Junior Top Guns Round 1

Words: Luke Dickson & Steve Polak. Photos: Ash Budd & Andrew Daley

The racing year got underway last week with the increasingly popular Junior Top Guns meeting at the Oakleigh track. For once the weather seemed to hold (there is a bit of a history of rain at the Top Gun event), even if there was plenty of wind. Results on mylaps.com HERE.

Below are a few highlights of the first night’s racing. Remember, round two is this Friday!

Formula JMA
Formula JMA really looks set to take off with junior karters this year, a strong field of 12 karts faced the starter, but Matthew Brabham was simply brilliant in his first outing in the class (see Monday's news) after qualifying on pole Brabham was never challenged, only being shuffled from the lead at the start of the final. Fighting his way back to the front Brabham, took the win by 2 seconds from Jack Wynack and Luke Rochford who had their own battle through the 10 lap journey. This one looks set to take off where it left again on Friday night.

Above: Matthew Brabham
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Junior Clubman
Junior Clubman produced some of the most exciting racing of the night. Some exceptional skills were showcased by Cameron Waters, Jordan Nicolaou, Jack Wynack, Jarrod Egan and Hayden Renshaw who at various stages of the night all took turns at leading the races. Waters took the pre-final and looked to be in contention for the final but was forced to watch it from the sidelines after a coming together with Renshaw. Meantime, Egan was on a charge. Forced to start from the back after an electrical problem resulted in a pre-final DNF, Egan sliced through the field and eventually went on to take the final from a fast recovering Renshaw and Jack Wynack.

Above: Hayden Renshaw (12) was 2nd in the final, here leading Jordan Nicolaou
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Junior National Heavy
Junior National Heavy had super close racing and lots of passing throughout the entire field. Hayden Dodman took the pre-final ahead of Nicholas Ellen and local driver Belinda Graham. Come finals time the same three drivers did battle shadowing each other closely during the early stages until Dodman broke away to take a commanding victory. With that kind of form he will be hard to beat this Friday night.

Above: Hayden Dodman leads Aaron Johnstone
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Junior National Heavy C & P
In the pre-final this one could have gone either way. In the first race Belinda Graham managed to hold on for a well earned victory from Thomas Allen and Tom Martin. Come finals time the script was out the window. For a start Graham bent an axle after spinning straight out of the grid on her first roll round lap.  Next Thomas Allen had an unfortunate DNF on lap one. This allowed Tom Martin to take a convincing victory and this puts him in a commanding position for this Friday night’s finals.

Above: Tom Martin at speed and on his way to his first win.
pic - Andrew Daley, www.akdphotos.com

Junior National Light
In a field of 20 karts Junior National Light was a showcase of who’s who in junior karting at the moment. With no less than 3 blue plates in the field, the racing in this class was electric. Liam Morey took the pre-final ahead of Brad Jenner and it was much the same in the final. Morey showed exceptional speed to take the final by 3 seconds after driving a perfect race. Jenner, Waters and Mclellan scrapped for the minor places – this battle will resume again on Friday and promises to be a ripper.

Above: How much power has that J got?! JNL winner Liam Morey pulls a wheelie.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Junior National Light C & P
There was action a plenty in C & P with local driver Curt Sera taking victory in both races ahead of Matthew Mclellan after the two skipped away from the rest of the field to have their own duel. Christian Harris took third place in the final ahead of Daniel Valentini.

Above: Curt Sera.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Midgets
With the mighty Midgets being let loose for the first time in '09, Blake Graham took a hard earned win in the pre-final and finished second to Reece Sidebottom in the final. Giulian Dichiera took the third spot on the podium after finding some extra speed during the break that was enough to hold out a fast finishing Tom Hughes.

Above: Reece Sidebottom.
pic - Andrew Daley, www.akdphotos.com

Rookies
Amazingly the biggest field of the night was the Rookies! A capacity grid of 32 karts took to the circuit and produced some fine racing. The roll round laps were pretty hectic though for the first race with many spinning and the field had to be called in to sort themselves out. Up front it was a battle of the Jakes’ with Dixon taking victory from Klein in both races by the smallest of margins. The two Arrow pilots put on a fantastic show and this will again be one to get to the fence for on Friday night. Damon Strongman took out third place in the final ahead of Tony Kart pilot Reece Bloomfield.

Above: Jake Dixon.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

So the stage looks set for some great racing. If you are free this Friday night and would like some first class entertainment, head to the Oakleigh circuit for round two.

Above: Adrian Lazzaro ahead of Brittany Hall and Matthew Branha, JNL.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Cameron Waters on his way to 3rd, JNL.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Jay Walker loops it, JNL C&P pre-final.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Aaron Johnstone (63) gets together with Jennifer Shanahan (99), JC.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Matthew McLean (2) hooks up in Rookies as Will Hawks looks for a way through.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Jack Wynak, Junior Rotax.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Brad Jenner leads an angry field of JNL.
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

Above: Tom Mayer, JNL C&P
pic - Ash Budd, www.photowagon.com.au

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