Double Wins For Burley & Plumb At Lismore Young Guns

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from Louise Wysoczanski

Sensational weather and great racing were a highlight of the annual Young Guns Titles held at Lismore Kart Track on the weekend.

In the Junior fields it was two drivers racing at their last ever Young Guns event who dominated the four Junior classes – Junior National Light, Junior National Mid and Junior National Heavy and JMax, taking out two each.   Chris Burley backed up his dual 2011 success with another double on his home track and Ipswich’s Brock Plumb also took out two in Junior National Heavy and JMax.

Above: "You lookin' at me?" Zane Goddard, Junior National Light

KAOS Karting was again a major supporter of the event and the majority of the 139 entrants taking to the track.  The full grids make this year one of the strongest, especially as it did not face event conflict as it did against Pro Tour last year.

Kicking off the Finals was the outstanding Cadet P-Plate class which provided some highly competitive racing with 14 karts taking to the track.  The Final was predominantly about two talented youngsters battling it out, Broc Feeney (Husqvarna/Intrepid) and Lachlan Hughes (Intrepid) dicing from the start.

The race, as it was aimed to be, was an excellent experience for some of the drivers who had only very recently taken up the sport and the kids acquitted themselves very well including Michael Beckton (9th Intrepid), Jett Hopkins (8th Intrepid), Jacinta Hoey (7th Kosmic), Nash Morris (6th Intrepid).

Above: Cadet 'P' winner Broc Feeney

Top five on the Young Guns podium were Broc Feeney (1st), Lachlan Hughes (2nd) with an awesome comeback late in the race coming through lapped traffic, Zayd Tones (3rd), Max Wilcox (4th Intrepid) and Sean Bolger (5th Kosmic).  The sportsman award went to Cameron McLeod.

Junior National Light was again the domain of local KAOS/Arrow driver Chris Burley who held a dominant grip on the event all weekend.  Another strong field of 25 karts stepped up with special mention to new racer Lachlan Feeney (13th), Tyson Iseppi (12th), Zane Goddard (11th), Blake Brooks (10th), Todd Stocks (9th), Ben Wilcox (8th) coming back up through the field from an on track incident, Thomas Steele (7th), Brock Lannoy (6th).

Unfortunate race DNF’s for 7 competitors including Jordan McGregor and Justin McDermott.

Top five finishers were Chris Burley (1st), Bryce Fullwood (2nd) making a worthwhile trip from the Northern Territory, Russell Whittaker (3rd), Gus Flynn (4th) and Jamie Grohman (5th).

The Cadet final featured many of the P-plate competitors from last year coming back for more.

An exciting and one of the most highly competitive races of the Titles, with the front hard-chargers taking a no-holds barred guts and glory approach and ended with the three top competitors as race casualties.

Intrepid/KAOS/Monster driver Jack Doohan was off pole looking for back-to-back year wins and was the in-form driver of the weekend.  The top four drivers of Doohan, local Nathan Herne, Harrison Hoey and Jai Brown all meant business from the jump and it was soon after that Jai Brown became the first casualty.

Above: Jack Doohan in Cadets

Doohan also had to fight back to 1st from 4th midway through the race and he did so admirably with his A1 Engines comer consistently one of the fastest on track.  In the closing stages of the race, Doohan took on local Nathan Herne at turn 1 and came off second best, pushed off the track he recovered to the end of the field to continue the race.

Nathan Herne was then the victim of a last corner tussle between himself and Benito Montelbano which saw him speared into the tyres just metres short of the finish.

The top 5 results were Harrison Hoey (1st), Benito Montelbano (2nd), Jay McGregor (3rd Intrepid), Fraser Ruane (4th Praga) and Zac Critchton (5th).  Special mention to Intrepid drivers Bayley Hall and Sportsman Award winner Austin Wells.

