Reports & News From Ipswich
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IPSWICH KART CLUB 1st SEPTEMBER CLUB MEETING / 2012 XTREME RACING SEQ CADET/ROOKIE TITLES
THE MEETING
Another fantastic day of racing at the Ipswich Kart Club Willowbank Raceway on eptember 1. The weather was superb for racing and while it got cool in the late afternoon, no one noticed, the close racing kept everyone warm.
The feature classes for this event were the annual South East Queensland Cadet- Rookie Titles sponsored by Xtreme Racing who donated an excellent sponsorship package to IKC which was very well received by everyone.
Andre Borell from Xtreme Racing has been a great supporter to the up and coming at IKC over the past of couple of years and it is great to see Andre, who is involved in a range of motorsport levels, supporting major karting events such as these. Thanks Andre and Extreme Racing!
Club President Ashley Waardenberg also wanted to thank Wurth Products for sponsoring the random prizes which included trolley toolboxes, this sponsorship was organised by committee member Paul Ash and Ash Prestige Auto so well done to everyone involved.
The Cadet and Rookie classes were hotly contested with a large number of strong competitors who came from everywhere to race for the prestigious title and silverware, we had Karters from Lismore, Warwick, Toowoomba, Rockhampton and of course Cooloola but they not only came for the feature events, they competed across most of the classes.
Ipswich always has a large support base from our neighbouring clubs and it would be great for the sport overall if IKC members could find the time to reciprocate and visit their clubs. I can tell you from personal experience that racing at all the local clubs like Warwick, Toowoomba, Cooloola, Lismore and even as far afield as Coffs Harbour makes you a far stronger racer.
Just ask multi state title holder Ben Stewart and the new DD2 National champion Lucas Ward, those tracks are where they cut their teeth in their younger days. Look up the club websites and if you can afford it, go to their meetings now and again; I can assure you it’s worth the effort and they need your support just like we do.
It just goes to show that if you have a great track and racing format, Karters will come to race. By format I mean day/night meetings and with racing finished at 7.30pm, no one got home too late.
The classes dropped for this meeting were TAG 125 Restricted light and heavy. Because these two are usually among our biggest classes and combine that with a number of locals who raced at the Rotax Nationals at Dubbo on the weekend, the numbers were slightly down on previous meetings but still 129 competitors turned up ready to rumble and rumble they did.
The rumbling was kept in check by a great group of officials who were ably led by John Lane. There were some very complimentary comments on John’s work and the interest he showed in the behaviour of some drivers and their pit crews improved the quality of racing, he didn’t take a backward step.
After a bit of a slow start and an accident in which young Kevin Sinclair suffered an injury, John pulled everything together for a great meeting in the end.
I am just wondering if we could start the day/night meetings say an hour earlier, talk to the officials and see if they could spare the extra time so that we don’t have to drop classes, losing 50 or 60 competitors who want to race and only get the opportunity at this club 8 times a year is not good for the finances of any club, let alone a club that could easily get 200 to a meeting if there were no dropped classes, instead, combine the smaller classes. The financial benefits are obvious to the club and would flow on throughout Queensland Karting making the sport stronger.
NEW CLUB SECRETARY
Ipswich Club President Dr Ashley Waardenberg is pleased to welcome Donnelle Waldon to the position of Ipswich Kart Club secretary, this pivotal role was recently vacated by Andrea McKay who did an exceptional job but from what I have seen so far, Donnelle is very efficient.
Many of the members have passed on their best wishes to Donnelle and hope it is the beginning of a long association with the executive of the club.
I have taken on the role of Promotions Officer for the club and as such, I would like to ask if there are any parents or participants who would like to write a race report for any class with the exception of Cadets, TAG 125 Restricted light and TAG 125 Light.
Any brief report would be welcome as it gives the kids and all racers for that matter, recognition and it helps lift the profile of the club and the sport in general. Anyone interested, please email me at johngodd@tpg.com.au and introduce yourself. Your report doesn’t need to be anything fancy.
LOCAL RACERS DO WELL AT THE ROTAX NATIONALS
Congratulations to all the locals who raced at the Rotax National Titles in Dubbo on the weekend, there were some great results, in Rotax, Heavy, Brendan Nelson finished second to one of the all time greats in Matt Wall with Matt Greenbury, Lane Moore and another all time great, Will Yarwood all finishing in the top 10.
