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AKA Australian Speedway Kart Titles

press release

The weekend of September 3 and 4 saw the New South Wales Speedway Kart Club host the second running of the 'Wescranes' AKA Australian Speedway Kart Titles at the Nepean Motorsport Complex.

The event was held in glorious  weather and a big crowd gathered on Sunday to witness some of the best racing seen at the venue.  Three heats of all divisions were run on the Saturday with one heat and the feature race being run on the Sunday. During the entire weekend, the racing  was fantastic with the track providing the perfect surface from the opening heat to the final chequered flag.
 
The Grand Marshall for the event was Brian Linigen who not only gave the victors the chequered flag but also presented the winning trophies to the 2011 Australian Champions.

The meeting was a complete success for the Club and Club president, Wayne Baines, stated “the committee is overwhelmed with the crowd that has turned up to witness this event and hopefully the people will come back and watch speedway karting again”.

After the lunch break on Sunday, current Club Champion, Nathan Camilleri, proudly carried the Australian Flag in a parade lap whilst the big crowd all stood for the playing of the National Anthem, building the anticipation of the feature races to come -  and the drivers didn’t let anyone down.  All the feature races were worthy of Australian Title status and provided great speedway action.

First on track was the Rookie class and whilst small in numbers these young drivers drove hard and fast all weekend.

Heats were won by Taylor Coghlan and Luke Sayre, Taylor winning heats 2 and 3 and Luke taking heats 1 and 4. However it was Andrew Beattie who snuck up on the field and took out the feature race.
Heat 1 – 1st Luke Sayre , 2nd Andrew Beattie , 3rd Taylor Coghlan
Heat 2 -  1st Taylor Coghlan , 2nd Taylor Rietdyk ,3rd John Gillespie
Heat 3 – 1st Taylor Coghlan , 2nd Taylor Rietdyk , 3rd John Gillespie
Heat 4 – 1st Luke Sayre , 2nd Andrew Beattie , 3rd John Gillespie
Feature – 1st Andrew Beattie , 2nd Luke Sayre , 3rd Taylor Coghlan

Next to race was the Junior class and again the racing was first class across the weekend. There were plenty of stories played out in this class during the weekend.  One of the favourites going into the weekend was State Champ Daniel Sayre however after fracturing his elbow playing football he was still determined to race and in the end had to succumb to the pain and missed out a place this year. Young lady racer Katelyn Hickey was looking good until her hip popped out on her while in the kart - battling the pain she drove on but it was too much for her.
 
One of the fast men of the weekend was Jordyn Brazier however, whilst looking good for a pole starting position in the feature, the cruelty of motorsport struck which saw him DNF his final heat and this relegated him to the second row. Jake Baines, who had traded the points lead across the weekend with Jordyn, took the pole. Once the green flagged dropped Jake was never challenged for the lead and went on to become the 2011 Australian Junior Champion.

Heat 1 – 1st Jake Baines, 2nd Ayden Elliott, 3rd Jordan Binskin
Heat 2 – 1st Jordyn Brazier, 2nd Katelyn Hickey, 3rd Daniel Sayre
Heat 3 – 1st Jordyn Brazier, 2nd Jake Baines, 3rd Katelyn Hickey
Heat 4 – 1st Nathan Camilleri, 2nd Lindsay Jones, 3rd Daniel Sayre
Feature – Champion Jake Baines, 2nd Ayden Elliott, 3rd Jordan Binskin

The first of the senior classes to compete was the Clubman Light class; defending Champion David Boyd, after racing Kt Modified all year, made a return to the class. Being in a borrowed kart didn’t help his cause and whilst he tried to come to terms with it was gallant in defeat.

Once all the heats were run and won it was ST Signs and Designs team mates, Jonathon Bright and Sean Mayo, who would start on the front row for the final. At the drop of the flag the two class drivers fell into 1st and 2nd respectively. A midrace yellow flag saw Sean get swamped on the restart and he fell back to 5th. The drivers who took advantage were Jason Woodward and Michael Jordan who jumped into 2nd and 3rd.  However, Jonathon was never in trouble and went on to record a comfortable win.

