by Russell Innes, Ipswich Kart Club
The Ipswich Kart Club Championship returned for Round 5 on Saturday the 6th of August, with the running of the Graham Acreman Memorial TAG Titles. As usual at IKC, numbers were massive and 249 competitors took to the track.
- full results on speedhive HERE
After a little bit of overnight rain, conditions were challenging for TAG Light and TAG Heavy who had qualifying at the start of the programme and for the first 4 or so class races as the track dried out.
The expected frontrunners all mastered the wet track conditions well in Qualifying for TAG Light, with Jace Matthews on pole from Zane Rinaldi, Declan Matthews, Brent Reading and Tyler Greenbury. Jace Matthews had a reasonably comfortable win in Heat 1 from Greenbury and Declan Matthews. Heat 2 shook things up a bit when Rinaldi and Greenbury had a coming together, which also took out Declan Matthews. Jace Matthews winning by a 6 second margin from Hamish Fitzsimmons and Thomas Gallagher. Jace Matthews again was unchallenged in Heat 3 with a comfortable win from Greenbury and Fitzsimmons.
The Final was expected to be a great race with so many talented drivers involved and it did not disappoint. Jace Matthews led all the way but Greenbury was keeping him honest, whilst Fitzsimmons had settled into 3rd. Matthews eventually winning by a very narrow margin from Greenbury. Fitzsimmons 3rd, Declan Matthews 4th and Brent Reading who recovered from a couple of bad Heat races to finish the Final in 5th.
The wet conditions for Qualifying in TAG Heavy didn’t change the usual suspects at the front, with Marc Tulloch fastest from Brock Plumb and Jared Neinert. Hayden Egan did very well to be 4th fastest ahead of last years Graham Acreman Memorial winner in this class, Chris Williams. Tulloch and Plumb quickly showed they were going to be the 2 to be beat, having a close battle in Heat 1 well ahead of the rest of the field. Tulloch edging out to a 2 second win from Plumb with Neinert 7 seconds back in 3rd. Plumb led early in Heat 2 before Tulloch took over at the front to win by just under 2 seconds, again these 2 well clear of Williams in 3rd. Plumb again led early in Heat 3 before Tulloch took over in front and pulled clear. Williams again 3rd.
On to the Final and Tulloch led every lap and edged away for a comfortable victory, from Plumb with Williams close behind in 3rd. Sam Houston had got closer to the front 3 all day through the Heats and was a close 4th across the line, with Riley LeGarde rounding out the top 5.
The Cadet P class at Ipswich Kart Club continues to be a great program to introduce new cadets to racing and the Cadet 9P’s had some fantastic racing between Riccardo Johnston, Oliver Flack and 1st timer Martin Hsieh, Johnston winning all 3 Heats, but didn’t get a great start in the Final and Hsieh and Flack took advantage to take the first 2 spots and hung on in a thrilling 3 way battle. Hsieh 1st from Flack and Johnston.
Cadet 12 P was hotly contested in the 1st 2 Heats between Mia Yarwood and Alistair Leggatt with a win each. Yarwood had an unfortunate rollover in Heat 3 with Leggatt winning from Leo Prommnitz. Leggatt was unchallenged in the Final though and drove away to a huge victory. Yarwood did very well to get back on track to drive to 2nd in the Final in a 4 way battle from Jenson Clout in 3rd, Coper Field 4th and Prommnitz 5th.
Cadet 9 has had some fantastic close racing at Ipswich so far this year and our youngest competitors once again put on a great show. Jack Musico, Vencent Ter Horst and Michael Quintiliani were the Heat winners with Zander Watts, Luca Raso and Carter Grother among the placings. Watts led the Final early before Quintiliani took over at the front and stretched away to win by over 3 seconds from Watts. Blake Haigh had been a bit off the pace early in the day but worked his way forward to finish 3rd in the Final.
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KA3 Junior attracted a good field despite a few normal frontrunners being away at City of Melbourne Titles. Jack Wells showed early on he was the one of the favourites with a strong Heat 1 win. Isaac McNeill won Heat 2 and Heat 3 though to show he was going to be strong in the Final. Amongst the placings through the Heats were Sebastian Tupackovski, Jordi Slater and William Gallagher. Tupackovski got away best in the Final and led early from Gallagher and Wells, whilst McNeill was struggling to keep with them. Wells soon moved to 2nd and zeroed in on Tupackovski taking the lead with 3 laps to go. Kayden Thompson had worked his way to the front and also got past Tupackovski and a tight 3 way battle ensued over the last few laps. Wells winning narrowly from Tupackovski who snatched 2nd back from Thompson on the 2nd last lap.
A huge 34 kart field contested Cadet 12 and Lana Flack had a great start to the day with a strong win in Heat 1 from Tyson McGill and Gabriel Elkayam. Sebastian Eskandari-Miranda won Heat 2 convincingly from Seth Huth and McGill. He had another strong win in Heat 3 from Elkayam and Flack. Eskandari-Miranda was then unchallenged in the Final leading from the start for a comfortable win ahead of Basilo Micale and Cooper Folley.
