Woolston & Gillis On Fire As Juniors Hit the Track At Warwick


press release 28 February 2016

Cody Gillis and Troy Woolston continued their successful start to the weekend via qualifying and the heat races in Rotax Light and DD2 respectively, taking the win in their relevant pre-finals which headlined a busy second day of Pro Tour Warwick with the Junior classes making their first appearance on the track for the weekend with fresh faces at the front of the field in qualifying.

Troy Woolston has taken a clean sweep with just the final remaining in DD2 at Warwick
Above: Troy Woolston has taken a clean sweep with just the final remaining in DD2 at Warwick
pic - Coopers Photograpjhy

Micro Max

An early quick time in qualifying for Ryan Tomsett saw him rise to the top of the timesheets which is where he would remain, improving his times during the eight minute session, eventually claiming pole with a 49.472 ahead of round one winner, Emerson Vincent. Sebastian Ruiz and Jordan Ensbey would make up the second row with Macka Hazard, Harry Arnett and Xavier Renshaw rounding out the field. Tomsett continued his good start to the weekend, taking the win with Ruiz stepping up for second, trading places with Vincent from their starting positions who finished third ahead of Hazard and Renshaw.

Mini Max

Bayley Douglas made a strong start to the weekend to continue his defence of the Rotax Max Australian Challenge Champion title in Mini Max by qualifying on pole position with a 46.099 over teammate Jack Westbury who was just 0.004 seconds behind Douglas. Queenslander Luke Pink qualified third ahead of James Wharton and Kai Allen. Followinf a technical inspection prior to heat one, selected drivers were disqualified from the qualifying due to a technical infringement. The first heat race then saw Westbury take his first win in the class over Pink with Allen taking third. Jarrod Hughes finished fourth while Cody Maynes-Rutty made his way through the field to finish fifth.

Junior Max Trophy

Brodie Whitmore started his weekend in fine style in Junior Max Trophy, qualifying on pole position with a 43.875, being the only driver in the class within the 43 second barrier. Taylor Hazard achieved his best qualifying result since joining the series with second over Zayd Tones in third and Travis Worton in fourth, while Jac Preston and Kiwi Samuel Wright would make up the third row for the heat races. The successful start to the Warwick event for Whitmore continued into the first heat race, taking a comfortable win over Hazard. Tayla Harnas stepped up after qualifying eighth to finish third from Callum Bishop who started seventh and finished fourth, while Zayd Tones took fifth.

Junior Max

With over 40 Karts lining up for Junior Max, it would see the qualifying session split based upon the times from the final practice session. Harrison Hoey recorded the quickest time both in the upper 50% session and overall, just 0.07 seconds ahead of Lachlan Hughes. Lucas Lichtenberger made a late charge in the session, recording his best time on the penultimate lap to secure third outright. Nathan Herne was the quickest from the lower 50% session with his fastest lap seeing him transfer to become fourth overall with Kade Vink and Cody Brewczynski qualifying fifth and sixth overall.

Rotax 125 Light

In a mirror of his performances from Friday’s two heat races, Wollongong’s Cody Gillis managed to take another commanding victory by over two seconds with the battle for the minor placings behind Gillis remaining to be an ongoing dice throughout the race. Canberra’s Joshua Fife eventually came through to take second from Timothy Colombrita with Troy Morrissey and Kiwi Ashleigh Stewart making their first appearances in the top five for the weekend.

Gillis continued his impressive form into the pre-final, extending a lead of over two seconds. With a red flag at lap eleven, the race was declared with Gillis the winner from Troy Morrissey who sat third for much of the race. Liam McLellan continued his climb the order, taking third from Joshua Fife who recovered from sixth to finish fourth with Timothy Colombrita in fifth.

Rotax 125 Heavy

The run of success in the heat races for Lane Moore in Rotax 125 Heavy was broken with Benjamin Ritchie taking the win in the final sprint race of the weekend, holding the lead from start to finish, taking the win by 0.6 seconds over Moore. Clem O’Mara maintained his consistent run of form, taking third place over Shay Mayes who returned after missing heat two due to a flat tyre. Gaven Whitmore and New Zealander Brendon Hart rounded out the top six. Starting from pole position, Lane Moore engaged in a battle through the opening corners before contact saw a premature end to the 18 lap race for the Gold Coast racer, promoting Clem O’Mara to lead with Ben Ritchie forced back to eleventh. A hard charge from Shay Mayes through the field saw him eventually claim the lead and subsequent win by 2.3 seconds over O’Mara with Gaven Whitmore picking up his best result of the weekend with third over Ritchie with Corey Lean taking fifth.

DD2

Despite a closer battle than he had experienced in Friday’s two heat races, Troy Woolston managed to make it three wins from three starts in DD2, taking victory in the final heat race. Nathan Tigani came within 0.1 seconds by the fall of chequered flag to take a comfortable second place with pole sitter Adam Lindstrom settling for third. Ryan Kennedy finished fourth meanwhile Dutchman Marijn Kremers moved up late in the race to round out the top five.

In a close battle towards the end of the pre-final for DD2 which saw the gap between first and second drop below 0.1 seconds, it was Troy Woolston who came away with victory to continue his impressive run for the weekend. Chris Bregonje finished a close second with the margin being just 0.1 seconds to Woolston. Heat race pole-sitter Adam Lindstrom finished third ahead of Nathan Tigani with Marijn Kremers and Brock Plumb completing the top six.

DD2 Masters

Strong late race pace for Victorian Lee Mitchener helped to secure him the win in heat two for DD2 Masters, managing to get by early race leader Kris Walton who settled for second. Starting from pole, Klinton Hancey involved himself in the battle for the lead early on before settling for a comfortable third ahead of Scott Howard and Troy Bretherton. In a switch of the results from the earlier race, it was Walton who would come through to take his first race win of the weekend, gaining further speed at the business end of the weekend, finishing ahead of a hard charging Mitchener with Hancey settling for third over Bretherton and Howard.

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