Kelly Scores FSC Podium
press release
Following his very successful first State Title two weeks ago, Adelaide student Sam Kelly has backed up his win with a second place at Round 4 of the Festival State Cup at the cool Barossa Go Kart Club on Saturday night.
Aboard his new Lenzo kart, Kelly finished the opening heat in fourth after starting from fifth. The second race saw Sam starting out of position two, eventually charging into 1st by the first corner and remaining in the lead for the opening six laps, however a mistake on the 8th lap saw Kelly drop to 3rd which is where he would remain.
For the pre-final, Sam was out of position four and had quickly taken 3rd early on; with consistent times seeing him remain there through to the end. Sam stated, "I learnt from my last races mistakes, when I knew I had a decent gap towards the end of the race, I tried not to push too hard because I knew the tyres were starting to go off".
Starting the final in 3rd and with a controversial start to boot, Sam dropped back to fifth after the second corner. "I dropped back to 5th and knew I had to get into 4th if I wanted a chance of getting 2nd for the round. I wasn't close enough after the first lap so on the second lap just made the pass, got through and kept pressing," added Kelly.
For the Adelaide teenager, a 4th position in the final resulted in a 2nd place overall for the round moving Sam closer to the top 3 in the Festival State Cup Championship.
Sam said following the meeting, “It’s good to back up the state title win. Hopefully I can have another good finish in the last round and claim a top 3 result overall."
Sam is now focusing on competing in the Clubman class for the next few months before returning to Sportsman SA for the final round of the Festival State Cup. Kelly stated looking ahead in the season, "I'll get out there testing as much as possible to try and get myself competitive and the right results I need to move forward with my career."
