Dubbo's DEADLY Gold Cup
| by Ian Hobden | 29 August 2014 |
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Over the weekend of 16th and 17th August 2014, Dubbo Kart Club hosted its annual 2 day major race meeting; the 8th annual Australasian Karting Gold Cup. This years event was renamed the DEADLY Gold Cup with a brand new Deadly kart chassis package up for grabs to a random winner thanks to the events major sponsor Wrigley Kart Supplies.
Although a great turn out to the event, numbers were a little down on expected due to the weather forecast showing 90% chance of 10-20mm of rain all weekend for the week leading up to the event. 141 competitors made their way to Lincoln County Raceway to contest the event with 33 local Dubbo racers being joined by 22 from Combined Districts, 20 from Orange, 19 from Newcastle, 11 from Griffith, 8 from Bathurst, 7 from Grenfell, 4 from Wollongong, 3 from Wagga and North Shore, 2 from Sydney, Gunnedah, Canberra and Coffs Harbor, and one from Tamworth, Manning Valley and even one all the way from Ipswich Queensland!!
Above: Double Deadly at Dubbo
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Free practise was held on Friday from 10am till 4pm with over 50 karts hitting the track to get in some practise, although the day was dry and wasn’t looking like it was going to help much over the weekend. Saturday saw competitors kick off around 10:30am with a 5minute carby session before heats kicked off. There were three heats scheduled to be contested over 8 laps each. As predicted the heavens opened early on in the morning prior to commencement and maintained throughout the day. It was long slow going through the heats but everyone enjoyed the challenge, of which there were plenty. The day concluded about 5:30pm with four events seeing heat 3 to wind out the day.
Further rain over night had officials racking their brains as to how they were going to fit in all the racing. Luckily enough the forecasters were only half right with the rain stopping in the early hours of the morning and racers being met with clear blue skys for the morning carby session. The weather maintained clear throughout the day, with heats finishing about 10:30am. Prefinals got underway and were scheduled to be contested over 10 laps however were reduced to 8 laps due to the delays caused by the rain on Saturday. Similarly the final was reduced from 15 laps to 12 and got underway about midday. Racing concluded at 3pm with presentation held not long after where a proverbial truck load of freebies were given away by random draw including the brand new Deadly kart package which was won by Robert Miller from Wagga District Kart Club.
Above: Wagga & District Kart Club's Robert Miller won a new Deadly kart
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Above: Brett Robinson (7) and James Taylor (25) lead the Clubman Heavy field
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Racing kicked off with Open Performance being run with Sportsman 125 Light and Heavy. Cooper Middleton took the spoils in the Open Performance class being the only entrant. Sportsman 125 Light was a heated affair with Zac Van Leeuwestyn (Newcastle) finishing just a head of brother Sam (Newcastle) in second and Stewart Weigand in 3rd in the fast paced 11 kart field. The heavy class saw two competitors battle it out with local racer Greg Cusack take the win ahead of Chris Fealy (Orange). Next out the gate was Junior National Light which saw Dubbo racers Tyler Everingham and Blake Fardell come home in first and second and Tommy Harradine (Combined) grabbing 3rd in the 11 kart field. The 3rd event saw Clubman Light and Super Heavy combine to form a 16 kart field (5 light, 11 super); lights was taken out by Brett Robinson (Orange) ahead of Nicholas Jamsek (Combined) and Michael Riley (Dubbo). Craig Tailby (Dubbo) took the honours in the Super Heavy class finishing a comfortable distance ahead of Peter O’Meley (Grenfell) and Stuart Ellice (Newcastle).
Senior National Pro saw 15 karts hit the track with the ever typical close racing across the weekend. Connor Hey (Combined) grabbed the top spot with Joseph Tighe (Orange) finishing 2nd ahead of Nick Riley (Dubbo) in 3rd. Junior National Heavy was next to battle it out with 11 entrants providing some extremely close and intriguing racing. Local lad Luke Wrigley took a clean sweep of the weekend winning all heats, prefinal and final to take 1st place ahead of Jamie Prendergast (Griffith) and Jack Dare (Wagga). A timing issue in the final saw Matthew Attrill announced as 3rd in the class however after a review it was found Jack had finished 3rd.
Above: David Dunbar, SNL
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Above: Nicholas Riley (97) and Jarrod Whitty (90) lead Senior National Light, but it was the #2 kart of Connor Hey that won the final
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
The ever entertaining Cadets again put on a show with Joshua Sargent (Grenfell) coming out in front with Makk O’Neill (Dubbo) and Mia Bolton (Grenfell) taking the other spots on the podium. Restricted 125 Light and Heavy joined together in the next event with Jason Paix (Newcastle) taking the big trophy ahead of Josh Behn (Dubbo) who had a heart breaking DNF in the final after claiming wins in all other races over the weekend.. In the heavies it was Steven Lalas (Newcastle) who took control of the 12 kart field winning all bar heat 1 in a class dominated by a strong Newcastle contingent. The other steps of the podium were taken out by fellow Newcastle members Lee Gardiner and Darrell O’Donnell.
A firey encounter in Senior National Pro Heavy across the weekend saw Dubbo local Bert Wrigley come up trumps ahead of Hayden Jackson (Newcaste) and Braden Boots (Griffith) with 15 entrants battling in the class. Junior Clubman saw 3 entrants back up from JNL for a run with Dubbo locals Tyler Everingham and Kyle Reynolds finishing 1st and 2nd ahead of Byron Woolner from Griffith. Rookies saw 10 karts hit the track with reigning Closed State Title holder Thomas Sargent (Grenfell) continue his good form to finish at the top ahead of Cody Burcher (Orange) and Zach Heard (North Shore). The biggest field of the weekend belonged to Clubman Heavy with 19 entrants taking to Lincoln County Raceway to claim bragging rights. Brett Bobinson (Orange) managed a double adding the big trophy of the heavy class to his victory in Clubman Light. James Taylor (Wollongong) finished 2nd with local Dubbo boy Chris ‘Old Man’ Riley taking the last spot on the steps of victory.
Above: Luke Wrigley takes out Junior National Heavy ahead of Jamie Prendergast
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Above: Wrigley was also awarded the Gold Cup for juniors
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
The overall winner of the Gold Cup were decided by points from the Dubbo Championship Pointscore with Luke Wrigley (Dubbo) taking out the Junior category on 1315 points ahead of Thomas Sargent (Grenfell) on 1287 who finished just ahead of brother Joshua on 1246. The senior category was taken out by Brett Robinson (Orange) giving him his third victory of the weekend with 1541 points ahead of Steven Lalas (Newcastle) on 1265.
The Dubbo Kart Club would like to thank all its volunteers and officials who make these race days possible and of course the karters who support the club. The club also thanks its sponsors who supported the meeting: Wrigley Kart Supplies, Caltex Talmac, Jokers Ink, Everingham Data & Electrical, Midwest Foods, SportsCo, Coates Hire, Stevensons Hydraulics, Dubbo City Welding Works, Clancy Ford, C.A.R. Automotive, Hendersons Menswear, Dubbo Kart Supplies, JM Forklifts, Country Leisure Motel, Complete Asset Management, Hannaford Tyres, Steel Supplies Dubbo, Urban Beach, Golden West Holden and Wurth Australia.
The next event to be hosted by the Dubbo Kart Club will be Round 7 of its 2014 Club Championships on September 21st which is an open club day event and a great practise event ahead of the 2014 Southern Star Series Final to be held 25-26th October.
Above: Indiana Endacott, JNL
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
Above: Clubman Heavy winner Brett Robinson won the overall Gold Cup for seniors
pic - DKC/Coopers Photography
