Race Report: Clyde Marshall Memorial
from Max laybutt
Last weekend saw another fabulous weekend of racing and entertainment at the Lithgow circuit of the Combined District Kart Club to celebrate the annual Clyde Marshall event. Clyde was a major contributor to the initial Lithgow formation and his efforts are recognised by the club with this major race meeting.
Almost 180 karters drove their socks off in an endeavour to take home a very stylish Clyde Marshall plate, a trophy that was more than acceptable to all that competed, and well worth putting in that little extra effort to win. It should be mentioned that all the winners will be recorded on the Clyde Marshall honour boards on the club walls, which is a very real achievement and one competitor was heard to remark, “I have finally made the board”.
This meeting was not only a competition of great karting historical sentiment, but it also served as the opening of the National Breast Cancer Pageant that the club works at from now until the celebrated “Ladies Only” meeting in January 2012 to raise money for this heart felt cause that effects a lot of our ladies (all the details of the “all ladies event” are contained in a booklet that is available from the club by contacting any one of the clubs officers listed on the web site).
And in what is typical of the effort of the Combined District club hospitality, a great trivia night on the Saturday night was just too good to miss, dedicated club member Glen Egan provided a night of fun and fellowship in his usual professional manner, however he was really well and truly upstaged by his daughters who put together and presented an extremely fun filled trivia competition, combined with a superb meal that was a credit to our canteen girls. An entertaining auction by Glen raised almost $3,000 as a first step in the success of the 2011 pageant.
No less than 9 lovely young ladies have come forward to be pageant “princesses” and will now set out to raise as much as they can in an effort to make this year’s breast cancer pageant the best ever.
Now down to racing, which included, after the initial carburetor session, another carburetor session / qualifying session, 3 heats, a prefinal and a final, and had everybody ready to take the trip back home by 3.00pm on Sunday evening.
16 classes combined into 13 groups to provide some large fields with some really great racing was the order of the day.
For the 125 competitors, both Restricted and Open classes were awarded trophies, and some really great racing was the order of the day. For the Sportsman class Kingsley Hussey took the Lightweight honours while Ben Piper was too good for the Heavy weights. The Restricted Light guys could not stay the pace with Kyle Sandona, although they all tried, and the Heavy group were headed home by Benjamin Ritchie.
Lithgow has always been the well represented with junior racing and this meeting was no exception. No less that 23 Midgets came to play with Zac Raddatz leading Cody Brewczynski and Kyle Bonser home in the final.
A big field of Rookies were led home by Joshua Car, with Cody Gillis and Isaac Vaccarella following after some really thrilling racing that serves to demonstrate the ability of our sport to provide great driving skills to these young guys.
Dimitri Agathos almost had as much fun winning the Junior National Lights as his father did participating in the trivia night! Stefan Stankovic and the busy Adam Hourigan made Dimitri work hard for the win.
The club president Paul Giuntini reckons he deserves the credit for son Aaron’s win in the Heavy class, after all he was the pit crew, Aaron tells it differently, but was a very clear winner in front of Dimitri Agathos and Michael Saller.
And it was great to see a reasonably large Junior Clubman class provide some really great racing, these guys are just absolute proof that karting provides a great learning place for young people to hone their kart control skills. Reece Davidson led Lachlan Gibbons and Dylan Shepherd home but it could have been any one of the top five that seriously provided some very close racing on the last lap to produce the final placings.
There are people that will tell you that the Clubman classes are our premium classes, and while I have no intention of getting into that discussion, it would have to be said that both the Light and Heavy Clubman divisions at this meeting just provided superb racing by all the entrants.
The final dice between Ian Beeraz, who eventually took the win, and Trent Rogers in the Light division was mind blowing, and I am sure that neither of them knew who would get the chequered flag first for they swapped places so many times, in some of the most difficult places on the track, and not a mark on any of the side pods, just a tremendous display of top quality racing, and while Bryce Davidson was there all the way he had to be content with a third placing.
Gotta say that the Heavy division during the heats, looked like a Jason Varley benefit, who in his usual style gave a great demonstration of how to go “quick” but David Kermond had other plans, and he and father Gary worked so hard to improve that come final time he was all over Jason who eventually succumbed to engine gremlins allowing David to take a well deserved “result for effort” win with Andrew Roffey and Justin Wills following him home, and to be fair I feel that even if Jason and not had a gremlin attack that the final placing between him and David was far from a “given”
And the ever reliable National classes! Just lots of ladies preparing for the forthcoming “Ladies Only” meeting in January. This class remains as a solid class at the Lithgow meetings all year long and is just going from strength to strength with numbers competing on the increase all the time.
Jenny Taylor was the winner with Sarah Millmore and Monique Millmore following jenny home, but not without some very real competition, and with improvement showing on all the girls January “ladies only” is looking like a very competitive meeting.
The Senior Nationals, as usual had close fought battles all day, with Josh Buchan leading Brayden Pritchard and Dean O’brien home in the final of the Light division.
Brayden Pritchard turned it around to fill the front spot of the Heavy division with Craig Thornton and Jeremy Atkins filling the next two spots.
Both the Senior Over 40’s and National Super Heavy are where all the real fun is, and it was great to see some of the Orange club members down to test our local exponents of these two great Lithgow classes.
Our Combined District Club Over 40 guys of Glen Egan, John Horsburgh, and Brian “Skippy” Sciberras had to follow home Ian Thornton, and Anthony Borg in the Over 40’s while the Superheavy class was turned on its head by Jeffrey Cooper who with a borrowed motor and on his return to karting led home an absolutely flying Andrew Curtis, and Maurie Piper, with the usual fast Tom Hearn relegated to an un-usual fourth position.
The next meeting at Lithgow will encompass all the usual classes and a visit to the CDKC web site will provide all the information that you will require, while the meeting will be run over two days, each class will be completed on one designated day as per the usual combined district clubs normal Light day, Heavy day format.
This meeting will recognise the anniversary of the clubs 30th birthday and a “white table cloth” dinner will be held on the Saturday night, to make it “fun” all men attending must wear a black bow tie, (and then a t shirt and shorts, thongs are allowed ......... On the feet) while the ladies need to be formally attired! ... well something black anyway!!
