The Warwick 1000

by Caitlin Lane

Round 5 took the Queensland Superkart Club back to majestic Morgan Park Raceway for the first Warwick 1000.  17 Karts made up the field for this weekend and after 2.5 months off of racing, everybody is ready and raring to go for another supercharged weekend of racing.

Qualifying:

All Karts hit the track for qualifying with bright sunny skies and the track heating up.  The session would see some intense battling between classes for fastest time and the contest for this between #89 Tim Weier and # 27 John La Spina taking flight yet again with the mix of #46 Doug Amiss and #35 Russell Jamieson joining the fray.  #27 John La Spina would again struggle with a loose Carby and #6 Jon Bothamley gave the grass a trim with adjustments being made before race 1.

 The 125cc Rotax of Peter Nuske again proved to be tuned right with the 85cc Gearbox of Jack Westbury and the Rotax of Leighton Cook chomping at his coat tails.  Qualifying saw  #35 Russell Jamieson in his Anderson Maverick  take pole with a lap of 1:16:809 from Tim Weier,  Johnny La Spina and Doug Amiss in 4th.  Unfortunately due to a seized engine #50 Brian Wild’s PVP Yamaha finished qualifying being towed back to pit lane after only 3 laps.   #79 Stephen Cloake in the Stockman MR2 and #8 Coby Govoni didn’t set a time due to various issues. 

Race 1:

A light shower passed over while the field was still on the Dummy grid and this made the track conditions for Race 1 a little bit greasy through the opening laps.  After a promising Qualifying session #35 Russell Jamieson would retire from race 1 mid way through with mechanicals issues.  The #8 Kosmic Shifter of Coby Govoni made an error while trying a pass that saw him stranded on the infield and #79 Stephen Cloake in his Stockman MR2 spun in the tricky conditions out of Gumtree corner and failed to rejoin the race. The race win was taken by #89 Anderson Maverick of Tim Weier with #27 Anderson Maverick of John La Spina coming in a close 2nd place and the #46 Anderson Maverick of Doug Amiss in 3rd place.   There was an intense battle between #16 Peter Nuske and #45 Leighton Cook which would see Leighton being escorted off the track.  David Dyson and Ben Longland scraped it out with Ben setting a new PB.  Race 1 provided an exciting benchmark for the remainder of the weekend.

Race 2:

This was another action packed race with a 5 way battle back between the Rotax’s and 85cc Gearbox karts. There was also a battle between #46 Doug Amiss and #6 Jon Bothamley for 3rd and 4th.  The #89 Anderson Maverick of Tim Weier  took  the race win and set a personal best time in this race  with #27 PVP of  John La Spina coming a distant second.   Race 2 saw #35 Russell Jameison’s Anderson, #8 Kosmic of Coby Govoni, #50 PVP of  Brian Wild and #37 Bayley Douglas’s Birel all suffer from mechanical issues resulting in DNF’s.  Day one of racing set the tone of the racing for the weekend.

Race 3:

The 3rd race of the weekend again produced very exciting racing throughout the classes. Again there were battles between the Rotax competitors but #16 Peter Nuske was too fast for #45 Leighton Cook, #77 Ben Longland and #33 David Dyson.   Race 3 was another win for  #89 Tim Weier taking the chequered flag with a convincing gap to #27 John La Spina in 2nd.  Unfortunately #46 Doug Amiss, #4 Jack Westbury, #50 Brian Wild and #35 Russell Jamieson all failed to finish the race due to mechanical issues.  Heading into the final race of the weekend it looked like #89 Tim Weier was set to finish the weekend with a clean sweep.

Race 4:

The final race of the weekend started with an incident at the start line between #46 Doug Amiss, #8 Coby Govoni and #26 Drene Jamieson when  #46Doug Amiss dived for a spot he thought was there but wasn’t,  saw panels go flying.   The incident meant the race was brought under safety car while the debris was cleaned up.

Once underway again, the #89 of Tim Weier bolted into the distance crossing the line first, making it a clean sweep for the weekend with #27 John La Spina coming in behind battling severe pain from vibration burns.   The action packed battles between the Rotax competitors continued with #4 Jack Westbury in the mix.  The very exciting racing from all classes again making the weekend as good as it was. Due to the start line clash between Doug, Coby and Drene, and the resulting damage sustained by their Karts they didn’t finish the race.

As per normal Morgan Park produced some of the most adrenaline pumping action all season. Some competitors would smash records and have standout weekends and others would be there along for the ride to help build the atmosphere for interclass battles. We will be back at Morgan Park for the final round of the season in 5and a half weeks’ time for another action packed weekend of racing,

A big thankyou to Morgan Park Raceway for having us as part of the Warwick 1000 and to all the supporters/ officials.