Heat 1 – 1st Daniel Morris, 2nd Jason Woodward, 3rd Kyle Pollock
Heat 2 – 1st Jonathon Bright, 2nd Sean Mayo, 3rd Kyle Pollock
Heat 3 – 1st Jonathon Bright, 2nd Sean Mayo, 3rd Jason Woodward
Heat 4 – 1st Mitch Brien, 2nd Michael Jordan, 3rd Kyle Pollock
Feature – Champion Jonathon Bright, 2nd Jason Woodward, 3rd Michael Jordan                                         

The Clubman Heavy boys were next and the racing right from heat 1 showed all of them were keen to be the Aussie Champion. The defending champion, Tim Baker, seemed to struggle for speed across the weekend. The surprise was Daniel Selmes who, after a DNF in his first heat, came back strong with three 2nd places. The other man on the pace was Les Green and the feature lined up with Les out of 1 and Daniel out of 2. After the race started, the pair would change positions and run to the chequered flag that way. Tim Baker held onto a podium finish coming home 3rd.

Heat 1 – 1st Gary Slarke , 2nd Tim Baker , 3rd Les Green
Heat 2 – 1st Les Green , 2nd Daniel Selmes , 3rd David Cochran
Heat 3 – 1st Les Green , 2nd Daniel Selmes , 3rd Tim Baker
Heat 4 – Richard Elliott , 2nd Daniel Selmes , 3rd Gary Slarke
Feature – Champion Daniel Selmes , 2nd Les Green, 3rd Tim Baker

KT Modified Light had the biggest field of the titles and defending champion, David Hopping, was quietly confident of backing up his 2009 win. However it was the meeting stand out, Michael Jordan, who would take victory in the most dominate display of the weekend.  Michael won all five races of the meeting and left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who is the rightful KT Light Australian champion. Whilst the class provided spectacular racing all weekend nothing overshadowed Michael’s extraordinary feat in such a quality field.

Heat 1 – 1st Michael Jordan , 2nd Tim Beattie , 3rd Daniel Gow
Heat 2 – 1st Michael Jordan , 2nd David Hopping , 3rd Nathan King
Heat 3 – 1st Michael Jordan , 2nd David Hopping , 3rd Nathan King
Heat 4 – 1st Michael Jordan , 2nd Luke Spinley , 3rd David Boyd
Feature – Champion Michael Jordan , 2nd David Hopping , 3rd Nathan King

The KT Modified Heavy class was the final class to race on the programme. Defending champion , Wayne Baines, lead a stellar field full of quality.  A first heat DNF for Baines had his title defence in tatters but after three 3rd place finishes in his remaining heats he was to start the feature from position 3.  Cameron Coghlan had a win in his first heat followed by three 2nd place finishes in his remaining heats, making him the highest points qualifier and gave him pole position for the final.

Donald Stevens had two heat wins and placed himself on the front row with Cameron. In the feature, Baines was able to take the lead from Coghlan and then as his son Jake did , went on to lead all 20 laps and was the only person to successfully defend his title.

Heat 1 – 1st Cameron Coghlan , 2nd Donald Stevens , 3rd Joel Rhind
Heat 2 – 1st Donald Stevens , 2nd Cameron Coghlan , 3rd Wayne Baines
Heat 3 – 1st Donald Stevens , 2nd Cameron Coghlan , 3rd Wayne Baines
Heat 4 – 1st Rod Sievwright , 2nd Cameron Coghlan , 3rd Wayne Baines
Feature Champion Wayne Baines , 2nd Les Green, 3rd Cameron Coghlan

All in all, the meeting was a great success and certainly the highs to come out of the event was Michael Jordan’s dominance in KT Light , double duties men Les Green and Michael Jordan getting  onto  the podium in two classes and, of course, Jake and Wayne Baines becoming the first Father and Son combination to win Australian Titles .

The committee of the NSWSKC would like to thank the publican of the Lapstone Hotel for the week long promotion that was run at the hotel which no doubt added to the spectator interest over the weekend .

Also a huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers and officials that gave up their time over the weekend .

Last but not least the NSWSKC would like to once again thank WESCRANES for their support of this event and for their continued support throughout 2011.

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