Above: Fraser Ruane was 4th in Cadets aboard the Praga chassis

Junior National Heavy provided a sense of déjà-vu from last year with eventual winner Brock Plumb (Arrow/KAOS) again coming from a pre-final DNF to take victory.  Starting 19th Plumb drove to first in front of Chris Corbett (2nd), Michael Dwyer (3rd), Nicholas Andrews (4th) and Dean Wiegman (5th).  Special mention to in form local Jacob Jolley, who DNF’ed the final after great results all weekend.

In Rookies class 31 drivers battled it out across the weekend with a relatively orderly finals race resulting in Joshua Rogers taking home the win, followed by HDR driver Harrison Oddie (2nd), Zac Raddatz (3rd), Jack Winter (4th) and Damon Ash (5th).

Special mention to KAOS drivers Max Adams (6th), Jack Smith (8th) and Marc Tulloch (10th) recently off his P’s, Declan Fraser (14th) and Warwick’s Nic Lane (19th) fighting back from a pre-final DNF.

Junior National Mid provided Chris Burley his second consecutive year of taking out two race wins with the KAOS/Arrow driver clean-sweeping the race results with 1st place finishes all weekend.  Burley was chased down by Power Republic’s Brock Lannoy (2nd) and Blake Brooks (3rd), followed by Clayton Small (4th), Jake Gleeson (5th) and Karl Dunn (6th).

Above: Chris Burley, victorious in Junior National 'Mid', was one of three drivers from the meeting to be awarded a Formula Ford test

For his back-to-back dual titles Chris Burley was awarded the Anglo Australia Formula Ford test drive alongside Intrepid drivers Lachlan McHugh and Chris Corbett after Brock Plumb offered his drive back.  The three KAOS drivers will experience the Formula Ford under the tuition of Tim Beale from Anglo Australia at Wakefield Park race circuit.

New kart racer, Jye Hopkins (Intrepid) was the pace all weekend in the Rookie P class and had a huge grin to go with his massive Young Guns trophy.  Also receiving trophies and accolades were Josh Bianchin (2nd), Jake McRae (3rd), Nicholas McLeod (4th), Luke Collett (5th) and Kurt Orlanno (6th).

Three KAOS drivers dueled for top honours in the JMax final from a field of 15 in total.  In the end Brock Plumb had the edge over a battling Lachlan McHugh.  McHugh fought back all race and tried to find his opportunities from the tail of Plumb.  In the end Plumb had that extra bit in the engine to hold out and take home an event double 1st place.

Plumb generously gave up his undisputed seat in the Anglo Australia formula ford test after experiencing the drive day with his efforts of last year.

Above: Junior MAX ready for a start, eventual winner Brock Plumb (68) and Mitchell Maddren (92) on the front row ahead of Nicholas Andrews (7) and Lachlan McHugh (23)

Special mention to new karter Matthew Byrne (Intrepid) taking to the track alongside seasoned JMax campaigners including Michael Fabri, Torey Blanch, Michael Dwyer and Maxim Erickson.

Top five on the podium were Brock Plumb (1st), Lachlan McHugh (2nd) Intrepid, Chris Corbett (3rd Intrepid), Nicholas Andrews (4th) and Mitchell Maddren (5th).

Young Guns was wrapped up with its presentation ceremony and prize giving at the Italo-Australian Club and huge congrats must go to Lismore Kart Club president Chris Ruane and his team for another excellent event that was even more enjoyable under sunny skies.

Full results on AKA Timing HERE

Above: Tent City

Above: Brock Plumb, Jnr Rotax winner

Above: Cadets line up for their final

Above: Rookie-P Final, Jye Hopkins leads Jake McCrae and Luke Collett

Above: Cadet-P final

Above: Junior National Midweight get underway, Chris Burley leads ahead of Blake Brooks (18), Jake Gleeson (16), Karl Dunn (33) and Clayton Small (91)

Above: Rookie driver Nicholas Lane

Above: Brock Lannoy grabbed 2nd in Junior National Midweight

Above: Max Adams ahead of Nicholas Lane, Rookies

Above: Another win for Chris Burley, in JNL

Above: Tent City from inside the pits

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