In Rotax light Tyler Greenbury and Brock Plumb both did well placing 4th and 5th respectively with Troy Morrissey a credible 11th in the best field this country has to offer.
A special congratulations goes to DD2 winner, young Lucas Ward with Pacific Kartsport and JT Motorsport team mate Troy Bretherton a very close second.
Jon Targett and Dale Verrall have the winning formula for Rotax, it is not the first time the team have bought home a Green Plate and it won’t be the last so get on board at Yatala.
All the testing and racing has paid off handsomely for Ward with the number 1 Plate now his, emulating his Brother Damian’s feat when he won the same title at Ipswich in 2010.
Lucas has worked very hard at his karting over the years, at this meet he poled it and was never out of the top two all weekend beating a very strong field including team mate Troy Bretherton and the skilled and accomplished Jason Pringle.
Lucas Ward is one of the quiet achievers of this great sport of karting, and I know I am echoing the sentiments of anyone that knows them when I say the Green Plate experience couldn’t happen to a more unassuming or worthy family than the Wards.
RACE REPORT
Rookies
A very strong field of 19 went into qualifying for this class with Cooloola Coast’s Harrison Oddie taking pole from Toowoomba’s Cameron Shields by the small margin of 1 tenth of a second and Jace Matthews 3/100th away third.
Oddie won the first two heats but in the pre final he was back in 7th from lap one with Shields leading for the first five, Oddie eventually took over the lead with Shields shuffled back to 5th and a lap later the meeting that held so much promise for him ended due to engine trouble with a DNF and then a DNS in the final.
Oddie went on to take the final and the SEQ Rookie Title for 2012 from Marc Tulloch with Kaleb Mustow-Veal in third.
There were 6 different clubs represented in this very strong field and it shows the prestige this annual event commands. One of the other fastest qualifiers in Jace Matthews had some bad luck when his kart stopped on the roll up lap in the final and was unable to restart before lights went green, game over.
Cadets
With 21 Cadets entered for the Saturday meeting including 7 P Platers there was always going to be some great action for the 2012 SEQ Cadet Titles.
After Qualifying Jai Brown was fastest and found himself on Pole for the 1st two heats. There was going to be some very exciting racing between the front 6 racers after being split by only a couple of tenths. Heat 1 was taken out by Nathan Herne with a good determined drive, meanwhile, new comer Tomas Gasperak was showing great pace as the 1st of the P platers is his very 1st race meeting. A couple of the girls were having a great battle with Taylor Morgan and Jacinta Hoey never far apart.
The final was hectic with a number of Karts being lapped causing the leaders to think quickly but in the end, Nathan Herne was too good on the day taking the win from Harrison Hoey, Jai Brown and Merlin Pilot Josh Radford & Oliver Bayliss. Unfortunately Jack Doohan had issues with his engine and finished 6th. In the mid pack Praga racer Fraser Ruane, Austin Wells, Rusty Ross and Ryan Tatnell & Declan Matthews battled hard with each other throughout the day with plenty of clean passing maneuvers completed. In the final cadet race there were battles all through the field and with plenty of new Cadets racing including Blake Day, Jett Tippett, Gabriel Gasperak, Mitchell Tame and Jett Hopkins.
After a promising start to the meeting, Kosmic racer Oscar Comley had an unfortunate day, having a dnf in the pre-final and then the final.
I hope all Cadets and their parents enjoyed the day and will all be back for round 7 in October. Final only counted results:
Placing 1st Nathan Herne, 2nd Harrison Hoey, 3rd Jai Brown, 4th Josh Radford, 5th Oliver Bayliss and 1st P plater Tomas Gasperak.
Troy Hoey
Junior National Heavy
This class has some top competition and was one of the few classes that was made up solely of IKC club members, unusual considering the support the club gets from neighboring clubs.
Jaison Russell was rewarded for his great form with a win in heat 1 and solid placing’s in the other 3 races, the win allowed Russell to take out the meeting on a count-back from the ever consistent Dean Weigman who had two thirds and two seconds with Tom Davidson a great and very consistent third. Nicholas Andrews recent domination of JNH looked like continuing but a DSQ in the first heat put paid to that although he went on to win the next three races in scintillating fashion.
