NSW Junior Clubman Series, Round 4


from Dennis Sandrone 28 August 2013
   
 

Despite waking up to a covering of ice on everything that had been left out overnight, Lithgow put on some beautiful weather for the 4th round of the NSW Junior Clubman Pro series hosted by the Combined Districts Kart Club on august 25. 15 entrants fronted up which again featured Jordi Marcon who had made the trip from Central Queensland as well as newcomers to the series, Mitch Koval, Chris Bregonje, Mitch Moroson, Connor Hey, Adam Borger and Travis Lichtenberger.

Qualifying
Nick Becker, the series leader, had been rumoured to have been setting some hot laps during testing the previous weekend. He didn’t disappoint snatching pole and valuable points to extend his series lead. The remaining top 5 grid spots were filled by Harry Hayek, Glen Ormerod, Jordi Marcon and Chris Sandrone.


Above: Glen Ormerod (47) and Damon Schofield (19) lead the charge to the 1st corner in the final. Neither would come out in front. Following are Chris Sandrone (76) and Nicholas Becker (22)
pic - quickpixels.com.au

Heat 1
After some extremely close and exciting racing in the first 3 rounds, there was much interest in seeing what would transpire in Heat 1. In fact, karting legend Mick Hazelton declared that he had decided to forego another race meet just to be at Lithgow to watch his favourite class, JC.

When the lights finally went green, the charge was on. Becker holding his ground into turn 1 from the inside. Unfortunately Hayek, starting on the outside got forced wide allowing the inside runners, Ormerod, Sandrone and Schofield to scoot through. Becker set the early pace with Ormerod and Sandrone in hot pursuit. Schofield got dropped off the by leaders and entered into a tussle with Hayek and Marcon. Hey, Koval, Car and Lichtenberger were also swapping places followed by Borger, Morosin Bregonje and Bakija. Unfortunately the problems that plagued Shae Becker the previous round had come back to put a halt to Shae’s race without completing a lap.
The top 3 battled it out, and each one held the lead at some point. Coming into the last lap it was Sandrone who was now in front of Ormerod and Becker. Hayek had managed to shake the chasing pack and was making up ground on the leaders at a rapid rate.

The 3 leaders arrived at the corner at the end of the back straight side by side. 3 into this tight corner is never going to work and so on the exit and starting the climb up the hill, Sandrone and Ormerod melded their karts into one six wheeler with Becker stuck behind them The opportunistic Hayek and Schofield who had arrived late on the scene had the better momentum up the hill and both managed to thread through the smallest gap to emerge an unlikely top 2. Becker finished a close 3rd followed by the disentangled Sandrone and Ormerod. Koval, Marcon Car and Lichtenberger continued their close battle right to the finish line. Morosin, Hey and Bregonje were split by less than half a second.

Across the line, Heat 1

1st  Hayek
2nd Schofield
3rd Becker
4th Sandrone
5th Ormerod

Heat 2
Another race and another thriller. Not so much for the winner Becker, who was dominant throughout. But the interest was behind him with close battles throughout. Sandrone had missed out on the start to be relegated to sixth and so was embroiled in a battle between, Hayek, Ormerod, Marcon, Schofield, Koval, Car and Lichtenberger. In the meantime Shae Becker was having a terrible time with a clutch that was obviously slipping and again was forced to retire early.

Mid race and Ormerod got the better of Hayek who eventually succumbed to the blistering fast Sandrone. Marcon managed to shake off the mid pack headed by Car and was gunning down Hayek but ran out of laps.

Across the line, Heat 2

1st  Becker
2nd Ormerod
3rd Sandrone
4th Hayek
5th Marcon

Pre-final
The all important point scoring pre-final saw Becker gridded from Pole ahead of Hayek, Ormerod, Sandrone, Schofield and Marcon. At the green, and the first five emerged from turn 1 in that order and that’s the way it remained for the first 3 laps until Hayek made a successful bid for the lead. In the meantime Schofield was struggling to stay in touch with the first 4 and was joined in a scrap with not only Marcon but Car and Koval as well. Lichtenberger, Hey, Morosin Bregonje and Borger continued where they had left off in the first 2 heats. Shae Becker finally had her engine running, but unfortunately the gremlins moved from her engine and got into Bakija’s instead.

By mid race the order at the front had changed somewhat. Sandrone was now in the lead from Becker, Hayek and Ormerod. The battle up front had allowed Schofield to sneak back onto the back of the lead pack with Marcon and Car in tow.

Sandrone managed to skip away to reach the finish line first in what was an untroubled second half of the race. Ormerod also escaped the clutches of Becker and Hayek to finish 2nd. But the excitement was happening behind this pair of early leaders who were now joined by Schofield, Car, Marcon and Koval. Schofield overhauled first Hayek and then Becker to finish 3rd by the smallest margin. Car followed Hayek while Koval beat Marcon home in a side by side dash to the line, 3rd to 8th separated by 1s. Morosin got the better of Bregonje who was followed by Borger, Hey and Shae Becker who must have been relieved to have been able to finally complete a race.

Across the line, Pre-final

1st  Sandrone
2nd Ormerod
3rd Schofield
4th Becker
5th Hayek

Final
Again the pits emptied to watch the JC final.

Sandrone got a poor start allowing Schofield to charge up the inside from P3 only to meet Ormerod coming from the outside into the race for turn 1. Contact between the 2 saw Schofield shuffled back and worse still for Ormerod, a DNF. The resulting kerfuffle saw the field broken up with Sandrone, Becker, Hayek and Car enjoying a break from the rest of the field.  By the half way stage, and after much reshuffling of the order of the first 3, Becker was ahead of Sandrone and Hayek. Car had by now fallen into the clutches of the 2nd pack of Schofield, Koval and Marcon. Hey, Bregonje and Morosin yet again were enjoying some close racing followed by Borger, Bakija and Shae Becker.

The top 3 put on a great show in the closing stages swapping places several times a lap. Yet another thrilling finish to a great series saw Hayek, after putting on a decisive move with 2 laps to go, emerge as the winner in front of Becker and Sandrone. Next across the line was Schofield just ahead of Koval and then Marcon. Car held off the improving Bregonje. Morosin got the nod ahead of Hey, Borger, Bakija and Shae Becker.

Amazingly for Hayek, who has notched up a 2nd at the Queensland State Titles and is the current NSW JC Closed State title holder, this was his first ever win in ‘club’ style competition. Congratulations Harry.

Official Top 5 Placings

1st  Hayek
2nd Becker
3rd Sandrone
4th Schofield
5th Koval


Above: Another thrilling finish saw Harry Hayek (26) winning the 4th round from Becker and Sandrone
pic - quickpixels.com.au

The final round is to be held at Orange as part of the South Pacific Titles meet 9/10th September. Should be a ‘cracka’ to conclude a 5 round series where drivers can drop their worst round. On corrected scores (1 round dropped so far) Schofield leads the series with 231pts from Sandrone with 229 pts and Becker on 228 pts.

Driver

Total Pts

Best 3 Round Total

Nicholas Becker

298

228

Chris Sandrone

281

229

Damon Schofield

276

231

Official sponsors of the NSW Junior Pro Clubman Series are:

  • Scuderia PCR Australia
  • Yamaha
  • Remo Racing
  • Laing Simmons (Potts Point / Pyrmont)
  • Kart 1 Racing
  • Stones Kart Sport
  • Karting World

Full results from the meeting on AKA CMS HERE

Full pointscore after 4 rounds of 5 HERE (PDF)


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