Tasmanian Statewide Series, McDonald’s Young Guns AND The LKC Club Titles


by Johnathan Males 6 May 2014
 

Champions Crowned at LKC Club Titles, Round 4 Of The 2014 Tasmanian Statewide Series and 2014 McDonald’s Young Guns Meeting

Round four of the 2014 Tasmanian Statewide Series saw a slightly different format with a two day race format being utilised to allow for series engine measuring to be conducted and the reduced daylight hours at this time of year. The Launceston Kart Club’s Archerville Kartway once again played host to one hundred and ten of Tasmania’s best drivers who were not only vying for their finishing positions in the four round series but also the LKC Club Title. Add the prestigious McDonald’s Young Guns race to end proceedings and the on track action was guaranteed to be hotter than the off track temperature.

  • Series points tally (all rounds) HERE (PDF)
  • 2013 and 2014 placings and stats HERE (PDF)


Above: Tasmanian Statewide Series Trophies
pic - Stuart Lee

Clubman Light was once again a battle amongst the top four but on this occasion they also had to contend with Wade McLean who had returned to the series after missing two of the rounds. Nathan Zuj was as per usual consistently at the front and he was ensuring that he did just enough to maintain his handy, but not insurmountable series lead. Callum Mitchell needed strong results at this round if he was going to elevate himself to third in the series over Shane Bray. This was all going to plan as he took two wins and a second in the heats in his strongest performance for quite some time. However contact in the final race saw Mitchell record a DNF and Bray went on to finish ten points ahead of Mitchell to take third in the series. Brad Hobden improved steadily over the weekend to the point where he was able to take the win in the final race and along with it second in the series. In the end though Zuj recorded a thirty seven point win in the series and yet another red plate. It’s fair to say though he and his chief mechanic/dad Alex certainly had to work hard to earn this one.

Front row in Clubman Light. 99 Tabatha Badger and 87 Bradley Hobden
Above: Front row in Clubman Light. 99 Tabatha Badger and 87 Bradley Hobden
pic - Stuart Lee

Clubman Heavy saw an influx of competitors for this round, with some pretty decent drivers looking to mix it with the series leaders in the class. Brody Appleby however was able to see off these challengers and he took the win in the final and extended his lead in the series to forty six points. Jamie Bricknell and Troy Stone aided Appleby’s cause by finishing ahead of series second place finisher Jonathan McDonald who finished fourth on the day. A consistent performance across all four rounds saw STKC driver Evan Livingston take home a well-deserved third place in the series.

TAG Restricted Light was yet another class that would be decided by whichever competitor put in the stronger showing on the weekend with Jairus Holmes holding a slender six point lead over Keenan Slater. Holmes has really taken to the TAG class and has been the pace setter for the majority of the series aboard his Topkart. In the end he was able to slightly extend his advantage to nine points and clinch the title after taking second place behind Slater in the final race. Third in the series went to Omega driver Jordan Smith ahead of the much improved Joel Toon.

TaG Restricted Light - 28 Joel Toon, 81 Craig Phillips, 68 Keenan Slater, 67 Jordan Smith
Above: TaG Restricted Light - 28 Joel Toon, 81 Craig Phillips, 68 Keenan Slater, 67 Jordan Smith
pic - Stuart Lee

TAG Restricted Heavy put on a great exhibition of racing with the top seven drivers nose to tail for the majority of the weekend’s racing. Brodey Lovett needed to score decent points to maintain his lead in the series and this he achieved with no result worse than fourth place, and second in the final. He extended his lead over Matthew Clark to clinch his maiden state title by thirty six points. First on the day though was last year’s series winner Jason Close aboard his Tax Centre/47 Kart Tuning Monaco. Only being able to compete in half the series meant Close was never going to be able to defend his title. It was good to see Daniel Hinds overcome a wretched run of luck and show what he can do at the front of the field recording strong results and a heat two win. James Fitch had a handy twenty six point lead over Thomas Walter going into this round in the race for the final series podium spot, but a first race DNF for Fitch, and a resurgent Walter ensured that this position would go down to the wire. All Walter had to do was finish three positions ahead of Fitch in the final and he would win the battle. Things were looking good for him as he consistently moved his way up through the field to third place, the only problem for Walter was Fitch was doing the same and this meant Fitch grabbed the third in the series by two points ahead of Walter.