Good to see P Plate driver Sean Evans do so well with a good 5th in the first heat and then consistent efforts to finish the day in the top 10.
Tag 125 Heavy
The TAG 125 open classes at IKC have qualifying and it was Clinton Hancey who poled it for the first two heats from Steven Vidler. Hancey went on to win heat one with Vidler second and the very much improved Daniel Creed in third. President Ashley Waardenberg did not qualify too well in 10th but racing was a different story where he competed in the top 5 all day.
Creed moved up a place for the second heat for a very close win from Hancey with the much improved Andrew Gibson in 3rd. Creed stamped his authority on this class with wins in the pre-final and final from Hancey with 3rd place shared between “The Boss” and Nathan Waldon. Final results were Daniel Creed 1st, Klinton Hancey 2nd and Ashley Waardenberg taking 3rd.
Junior National Light
This was our biggest field with 24 hard racers turning out for the day night action and with the odd exception, the young racers were pretty well behaved. Best wishes to Kevin Sinclair who suffered what could be called an “avoidable” injury that will keep him sidelined for a while, get well soon mate.
At any level of racing but particularly when you are young, It is very important to consider the ramifications of your actions on the track and the way you treat your competitors, no one wants to be responsible for hurting someone and at this age, your behaviour shapes how you will be in the future. Motorsport is dangerous, responsible parents don’t like sending their kids into a race when they feel there is a higher than normal chance of someone getting hurt. Competitors don’t want to feel they are risking injury racing with people they cannot trust to do the right thing and it is therefore very important, that any issues you feel are detrimental to safe racing are brought to the attention of the clerk of course for monitoring. I remember when I first went karting with my son, I was amazed how some of the experienced guys could race nose to tail for 10 laps, swapping places, sliding underneath on the corners and not touch each other, they had trust in their mates to do the right thing and with this close racing they honed their skills to become future champions. Trust is very important.
Toowoomba’s William Brown came from 16th to 2nd in the first heat, 9th to 3rd in the second heat and then went on to win the pre-final and final to repeat his August effort to win the event. He was followed in by another out of town racer in Lismore’s always competitive Chris Burley who took second on a count-back from IKC’s Joshua Davey. Joshua is knocking on the door of a win in this class with a very consistent effort of two seconds and two thirds to take home the 3rd placed silverware.
Tag 125 Light
With the Australian Rotax Titles on at Dubbo, it was surprising to see that Ipswich still had an impressive field for Tag Light. Great to see the Gatland boys, Andrew and Grant show up for a spin with the locals and also good to see Aaron Rabjones from the Lismore Club reappear after a long break.
Kel Farrell returned again after going missing in action to play football during our mid season Sunday race days.
The Intrepid Team, Shawn Mc Namara and Ashley Lester were much improved, Ashley powered by a new engine, found himself close to the pointy end.
Ryan Sponseller has been absent for a few months, he also returned with a new engine and he mixed it with the front runners.
The Dalby lad, Terry Leerentveld turned up Friday night to get closer acquainted with the Ipswich track conditions and was rewarded with some impressive performances.
At the end of the day it was Bodine Antrobus 1st, Ashley Lester 2nd, Ryan Sponseller 3rd and Terry Leerentveld in 4th place.
Les Antrobus
RESULTS
| CLASS | FIRST |
SECOND |
THIRD |
ROOKIES |
Harrison Oddie |
Marc Tulloch |
Kaleb Mustow-Veal |
CLUBMAN LIGHT |
Christopher Jeffery |
Nicholas Dalton |
Edward Wilkins |
CLUBMAN HEAVY/O 40’s |
Norm Trost |
Adrian Flack |
Craig Amundsen |
CADETS |
Nathan Herne |
Harrison Hoey |
Jai Brown |
JUNIOR NATIONAL HEAVY |
Jaison Russell |
Dean Wiegman |
Tom Davidson |
TAG 125 HEAVY |
Daniel Creed |
Klinton Hancey |
Ashley Waardenberg |
SENIOR NATIONAL @ 150KG |
Oliver Etter |
Blake Worboys |
Richard Dimmock |
TAG 125 LIGHT |
Bodine Antrobus |
Ashley Lester |
Ryan Sponseller |
JUNIOR NATIONAL LIGHT |
William Brown |
Chris Burley |
Joshua Davey |
