words – Karting Australia
pics – KA/Pace Images
The fourth edition of Karting Australia’s Ultimate Club Racer has been run and won at Murray Bridge’s Go Kart Club of South Australia, with competitors testing themselves against some of the best club racers in Australia.
The KA3 Senior Light category was taken out by Adelaide racer Mitch Burgmeister. Max Wucsko had dominated the heat racing, taking all four, however Burgmeister timed his run in the final to perfection taking the final by 2.2 seconds ahead of his fellow South Australian, while Chris Alexopoulos completed a solid weekend finishing with a podium.
In TaG Restricted Light, Brayden Parkinson was mixing it with the KA3 racers and won the class ahead of Jayden Voss and Joel Miller.
In a hotly contested 4SS Senior Medium final, Samuel Miettunen withstood a late race charge from Brayden Slama – after the pair had swapped the first place during the mid part of the race. Dan Virgo put together a solid weekend to bring his machine home in third position.
Jake Holland won TaG Restricted Medium after duking it out with Baxter Fountain and Steve Miller throughout the weekend.
KA3 Junior went the way of Max Johnston after the application of a post-race penalty for a driving infringement to Levi Jones. Jones had dominated the weekend throughout and was dropped to third as result, this then promoted Mass Calabro to second.
In 4SS Junior, Des Harral dominated. In his first year of Junior competition, it was a big win for the local racer who got home over Levi Ross and Lucas O’Regan.
Cadet 9 saw an epic fight in the final between Milan Sami and Ari Djemil. The two Victorians battle for the duration of the 11 minute plus one lap final with Ryder Xiong keeping them honest. The New South Welshman ended up third behind Sami and Djemil, closing a gap right towards the end of the race to finish within a second of the winner.
A multi-class 4SS category saw Lismore, NSW racer Elliott Thompson get a narrow win in Supermaxx over Luke Smith and Jason Lloyd. Nick Somerville won the 4SS Light category after battling with the more powerful Supermaxx drivers.
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The 4SS Heavy class was hotly contested with Andrew Hall taking the win and the minors going to the wire – falling the way of Jake Holland in second who got there just in front of James Pace and a gaggle of karts behind.
The Cadet 12 racers turned it on through the weekend with Sammy Jansen Van Vuuren crossing the line by just over one-tenth of a second in front of weekend long nemesis, Rossi Yau.
Mason Martin got the best of a race long battle for third position after recent Cadet 9 graduate, Oliver Armitt retired with a technical issue.
Although a small entry number, TaG Light produced spirited racing between Hugo Garraway and Josh Elliston through the weekend. It was Mildura racer Garraway that took a half second win over the local, while in the Heavy division, local South Australian, Nathan Rosenzweig got the win in an all-local podium in front of Duran Cowland and James Cuevas.
In KA3 Junior Light, some overnight changes worked for Dominic Mercuri, who was able to get the best of Cristiano Crisa – who dominated Saturday’s opening three heat races. New South Wales driver, Tommy Rizk was another to have benefited from some overnight homework – bringing his machine home in third.
In the annual State of Origin Teams Race held on Saturday afternoon, it was the South Australian Red Team consisting of members from the Southern Go-Kart Club that took the honours. The race consisted of four legs across four categories – Cadet 12, KA3 Junior, 4SS Senior and TaG 125 Restricted/KA3 Senior.
That completes the fourth edition of the Ultimate Club Racer – with Karting Australia sponsors SP Tools, Maxxis Tyres and LeCont Tyres handing out thousands of dollars in random draw prizes as competitors celebrated the event with a food truck festival that has become a staple of visiting the Monarto track.
The next and final major event on the Karting Australia calendar comes in a few weeks time at the GoPro Summer Series Final at Port Melbourne’s Todd Road facility across the weekend of November 31-December 1.
The SP Tools Australian Kart Championship will return to the Go Kart Club of South Australia May 2-4 next year for the second round of the multi-round Championship.
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