by Russell Innes, Ipswich Kart Club
The huge numbers for karting events in South East Queensland will continue this weekend, with another 251 entries confirmed for the 2nd Round of the Ipswich Kart Club Championships on Saturday.
With most Finals to be run under lights into the evening, the Feature classes will be TAG Light and TAG Heavy, competing for the IKC TAG Titles and the Graham Acreman Memorial.
Marc Tulloch as a former winner of the Graham Acreman Memorial will go in as one of the favourites in the very competitive TAG Light field with Ryan Hadden, Hamish Fitzsimmons, Dylan Rudd and Ryan Laycock also likely to figure prominently.
In the big TAG Heavy field, after a great result in Round 1, Christopher Williams will go into this Round as a likely favourite for victory from Jamie Page, Scott Gray and Scott Cleveland. Andrew Gilliam, Rudy Farkas, Jackson Bermingham, Angus Mathers, Brett Wells and Pete Sattler will be amongst those battling hard for a top ten finish.
Open Performance once again will make an appearance and after dominating at Round 1, before a battery issue in the Final stopped him, Scott Howard will look to make amends this round. Scott Cleveland, Bill Miller and Keyan Appleby will try to keep him honest.
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The Cadet fields will be a little down on normal with some missing the club round to prepare for AKC in Melbourne next weekend, but there will still be 21 starters in Cadet 9 and 29 in Cadet 12. After dominating the placings in the AKC Round at Ipswich 2 weeks ago, the locals Zack Hilder, Alaster Flack and Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi will be the likely pacesetters in Cadet 9. Gabriel Elkayam, Caleb Myers, Travis Dhu, Cooper Folley, Lana Flack, Riley Curtis and Caylen Burke will have some fantastic battles amongst the top 10. Cadet 12 was the standout class at Round 1 with an exceptional display of respectful driving throughout the field. Basilo Micale had a great 1st Round win and will look to repeat that result, but will have many challenges from Sebastian Bennett, Patrick Buckley, Ky Burke, Jaxson Burns, Toby Musico, Jenson Burns and Armand Hamilton.
With some new first time competitors, 4SS Junior fields are building up again after quite a few Juniors went up to Seniors this year. Finn Woodley will be aiming to get the win, with Cooper Crawford making his debut in the class after coming up from Cadets and newcomer Cody Scott also showing some good pace in recent practice. The KA4 Junior Light field is a little smaller than normal with only 22 starters, again with a few missing who are racing AKC next weekend. Nevertheless, Isaac McNeill, Ryan McMillan, Max Walton, Mika LeMasurier, Michael Janusz, Jordan Ensbey, etc, will put on a great show of high level racing. Slade Orsmond, Dean Silcock, Hayden Egan, Kyle Taffe and Liam Thompson will battle hard for the podium placings in KA3 Junior.
The 4SS Senior brigade continue to build in numbers and in 4SS Senior Light Coby Tucker, Justin Whittal, Dion Jarvis and Ashley Jarvis will have some great battles. Damian Poole will look to continue his great start to the year after winning Round 1 in 4SS Senior Medium. Harrison Arendt and Tim Baker will look to keep him honest. Kevin Johnston will be the favourite in Supermaxx Medium, but he will have Matthew Smith, Brynn Stewart, Jack Munro, Caleb Webber and Kaid MacDonald all over him. Kevin Davis had a comfortable win in Supermaxx Heavy last round, but Jason Ramsay, Craig Silcox and Jordan McNamara will lead the charge to unseat him this round.
The massive TAG Restricted Light field was totally dominated by Brent Reading last round, so who will emerge from the 32 kart field to take up the challenge this round? Melanya Rudd, Dion Jarvis, Dallas Oksanen, Robert Mortensen and Cameron Hargrave are the likely challengers. TAG Restricted Medium has grown in numbers at IKC this year with a lot of new drivers. 1st Round winner Joshua Herne, Phillip Ouzounis and Dean Hollier will probably be the likely frontrunners, but Adam Woods, Jody Zaal, Nickolas Lorenz, Michael Porter and Andreas Bray will be amongst the placings. TAG Restricted Masters for the 2nd round in a row has really good numbers and its great to see a few former champions coming back to the sport. Adam Surplice, Michael McLean and Paul Buchanan filled the podium in Round 1, but may be challenged this round by Nick Newman, Peter Nolloth, Darren Wong and Justin Beeton.
The KA3 Senior entries are down this round, again as some are saving their equipment for AKC next week, including the Matthews brothers who always run at the front, so Keegan Fraser, Kurtis Tennant, Jai Brown and interstate visitor Benito Montalbano will fight for the podium placings.
The 2nd Round of the 2021 Queensland KZ2 and KA2 State Series will also feature on the program and Troy Loeskow will once again be the man to beat in KZ2. Amongst the 14 kart field though are talented youngsters such as Zac Zompragno, Taylah Agius, Cody Maynes-Rutty, Ryan Suhle and Oscar Targett, all keen to get a win over the Australian champion. In KA2 1st Round winner Jack Wells will aim to repeat his win, but will face a good challenge from Slade Orsmond and Alice Buckley
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