Young charger Jac Preston took on the opening round of the Australian Kart Championship at the Ipswich Kart Club in the highly competitive KZ2 gearbox class and Preston showed he could mix it with the countries best.
Preston in qualifying put in a hard fought session battling in the top few drivers in the battle for pole position. Preston after a hard fought session was able to qualify his Tom Williamson Motorsport Praga on the outside of the front row in position two behind current Garry Rogers Motorsport driver James Golding.
In heat 1 Preston continued his strong form in coming home in second spot. Preston didn’t get the started he was after dropping back to position five. Preston then kept his head down and made his way back up in to position four crossing the line there but after a couple of post race disqualifications Preston moved into a top two finish.
Bad luck struck Preston in heat 2 when running in the top five and crossing the line in the top five Preston received a jump start penalty along with two other drivers. In what was described as a very strange situation the second row completely jumped the start with Preston then reacting to them and jumping also.
Preston out of starting position eight for the third heat got a clean get away and stayed in his position in the opening few laps before starting to make inroads into the the top five. After two overtakes in to laps Preston moved up to sixth spot before being able to move further up finishing in the top five in fourth position gathering more vital championship points.
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Preston started out of the top five for heat four and jumped away and was running inside the top five. Preston then dropped just outside the top five and crossing the line in sixth position. Preston received a two place penalty dropping him back to position eight.
Prestons final got off to a poor start after he got a poor get away nearly stalling his Praga entry and dropping him down to position twelve. In one of the drives of the weekend young Preston was able to make his way back through the field and come home with a top five position in a great recovery drive.
Jac Preston after a eventful weekend was overall very happy with the result.
“Overall I had a great weekend filled with a lot of positives” Preston noted. “qualifying in second spot, second in heat 1 and have the fastest or second fastest lap in three of the five races were some of the highlights”.
Preston will next be racing at the second round of Rotax Pro Tour for the NSW round where he will be looking at building on his podium finish at the opening round.
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