Prokart Queensland Championship, Round 2
| from Glenn Firth | 15 April 2013 |
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Presented by KT Cables and Accessories
With a record entry for Round 2 of the Prokart Queensland Championship presented by KT Cables at Ipswich, everyone was anxious in the week leading up to the event with the weather forecast predicting rain. The day dawned fine but overcast with many new entries to the Queensland series practice was soon underway with 18 teams taking to the track.
Not too many dramas occurred during practice. The KnK Australia kart 5 team tried to rectify a sticking brake calliper that wasn't releasing the pads away from the disc and costing precious tenths of seconds. This issue was to carry over into the race affecting their overall pace. The KT Cables team with renewed invigoration and preparation were going well apart from losing a front wheel while scrubbing in their race rubber. They managed to get back to the pits with the driver carrying the departed wheel in their lap.
pic by Dave McGuinness
Qualifying was commenced using the F1 elimination system. The final Q3 session for the positions of the top 10 was dominated by Alan Gurr in the Phantom 153 kart with a new Prokart lap record of 56.880, over 6 tenths faster than the 2nd placed Team HTB. Other notable results from qualifying were Team Acid and Team Frog making the top ten Q3 session.
Unfortunately for the Phantom 152 kart after setting the 3rd fastest time they came in 200 grams underweight and were then handed a 5 minute penalty for this infraction.
With the race underway at 2pm under sunny skies Alan Gurr in Phantom 153 and Adam Mercer in the Team HTB kart pulled away from the rest of the pack immediately. Glenn Firth in the KnK Australia kart was soon up from grid 5 to position 3 by the end of the 3rd lap but was soon re-passed by Craig Nissen in the CNH Warspeed kart trying to chase down the leaders.
The following pack of Nathan Pearce in the KnK Australia kart 4, Aaron Keane in the Nexus Force KnK, Frog Racing, Online Kartshop, Atlas Racing and Racer X all exchanging places in the leading laps to establish their positions.
pic by Dave McGuinness
Alan Gurr then pulled away from Adam Mercer to obliterate the field by posting consistently fast lap times to effectively lap the entire field at the 1 hour mark.
With the 2013 regulations opening up the opportunity for different strategies teams starting making their pit stops at varying times. The MS kart teams had a definitive speed advantage during the sunny daylight hours of the race with the Phantom 152 kart putting in good times trying to claw back some of their lost time with the penalty.
The father and son team of Craig and Hayden Nissen in the CNH Warspeed entry were a clear second place heading into the twilight with Hayden showing great consistency and speed especially through traffic and even showing up his more experienced father on the time sheets trading fastest laps in their own intra team battle.
GS Motorsport in their first outing were racing well with 2 new drivers pedalling alongside Greg Robertson. Their aim to get to the finish and stay out of trouble and hopefully come away with a good top 10 result was on track.
Team Acid after entering 2 karts for the first time and getting one kart in the top 10 qualifying were circulating until on the far side of the circuit a rear wheel cam adrift from the 89 kart stranding it on the circuit and requiring the safety car. With the field bunching up and the kart retrieved the race was back underway with the 195 CNH Warspeed kart leading after the Phantom 153 kart pitted for fuel just before the safety car was deployed.
pic by Dave McGuinness
With early top 5 pace the KnK Australia kart 4 entry experienced a deflating tyre which was replaced and then later a faulty ignition switch shorting out causing a misfire. It was another opportunity missed for drivers Nathan Pearce and Dustin Pocock but they would push hard till the end to gain more points towards their championship tally.
The team of KT Cables were not only surprised by the pace of their kart with many new parts fitted since the last round at Coffs Harbour but by the reliabality , with team driver Rohan commenting that they didn't know what to do during the race now that the kart was circulating and not being fixed in the pits while the racing was happening.
KnK Team Australia’s kart 5 of Glenn Firth and Scott Pearce were not only dealing with the dragging brakes but missing their team mate Ian McMah who was overseas on work commitments. While struggling for pace during the day the kart improved once the sun set to bring them closer on lap times with the other leading karts.
Outback Racing, Team Bazinga and Domdidit Racing were all having their own race albeit on different laps due to extended pitstops to effect repairs as well as varying strategies
Nexus Force KnK were running in the top 5 with eyes on a podium position after some updates to their KnK from last year including a new axle and engines. They were on opposing strategies to the Team HTB kart who they were racing but with the Colin Palmer of Team HTB employing a strategy to try and take advantage of a safety car being deployed, Adam Clark of Nexus Force KnK determined although behind with a few hours to go that they needed to push to enable them to be in a position of racing for a podium position
pic by Dave McGuinness
Atlas Racing and Team Frog were in their own battle with Team Frog clawing their way back from breaking a seat bolt in the first hour. With consistent driving from Boss Frog, Wombat and Noah they had their eyes on the prize of their best finish in Prokart to date.
After debuting a new KnK chassis for 1 meeting last year Atlas Racing brought it out for their first meeting of the year and despite not having the race seat time that some other teams have had were driving within themselves and staying out of trouble to try and break the top 5 if something went wrong with one of the leading karts.
With just over an hour to go that something did happen.
Kart 195 of CNH Warspeed with Hayden at the wheel seemed to lose pace suddenly. As it transpired the kart had a brake failure with Hayden struggling to keep it going. It was an empty feeling for both Craig and Hayden after showing great pace the whole event with qualifying 3rd and running 2nd to eventually DNF with their best Prokart result within sight. Without doubt at the next round they will be out to get the result that they deserved.
The Castrol Phantom 153 kart had a commanding 2 lap lead heading into the last hour with team principal Simon Ham taking to the wheel.
KnK Australia kart 5 had consolidated their position after the retirement of CNH Warspeed with Scott Pearce not taking any risks in the last stint with a healthy lead over the 3rd place kart of Nexus Force KnK.
The places from 6th to 10th were all still racing hard for positions. Each team was only separated by a lap to each other and with the end of the race nearing none of them were taking anything for granted. With some of these teams trying to secure their best race results and enjoying the close but friendly combat after 7 hours of racing .
At the chequered flag it was Simon Ham aboard the Castrol Phantom 153 MS Kart taking the win completing 416 laps, KnK Australia kart 5 in second and Nexus Force KnK rounding out the podium
Team HTB chased them home in 4th with Atlas Racing 5th and Frog Racing taking their equal best result of 6th.
The best presented award was too hard for Tony to judge between 2 teams and was awarded to GS Motorsport and Frog Racing.
The Hard Charger Award went to an ecstatic Frog Racing.
A big thankyou to Tony and Amanda, along with Marty who took on the refuelling duties. Also to the Queensland Championship series sponsors in KT Cables and Accessories for their continued support.
Now with only 4 points separating KnK Australia kart 5 and Castrol Phantom kart 153 in the Queensland Championship all teams are in preparation for the next round at Warwick on May 4-5
