MKC’s Metro Series Round 1 Report

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Melbourne Kart Centre took on the opening round of the Metro Karting Series at the Geelong Kart Club’s Val Findlay Memorial event last weekend.

With a team of 11 drivers lining up at the event, Damon Woods and Matthew Basso were the standout drivers for the team, both taking home the win in their respective classes!

Steven Tsemalis on the grid before KA3 Junior qualifying (pic – STE47EN/facebook)

Woods didn’t have it all his own way in the KA3 Junior class as MKC stable mate Steven Tsemalis had dominated proceedings with pole position and two heat wins going into the final. By mid race of the final the two MKC pilots had cleared out a margin and it was a battle between the two drivers with Wood coming out on top by a small 0.111 giving MKC a one two finish with Tsemalis coming home in position 2.

Matthew Basso was MKC’s most dominant driver of the weekend starting in strong fashion by putting himself on pole position by 0.670 of a second. Basso then went on to win all three races by big margins taking maximum points out of the opening round and putting the young charger in a strong position in the series.

In Cadet 12 Xavier Avramides was able to come home with a strong podium finish in third spot while other MKC driver Joanne Ciconte had a spectacular finish to the weekend with a large roll over in the final.



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Avramides and Ciconte qualified in position 6 and 10 respectively with heat 1 Avramides moving forward to finish in second spot. Avramides had an unfortunate DNF in heat 2 while Ciconte moved from position ten up to position four. Avramides as low as ninth at one point in the final charged his way through to third spot and a podium finish while Ciconte didn’t finish the final but got away with accident unscathed.

KA3 Senior Light had MKC drivers Michael Carless and former state champion Kacey Mann who both qualified inside the top ten in positions five and eight. Heat 1 came around and after improved race pace both drivers moved forward into the top five with Carless in third and Mann in fifth. In heat 2 both drivers again improved staying inside the top five with Carless coming home in second and Mann in fourth setting up a exciting final for the two. In what was a great battle in the final with the top four separate by under a second Carless was able to come home in the final podium spot in third with Mann just missing the podium in position four.

Taine Venables in the MKC FA (pic – Venables/Facebook)

Taine Venables was the only MKC driver in KA3 Senior Medium and he got his day off to the best possible start by putting his MKC entry on pole position. In what was fast and slick racing in the first two heats Venables come home in second spot behind former national champion Remo Luciani setting up another exciting final. Venables showing good pace was again able to come home in second spot grabbing good championship points and another podium finish.

In KA4 Junior Light and Heavy MKC had drivers Xavier Kokai, Robert Graham and Liam Pollard across the two classes. After some tough heat races and a tough finals both drivers in Ka4 Light Kokai and Graham were able to come home in the top ten with Kokai just missing the podium in fourth spot and Graham coming home in position nine. Pollard was another to have fast slick racing and he was able to come home with a top five finish coming home in position five!



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