The Rookies class was somewhat depleted with several competitors electing to graduate to juniors for this race meeting. However for the two drivers fighting for the series win it was once again on in earnest with Tate Frost ahead of Callum Bishop by a mere three points at the start of the weekend. However Bishop took things into his own hands by winning all four races, which meant he emerged as the winner. Frost’s campaign wasn’t helped by a heat three DNF but he recovered to take second to Bishop in the final race. Third on the day went to William Reeve who was also able to overtake Lachlan Dalton for third in the series after Dalton was unable to compete at the final round due to an unfortunate date clash with a family holiday.

Senior National Heavy was dominated on the weekend by series debutant Jamie Bricknell. The Shamick Racing/Precision Autos CRG pilot simply had too much pace for his rivals and he recorded three of the four race wins including the final. Behind him Kyle Young, Murray Dadson, Daniel Newman and James Pinfold all showed good pace to mix it with the series leader Johnathan Males for the battle for the remaining positions on the podium. In the final Dadson got the better of Young in a photo finish across the line. Another strong points haul ensured that Males aboard his Forty Seven Kart Tuning/AWC Motorsport Arrow took state title number six with a comfortable eighty nine point advantage over STKC driver Daniel Newman. Last year’s winner Murray Dadson’s strong showing on the weekend ensured he took third in the series after bad luck early in the series all but ended his title defence. Unfortunately work commitments forced Jake Rice to miss the final round and he dropped to fourth in the series.

Bodie Reading had nearly enough points to win the series in Senior National Light before the last round and the Arrow driver only needed twenty two points over the whole weekend’s racing to secure the title. This he ensured by taking the win in the first heat along with the thirty points on offer, which was probably just as well as he then suffered a DNF in the second heat. This was merely an inconvenience however as he was then able to record a second place in the third heat, and won the final and along with it yet another club title. The real battle in this class though was going to be amongst Jade Waddington, Keenan Slater and Tim McMaster with only four points separating them at the beginning of the weekend. Not much separated the trio over the weekend with Gemma Wyllie also joining in the fray. Waddington finished in second place in the final just ahead of Wyllie and that was enough to secure second in the series for the Ricey Race Engines Tony Kart driver. Behind these two McMaster was obviously thinking more about his impending trip to the USA and he went disappearing off the end of the main straight in a cloud of tyre smoke and this meant he relinquished third in the series to Keenan Slater by nine points.

Senior National Light - 34 Gemma Wyllie, 77 Jade Waddington, 15 Tim McMaster
Above: Senior National Light - 34 Gemma Wyllie, 77 Jade Waddington, 15 Tim McMaster
pic - Stuart Lee

The winner of the 2014 Statewide Series in Junior National Heavy looked harder to pick than a broken nose as the saying goes with only six points separating Johnah Slater and Lachlan Newman at the start of the weekend. Newman looked to have the ascendency after taking out the first two heats, but a third heat DNF put him at a distinct disadvantage in the points. In a strange coincidence this meant that Slater went on to take the title by the same six point margin that he enjoyed at the beginning of the weekend’s racing over Newman. Also suffering a third heat DNF was Samuel Jackson. This coupled with a strong home track performance from Justin Murphy ensured that Murphy leapfrogged Jackson to take third in the series by ten points. First in the final race went to Murphy ahead of Jackson and Newman.

Jackson Callow certainly had a fight on his hands in Junior National Light with several big name drivers entering this round for their first race of the series. The likes of Tayla Heath, Mitchell Kerrison and Brock Lamont all had the advantage of newer tyres and this meant that Callow and Zevie Eisentraut had to use all their skills to stay at the front. The racing was frenetic with passing moves being made nearly every lap of all four races. In the end though Eisentraut took the clean sweep, followed closely by Callow and Heath. Missing two rounds of the series meant Eisentraut only just missed out on a podium in the series and he finished fourth. Hard luck award would have to go to Andrew Lee in his Hadspen Excavations CRG who after pushing for the series win, and holding a comfortable second placing in the series suffered a DNF in the first race. Unfortunately a badly bruised hand meant he was out for the weekend and he ended up being pipped for second in the series by four points by Toby Maass. This meant Callow was able to cruise to a hundred and eight point win in the series aboard his Crossroads Civil Contracting/47 Kart Tuning Kosmic.  

