Red Ice Racing 5th In Superkart Championship
press release
Ilya Harpas had a tough weekend at Morgan Park Raceway, but still managed to climb to 5th overall in the Australian Superkart Championship.
Red Ice Racing fielded only one driver, Ilya, for Round 2 at Morgan Park. Yiani was unfortunately unable to compete due to University exams.
After spending Friday preparing and setting up the kart, Ilya opened Saturday's practice session by posting the 3rd fastest time behind McIlveen and Hossack.
Qualifying 1 was a testing affair, with overlapped traffic figuring prominently in Ilya's session; Ilya recorded the 6th fastest time.
Qualifying 2 fared no better, with Ilya's nosecone collapsing on his first flying lap. A tremendous pit-lane effort by Dave Hepworth and Todd Johnson saw the front nosecone repaired, but Ilya was unable to set a better time after getting out for a final 2 laps. Combined qualifying saw Ilya relegated to 7th position. The top three spots were filled by Warren McIlveen, Gary Pegoraro (running a BRC-Anderson) and Jason Smith.
Race 1 saw Ilya triumph in a race-long battle with 2009 Australian Champion, Sam Zavaglia for 5th position. Race 2 brought another 5th position for Ilya, despite struggling during the race with a setup change.
Races 3 and 4 saw Ilya pick up a gearbox problem that was unable to be fixed between heats. Missing 3rd and 4th gears, he drove well to minimise the damage; holding off as many karts as he could to salvage 6th and 8th place in each respective heat.
After the points for Round 2 had been calculated, 2008 Champion Darren Hossack and 7-Time Champion Warren McIlveen were tied for first position, with Hossack awarded the 2010 Championship upon countback rules. Gary Pegoraro's brilliant pace and championship assault was cruelly curtailed by a terminal failure in Heat 3. However, he still managed to stay ahead of Sam Zavaglia to clinch 3rd position in the Championship. Ilya slotted into 5th position overall, but was disappointed because the gearbox issues prevented him from a very real chance to finish in 4th, to match his 2009 result.
RedIce Racing would like to thank the tremendous support of Dave and Barb Hepworth, Todd Johnson and Mark Hanson. We would also like to thank BRC engines and our sponsors, Internode and Davtec.
[The weekend's racing will be televised on SBS's Speedweek at 1pm on the 22nd August]
Red Ice Racing can be found at: www.rediceracing.com.au
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