SA Festival State Cup Round 1
from Ian Williams |
23 March 2014 |
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The first round of the 2014 SA Festival State Cup series has been run at Monarto last week. The day saw an excellent 158 entries attend at a beautifully prepared circuit.
The day began with bright sunshine across a lovely green infield, but rain came in quickly early on in the first round of heats and caused a massive rush to fits wets. The rain cleared in a little over 45 minutes and the day went smoothly thereafter.
Above: Cadets racing into turn 3
The Cadets had only one p-plater in the 17 driver field, with the remainder all returning for their second attempt at series glory. Last year's series leaders Blake Purdie and Mikey Jones again leading the charge at the front.
The Rookies saw a 14 kart field, with 4 P-platers and 3 drivers moving up from the Cadets. The lead swapped each heat from Jack Hutchins to Jason Bowyer, but it was good to see Cooper Hay getting near the front again for 4th after a disastrous 2013, and just holding out the Mt Gambier visitor Troy Moreland in 5th.
The Junior National classes were hard fought affairs with 15 lights and 10 heavies. The newcomer Jacob Dowson was a standout winner in lights in his first event after moving up in the new year from Rookies.
Junior Max was a clean sweep for the South Ausssie national Junior Clubman champion Josh Denton, but the remaining 5 drivers in the class shared the other placings evenly amongst themselves all day in some very hotly contested events.
Above: TaG Light running very close together
The senior Clubman classes saw less drivers than in past years, with no Clubman Light class at all, but the TaG Light and Heavy fields were the largest we have seen in SA which makes the future look pretty rosy.
The good news story of the day was Brandon Stillwell winning TaG Heavy in his brand new kart, supplied by DPE/Arrow karts following his loss of all his karting equipment including engines and chassis in a roadside fire on his return trip from the Pro Tour event at Todd Road earlier this year.
TaG Light winer was local boy George Gutierrez returning from some overseas karting and car racing duties, followed by daniel wallis and last years top junior ben redjepi in 3rd impressed all on his first senior class outing.
The 2014 series recognises the TaG Restricted classes now with full series awards, and this attracted fields of 15 and 16 drivers in the two weight divisions. The Tag-R Heavy class saw the return to racing for some past over 40s Clubman drivers, with David Rinaldi finsihing in 1st and Mark Goode in 3rd split by 2nd placed James Rainsford.
Above: TaG Heavy winner Brandon Stillwell
Round results (top 5 - full results on AKA CMS HERE)
Cadets
1. Blake Purdie
2. Michael Jones
3. Tyler Craig
4. Adam Jr Slattery
5. Jobe Stewart
Rookies
1. Jack Hutchins
2. Jason Bowyer
3. Jackson Rees
4. Cooper Hay
5. Troy Moreland
JNL
1. Jacob Dowson
2. Jordan Kervers
3. Jordan Pianezzola
4. Max Vidau
5. Shane Moreland
JNH
1. Connor farr
2. Max carter
3. Jack haverland
4. Max Vidau
5. Rylie Buik
Junior Max
1. Josh Denton
2. Connor farr
3. Brodie Cook
4. Josh Montagu
5. Jordan Tasker
Clubman Heavy
1. Hayden Slattery
2. Sparky Marquis
3. Dylan hannam
4. Troy Lymn
5. Josh Fielding
Above: TaG Restricted Light start under the tower
Clubman Super Heavy
1. Blake Mooney
2. Paul Pittam
3. John Dankowski
4. John Ellis
5. James Georgiou
Tag 125 Heavy
1. Brandon Stillwell
2. Russel Provan
3. Paul Pittam
4. Dayle Tolosa
5. Nick Larcombe
Tag 125 Light
1. George Gutierrez
2. Daniel Wallis
3. Benjamin Redjepi
4. Joshua Manning
5. Jonathon Mangos
Tag Restricted 125 Heavy
1. David Rinaldi
2. James Rainsford
3. Mark Goode
4. Daniel bowden
5. Hayden Slattery
Tag Restricted 125 Light
1. Joel Heinrich
2. Phil Sansom
3. Clint Smith
4. Keaton szach
5. Haydn Felici
