then going on to win the next 3 races. Demonstrating that this is not just a sport for the boys, Donnelle Waldon took out 2nd for the day with a inspired drive in the rain in heat 2, blazing her way through the field from 16 to finish 2nd. (John Goddard) Nigel Ward showed his skill across the day and finished 3rd overall. Well done to all the competitors who braved the weather and to Ipswich Kart Club, the officials and volunteers who kept things running so smoothly across the day. Donnelle Waldon NEXT MEETING
RESULTS
LOCAL RACERS DOING WELL AFTER THEIR KARTING CAREERS Local karting champ Chaz Mostert has started the year with a bang, after the completion of round 1, he is leading the V8 Supercar Development Series. At the Clipsal in Adelaide, Chaz, in his Ford Performance Racing V8, won everything, he poled it in qualifying by a massive 3.5 tenths. He went on to win race 1 by 8 seconds blowing his opposition away, he then won race 2 by 9 seconds, again showing them a clean pair of heels. It was a resoundingly successful weekend in only his second year in V8 racing, Chaz is now firmly entrenched at the top of the leader-board.
I have had the privilege to do some HOT LAPS with young Chaz and trust me when I tell you, he knows how to handle a V8 Supercar, it was a mind blowing ear shattering bone shaking experience not to be missed. Here was I with over 45 years of driving experience, completely “awestruck” at Chaz’s driving ability after only a few short months behind the wheel of a V8 muscle car, the kids an unassuming natural talent. Another local, Ashley Walsh, had a good weekend in the Dunlop Series with 8th in qualifying. Walsh finished 4th in race 1 and capped off a good weekend with a 5th in race 2 placing him 4th overall in the championship. Kris Walton had a successful meeting in the V8 Ute Series. After a strong 4th in race one, Kris went on to an enormous win in race 2 and an equally forceful win in race 3. Kris gave his opposition no quarter and asked for none. In typical Walton fashion, he out muscled his opposition and showed that he will be very hard to beat this year.
Nick Foster started the weekend on a high in the Porsche Carrera Cup with a great second in race 1. Unfortunately for Nick it didn’t finish too well. He was very competitive in race 3 and while in 4th place, he hit a kerb a little too hard and finished 10th. None of these guys come from wealthy families so it hasn’t been an easy assignment to get to where they are in their motorsport careers. Their success is a lesson to any aspiring Karter with a motorsport dream; if you are prepared to dedicate yourself to realise your goals in life, then it can be done without massive parental financial backing. Congratulations to all four of these young men. It takes a ton of dedication and hard work to achieve what they have, it is a credit to them all.
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