Klarich Takes Out WA KZ Series


from Paul Williams 30 August 2014
 

The 5th and Final round of the FMA Motorsport West Australian KZ Series was held at the Prestigious King of the Hill (KOTH) event at Hurricane Kart Club last weekend. The KOTH has been a ‘must attend’ event for the last 4 years in WA Karting and was a perfect fit for the Final round of the WA KZ Series Final.

Once again the KZ field maxed out the grid with 31 karts, an impressive feat being the final round. The $2000 dollar prize money on offer, thanks to our round sponsor CORE IT and Series Sponsor FMA Motorsport, always motivates drivers from around Australia to attend. FMA Motorsports, Andrew Freeman, said “We are pleased to support West Australia Karting and the KZ Series. Looks like we will be doing even more prize money next year and early talks are even more interstate drivers are looking to attend. It’s perfect for them to get some extra laps in between CIK rounds and the prize money never hurts.”


pic - Bradley Mitchell

Qualifying got underway in sunny conditions and confirmed what many had known from Friday night practice. Blake ‘Millsy’ Mills (Energry/TM) was going to be the man to catch. Setting a 32.483 which is 2 tenths quicker than previous lap record set by Joey Hannsen. Qualifying master Simon ‘Gumby’ Gwilliam (Formula K/TM) clocked home in 2nd with a respectable time of 32.65. BD Soutar Dawson (Energy/TM) just missing out on 2nd place with a 32.68. Daniel Currey, Jake Klarich, Amrit Kandola and wildcard Jesse Elliott were separated by less than a tenth.

  • Link to CMS Result here


Above: Jason Faint was 4th in the final, here ahead of Kel Treseder, who DNFd the final. Adam Garnaut follows in #12
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Race 1 got after Jesse Elliott (FA/TM) stalled on his first ever WAKZ Start, something I’m sure the drivers will remind him of, putting him rear for race 1. Millsy stamped his authority on the meeting with a perfect start to finish Win, Gumby challenged early but was unable to stay with last year’s champion. BD home in 3rd was also left helpless to the speed of Millsy. Jesse Elliott managed to make his way up to 12th to give him valuable points to the pre final. Title contender Jake Klarich (CRG/TM) was battling away further down the pack in 6th which was leaving the door open for Mills to pinch the title from under his feet.

Disaster struck in race 2. The title hopes of Mills had faded when an engine seize on the first lap cost him the valuable points needed. Gwilliam was then able to maintain a gap back to BD to win heat 2. Amrit Kandola (Luxor/LKE) moved forward to 3rd and was looking like he could challenge in the absence of Millsy. Patrizi Coarse Driver Daniel Currey (Birel/TM) held out Jesse Elliott to take 4th. Klarich was still having kart troubles coming home 7th.


Above: Blake Mills' Championship lost
pic - Bradley Mitchell

The Pre Final Grid had Gwilliam and BD occupying the front row. This time though it was BD who got the chocolates, taking the win with a start to finish performance. There was only 1 kart looking better, Jesse Elliott starting out of 8 made his way forward to take 3rd. Currey again home 4th with a consistent run we have come to expect from the experienced driver. Klarich, having realised he only had to finish to win the championship, was taking a caution approach to come home 5th. Millsy was once again dealt a blow with a DNF trying to make his way forward.

With the Championship all but over, the talk was if the old guns of BD and Gumby could hold out wildcard entry Elliott. A cracking pace was set from the start, the 3 drivers all over each on the first few laps. BD had managed to open up a 1 kart lead, Elliott noticed this and went for a pass on Gwilliam on the infamous ‘Bus Stop’ corner. At that moment Gwilliam had break Failure which caused him to stop. The other talk of the race would be with Millsy’s good tyres, and impressive speed, how far could he get? On lap 6, he was already up to 10th and looking very dangerous.


Above: Mid-pack battle, Matt Davis (26), Ben Johnson (35), Brenton Magri (91) and Christopher Gatt (10)
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Queenslander Jason Faint (lenzo/LKE) had also made the most of his opportunities starting from 6th to be in position 3 ahead of Klarich. Currey was also making his way forward after a bad start. Passing both Klarich and Faint. By lap 17 Millsy passed into 5th, and by lap 20/25 was into 3rd. could this be the first last to win race for the WAKZ series!

Jesse Elliott was still showing impressive speed and had past BD on lap 12. He continued to drive away, though BD kept within 3 kart lengths. Knowing tyre maintenance is a major part of finishing these longer races. BD pushed in the last 5 laps to get on the rear of Elliott, I vital mistake with 2 laps to go ended any chance of passing for the race win. Elliott joined the impressive list of WA KZ Round winners in his first race, BD 2nd and Millsy 3rd a mear 2.7sec behind the leader to take home the Hard Charger Award. Faint raced hard to 4th holding of Currey for 5th and eventual series Winner Klarich 6th.