Senior National Over 40’s Super Heavy saw Scott Wrigley join the series after a brief sabbatical and he showed the field a clean pair of heels with wins in three of the four races including the final. Behind him the real battle was between the Sheahan brothers with Troy attempting to retain his title, and Allan trying to wrestle it away from his elder sibling. A first heat incident saw Allan drop to the back of the field and the resulting point deficit proved to be too much to recover from, even though he took second placing in the final ahead of Troy. Local driver Shane Toon also had a weekend of misfortune suffering two DNF’s which meant he wasn’t able to challenge the Sheahan’s for the title but still managed to hang onto third in the series just ahead of the much improved Terry Pinfold. Most entertaining acceptance speech went to Troy Sheahan for his explanation of his brothers unfortunate midweek vehicle incident involving a cow, which had the audience in fits of laughter.

They say good things come to those that wait. That was certainly the case for Adrian Harper who clinched his maiden state title Senior National Over 40’s Pro. The racing in this class over the whole four rounds really showcased what great racing can be had when all competitors race hard and fair. The likes of Harper, Stuart Wells, Fred Cocca, Andrew Walter, Steve Crocker, Tim Hinds, Warren Smith, Anthony Butler, Wayne Fisher and David Jackson really put on a great show. It would be remiss however not to mention Ben Davey who elevated himself from his normal mid field position to the front pack. His fifth place in the series was no fluke and he will no doubt be pushing for a top three result next year. On the day though Wells took the win and the club title from Cocca, and Harper came in third. The same trio filled the podium positions in the series with Harper finishing forty two points ahead of Wells, who in turn had a seventy three point margin over Cocca.

Over 40s Pro - 8 Fred Cocca, 45 Stuart Wells, 25 Ben Davey
Above: Over 40s Pro - 8 Fred Cocca, 45 Stuart Wells, 25 Ben Davey
pic - Stuart Lee

The Cadets class was almost a case of two races in one with first and second battling over who would come out on top and third and fourth vying for the final step on the series podium. Young Ethan Wyllie showed his class and a slight advantage in experience to win all four races and come out seventy six points ahead of Jesse Keeling aboard his LID Design/JGE Kart Tuning Haase. Only two points separated third and fourth going into this round and this turned out to be a real nail biter for the parents. Very rarely do we see a tie on points, but that’s what happened here folks. With both Stevie Smith, and Xavier Renshaw both accruing two hundred and sixteen points it was only fitting that a count back was not imposed and both drivers got to share third place and stand on the podium in what was a great way for this series to end.

McDonald's Young Guns grid - 24 Zevie Eisentraut, 37 Nicholas Walpole, 10 Toby Maas, 7 Lachlan Cruse
Above: McDonald's Young Guns grid - 24 Zevie Eisentraut, 37 Nicholas Walpole, 10 Toby Maas, 7 Lachlan Cruse
pic - Stuart Lee

With class racing completed everyone’s attention turned to the annual McDonald’s Young Guns race. This year’s event promised to be a ripper with a plethora of outstanding junior driving talent facing the starter. A veritable who’s who of Tasmanian karting have ensured their names deserve a place on the perpetual shield and this year we had yet another very worthy name join that list. The race format of twenty laps and a random grid draw always means that there is at least one strong contender that must fight their way from the back of the field and this year that was Jackson Callow. He started tenth but was already into third by the third lap. However at this stage it looked like both Zevie Eisentraut and Justin Murphy had opened up enough of a gap that the winner would be decided amongst these two. Lap after lap these two pushed each other hard to get a race winning lead but over the next fourteen laps Callow slowly, but surely reeled them in. With three laps to go Callow moved past Murphy and then it was on as the trio jostled for position. Shortly after Callow went to the lead after an inside pass at McDonald’s corner and he set off down the back straight for the final time. The leaders then came across a lapped kart and Eisentraut took full advantage with an excellent late braking manoeuvre that saw him retake the lead. With only a few corners to go nothing was decided and Murphy briefly moved back into second at Yamaha corner only to relinquish the position to Callow on the exit of the turn. Across the line it was Eisentraut who took the win ahead of Callow in second, and Murphy in third well clear of the rest of the field in what was an excellent race.