4SS Junior continues to provide good racing at IKC and 14 starters fronted up. The Stratford boys have been pretty dominant in this class lately and Henry Stratford started proceedings with a big win in Heat 1 from his brother Charlie. The result was reversed in Heat 2, but Henry came back strong with a Heat 3 win over Charlie. Filling out 3rd placings in the Heats were Cody Scott, Chloe Lane and Georgie Yeadon. In the Final Henry Stratford was pretty dominant and won by over 5 seconds. Charlie Stratford and Georgie Yeadon had a good battle for 2nd and whilst Stratford crossed the line 2nd he was relegated to 3rd after contact with Yeadon, who was then elevated to 2nd.
Luke Rinaldi had 2 Heat wins in KA4 Junior Light, Jye Flynn the other, with Dominic Penman and Brodie Norris amongst the placings during the 3 Heats. The Final was a great race with Rinaldi and early leader, then Penman in front, then Flynn taking over. Flynn and Penman then had a very close battle to the finish, Flynn just holding on for the win from Penman. Rinaldi got the best of a big battle for 3rd.
4SS Senior Light has recently been a happy hunting ground for the Briggs boys, Jordan and Darcy, but Byce Lane made an appearance in the class at this Round and these 3 boys had some great battles. Lane started off with the Heat 1 win from Jordan Briggs and Darcy Briggs. Darcy won Heat 2 narrowly from brother Jordan with Alice Litzow in 3rd. Lane was the meat in the sandwich in Heat 3 with Darcy Briggs 1st, Lane 2nd and Jordan Briggs 3rd. In the Final Darcy Briggs led all the way but was very closely tailed by brother Jordan and then Lane. These 3 remained very close and went across the line all separated by less than ½ a second. Harrison Arendt won 4SS Senior Heavy and Edison Rangel Diaz won 4SS Super Medium.
Evan Broughton, Noel Smyth and Kevin Johnston all had a Heat win in TAG Restricted Masters and had a close battle in the Final, Smyth taking a narrow win from Broughton and Johnston.
Rudy Farkas won 2 Heats and James Hogan the other in TAG Restricted Medium, with David Vogel, Ben Lillis and Scott Bush amongst the placings. Farkas led the Final most of the way before Vogel grabbed the lead on Lap 8 of 10 and took a narrow win from Farkas with Hogan very close behind.
The Silcock boys (Ryan and Dean) have been pretty dominant at Ipswich this year in TAG Restricted Light and things looked like normal in Heat 1 with Ryan Silcock having a dominant win from Jack Munro and recently crowned State Champion Jacinta Hoey. Munro had a comfortable Heat 2 win from Hoey and Dean Silcock and followed it up with another strong Heat 3 win from Ryan Silcock and Hoey. On to the Final and Munro and Hoey led away from the front row and Munro would lead all the way for a small margin of victory over Ryan Silcock who had jumped to 2nd at the start, with Hoey 3rd.
A small but quality field of KA3 Senior was led home by Jai Brown in all 3 Heats, with Kurtis Tennant, Keegan Fraser, Ryan Uhlmann and Henry Titman filling the minor placings and Brown led the Final early from Tennant and Uhlmann, but had an issue and dropped a huge amount of time to drop way back in the placings. Uhlmann had got past Tennant and held on for a narrow win, with Titman filling out the podium.
Queensland Open Performance Light had some good battles between Tristan Griffin and Billy Myers, Myers winning Heat 1 from Griffin and Stephanie Duffy, Griffin leading home Myers and Lachlan Murphy in Heat 2 and repeating the dose in Heat 3. In the Final Griffin was unchallenged though, winning comfortably from Myers and then Murphy. In Queensland Open Performance Heavy, Brett Wells and Dan Hutchinson went 1 and 2 in all 3 Heats, with Keyan Appleby and Scott Cleveland fighting over 3rd. In the Final Wells was dominant, winning comfortably from Cleveland and Appleby 3rd.
This Round of the IKC Championships again included the IKC Clubday Challenge Program and the Group winners were:
- Cadet 9 Group 2 – Jeremy Broadbent
- Cadet 9 Group 3 – Luca Raso
- Cadet 12 Group 2 – Roman Krutil
- Cadet 12 Group 3 – Matthew Dixon
- KA4 Junior Light Group 2 – Charlotte Page
- KA4 Junior Light Group 3 – Trent Newton
- TAG Restricted Light Group 2 – Luc Jacobsen
- TAG Restricted Medium Group 2 – Bradley McNaught
- TAG Restricted Masters Group 2 – Simon Russell
The next round of the IKC Championship, the TAG Restricted Titles, will be on the 3rd of September. TAG Restricted Light, TAG Restricted Medium and TAG Restricted Masters will be the Feature Classes.
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