Above: Winner of the Final, Jesse Elliot
pic - Bradley Mitchell


Above: Jason Faint (22), Dean Whittome (44), Thomas Howe (14)
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Driver Quotes

Blake Mills – Round 3rd Place, Championship 2nd  

“Our weekend definitely didn't go to plan that's for sure. We started it off the best way possible, where we got pole and broke the track record. We also had a comfortable win in the first race, and thought we might be in with a shot to win the championship again. But that was shorted lived when we had engine drama in the second race and crashed out of the pre final.

"The final was definitely the most fun I have ever had in a kart. I was over the moon with our result. Starting 30th I knew we had good speed and enough rubber left on my tyres to get me the distance. We had a great first lap which I got up to 16th and from then worked my way up the field. I found myself in 3rd position with 6 laps to go but the two boys in front had too big of a lead. Another few laps more and it may of been game on! Huge thanks to Adam Graham and the Energy Kart family for all their help the past few years, definitely wouldn't of had the results without them. Matt Elsdon for all he's help and BD from Flatout karts. Also Congratulations to Jake on the series win, was well deserved”.


Above: Blake Mills
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Jesse Elliott – Round Winner

“Going in as the underdog to the meeting defiantly gave me a motivation to push hard and do the best I can.
We went into the weekend hoping for a top 5 and to be competitive with some of the best drivers in Australia. We knew we had some pace coming up to the event testing and trying different things. Winning on debut has defiantly taken the pressure of my back, and felt like winning the nationals all over again was indescribable!”

“Leading up to the race, I was testing for the last 2 test days then we did the club run, seeking night time practice to get the heads up on a gripped track on how the kart will react.”
 
“It was great racing with mature and highly respected racers, its always challenging and such close racing. I was testing at hurricane and was having a chat with Simon Gwilliam and he said `You better not win this weekend. you will make us look like gumbys' *Laughs*

“I can’t wait to get back out there next year in the series give it my all and see where that takes me, looking forward to racing against the best again. Maybe even some European testing but that will be decided later to date”.   


Above: Jesse Elliot
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Darren Burke – 3rd Championship, WAKZ Ricciardo Rookie

“Well that didn't quite go as planned!! We hoped to end the year on a high! Going into the last round we still had a chance to win the championship as well as the rookie award! Unfortunately that wasn't to be. Practice went well, but as soon as he hit the track on race day we were up against it! Qualifying in 13th wasn't my greatest moment of the year and with this championship being so tough you need good track position. That is certainly what we didn't get. Throughout the day we moved forward and fortunately we did enough to maintain third in the championship standings. Although it wasn't our greatest round, we've had an exceptional first full year and I've really enjoyed racing with some of the best drivers around the country! Roll on next year !! Thanks to everyone who made it what it is, particularly Andrew freeman for his continuous support and Nathan Davis for a fantastic job of spinning spanners all year!”

“A massive congratulations to Klarichini - all that hard work has paid off fella! And you deserve it! Good job buddy!! Been mega racing with you all year!!”


Above: Darren Burke
pic - Bradley Mitchell

Jake Klarich – FMA Motorsport WA KZ Series Champion

“On the weekend we started off with some brakes issues which set us back a bit, qualifying wasn't too bad but struggled for setup over the first few races. We knew that we just needed to finish the races inside the top 5 and we would have taken out the championship. So we concentrated on doing that, Millsy had a couple of DNF’s so I went into the final with the title already which was a nice feeling!”

“Nearly a week later from the race meeting and I'm still buzzing over my win! I have the confidence going into the next season, this year went well for us, we stayed consistent but still lost a lot of points for silly things, so I'm confident we can start next year strong and hopefully defend my title!

Everyone is always improving and learning, so I'm expecting next season to be as tough as this season if not tougher! Going to do lots of testing over the pre-season and organise ourselves to make sure we start off with a bang!”


Above: The new champion, Jake Klarich
pic - Bradley Mitchell

BD – Round 2nd place

“Starting off pole I put my Mills Drainage Energy kart in the lead at a good pace to not run out of tyres at the end. Jess passed me with ten to go but was on the limit. This left me a bit to push up to him with 3 or 4 to go. I closed up on him in range for a bit of a fight but a little mistake from me lost me a kart length or two, so I took the option to not just lunge in there and potentially put a customer and/or myself in the bush. Great to see the young guys putting the effort in and getting results right through out the top ten. Super solid drive by Mills too, giving us a Flatout Engines top 3 in the final. Another great meeting for the series as a whole. Next year is shaping up to be even bigger and better once again. I’m sure we will see even more drivers jumping on board”.


Above: BD Soutar-Dawson
pic - Bradley Mitchell

The WA KZ Series Committee would like to thank Karting WA, Hurricane Kart club, Albany City Kart Club, Tiger Kart Club, Bunbury City Kart Club and all the Drivers who competed in this year’s Series. If you wish to be a part of next year’s Series please email wakzseries@gmail.com


Above: Round 5 results


Above: Series results

 

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