McDonald's Young Guns (L to R) 3rd Justin Murphy, 1st Zevie Eisentraut, 2nd Jackson Callow
Above: McDonald's Young Guns (L to R) 3rd Justin Murphy, 1st Zevie Eisentraut, 2nd Jackson Callow
pic - Stuart Lee

So that concludes what was another very successful Tasmanian Statewide Series. This series saw a total of three hundred and ninety two competitors compete over the four rounds, and a lot of new faces at the front of classes. Many drivers putting in much improved performances compared to the previous year which is always pleasing to see. Thanks must go out to all four of the host clubs and Karting Tasmania for organising the well patronised series. Behind the scenes there were people like Mark Sergeant, Jo Sapwell, Janine Evers, Mark Close, Warren Smith, Jade Stone, Stuart Lee, Steph Peters and Andrea Smith who made everything happen, along with the many officials and volunteers from all the clubs. The focus now turns to the remaining races on the 2014 Tasmanian race calendar which culminate in the 2014 State Titles to be held at the Southern Tasmanian Kart Club’s Orielton AWC Kartway in November.

 

Cadets LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Ethan Wyllie
2nd        Jesse Keeling
3rd        Zoe Eisentraut

Cadets             Final Series Standing’s
1st        Ethan Wyllie    350 points
2nd        Jesse Keeling    274 points
=3rd      Stevie Smith/Xavier Renshaw    216 points

Rookies LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Callum Bishop
2nd        Tate Frost
3rd        William Reeve

Rookies Final Series Standing’s
1st        Callum Bishop    402 points
2nd        Tate Frost    360 points
3rd        William Reeve    327 points

Junior National Light LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Zevie Eisentraut
2nd        Jackson Callow
3rd        Tayla Heath

Junior National Light Final Series Standing’s
1st        Jackson Callow   399 points
2nd        Toby Maass    291 points
3rd        Andrew Lee    287 points

Junior National Heavy LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Justin Murphy
2nd        Samuel Jackson
3rd        Lachlan Newman

Junior National Heavy Final Series Standing’s
1st        Johnah Slater    388 points
2nd        Lachlan Newman    382 points
3rd        Justin Murphy    343 points

Senior National Light LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Bodie Reading
2nd        Jade Waddington
3rd        Gemma Wyllie

Senior National Light Final Series Standing’s
1st        Bodie Reading    399 points
2nd        Jade Waddington    304 points
3rd        Keenan Slater    284 points

Senior National Heavy LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Jamie Bricknell
2nd        Murray Dadson
3rd        Kyle Young

Senior National Heavy Final Series Standing’s
1st        Johnathan Males    429 points
2nd        Daniel Newman    340 points
3rd        Murray Dadson    299 points

Senior National Over 40’s Pro LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Stuart Wells
2nd        Fred Cocca
3rd        Adrian Harper

Senior National Over 40’s Pro Final Series Standing’s
1st        Adrian Harper    366 points
2nd        Stuart Wells    324 points
3rd        Fred Cocca   251 points

Senior National Over 40’s Super Heavy LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Scott Wrigley
2nd        Allan Sheahan
3rd        Troy Sheahan

Senior National Over 40’s Super Heavy Final Series Standing’s
1st        Troy Sheahan    407 points
2nd        Allan Sheahan    402 points
3rd        Shane Toon    294 points

Clubman Light LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Bradley Hobden
2nd        Nathan Zuj
3rd        Shane Bray

Clubman Light Final Series Standing’s
1st        Nathan Zuj    420 points
2nd        Bradley Hobden    383 points
3rd        Shane Bray    334 points

Clubman Heavy LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Brody Appleby
2nd        Jamie Bricknell
3rd        Troy Stone

Clubman Heavy Final Series Standing’s
1st       Brody Appleby    419 points
2nd        Jonathan McDonald    373 points
3rd        Evan Livingston    317 points

TAG Restricted Light LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Keenan Slater
2nd          Jairus Holmes
3rd        Jordan Smith

TAG Restricted Light Final Series Standing’s
1st        Jairus Holmes    426 points
2nd          Keenan Slater    417 points
3rd        Jordan Smith    368 points

TAG Restricted Heavy LKC Title Placing’s
1st        Jason Close
2nd          Brodey Lovett
3rd        Thomas Walter

TAG Restricted Heavy Final Series Standing’s
1st        Brodey Lovett    397 points
2nd          Matthew Clark    361 points
3rd        James Fitch    266 points

McDonald's Young Guns shield and prizes
Above: McDonald's Young Guns shield and prizes
pic - Stuart Lee

2014 McDonald’s Young Guns Race Results
1st        Zevie Eisentraut
2nd          Jackson Callow
3rd        Justin Murphy

 

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