words – Marilyn Weier
pics – Action Sports Photography Australia
Round 2 Queensland Raceway 24th April 2021
Qualifying
It was clear blue sky for Round 2 of the Qld Superkart Series as13 Karts took to the track for qualifying. Russell Jamieson, after running in a new engine in his 250cc International set the fastest time with Tim Weier in his 250cc National a couple of seconds behind him.
Greg Hack who was disappointed not to run at Lakeside, set the fastest time for the 125cc Karts. Jonathan Bothamley, filling in for son Todd, who was working in the mines this weekend, was less than a second slower than Greg and Liam Hoy just as close behind him, with Kyle Schroeder several seconds behind them. Kyle had come out to Fridays practice and discovered he had a blocked fuel filter. He changed this and also emptied out the fuel tank and blew it out and changed his Carby. He also changed a magneto wire that was broken. He is learning tuning maintenance on the run, but enjoying every minute of it.
Peter Nuske was the fastest of the NGB Light despite running old tyres when the new ones didn’t turn up in time and was 7th on the Grid ahead of fellow NGB Light Leighton Cook. Leighton had had trouble starting due to a doggy earth connection. This is a repeat offender and he plans to replace the wire. The comment from most of the Karters was that the track was slippery and were hoping it would improve as the day went on but Ben Longland in his NCG Light was very happy with the track conditions as he felt it was helping him get out of the corners quicker. After qualifying he went down a tooth on the rear from 71 to 70 to give him more speed in the straight and was looking forward to being more competitive against Leighton Cook. 10th spot went to Glenn Wiggin in his NGB Heavy.
Ross Frazer’s 125cc engine is due for new rings so he was down on power and qualified in 11th spot. Amber Bothamley, at the start of this year had a new NGB Light chassis and used qualifying to get the feel of it around the QR track for the first time and this along with pushing for extra speed, saw her run wide between corners 4 and 5 on two separate laps, however she got going again both times and qualified for 12th spot on the grid ahead of Jeff Cook in his NGB Light.
250cc National and Internationals
Race 1
Both Russel and Tim were the only Karts in their classes, Russel because he was the only Twin entered and Tim because unfortunately both the Crisp Brothers, Lachlan and Gareth were down with the flu. Russell cleared out from the start of the 1st race putting considerable distance on Tim and by 4th lap was lapping some of the back markers. On the 6th lap his clutch started slipping but he was able to finish and take the chequered flag. Tim who trialled a new nose for both qualify and this race, ran an incident free race to finish about a half a lap behind Russel, but also lapped most of the field.
Chryss and Russell made some adjustments to his clutch cable before the 2nd race and he cleared out to win, lapping all of the field except Tim. Tim, changed back to his original nose cone for this race and he and Bernard made a few other changes, but when he returned to the pits he described his Kart as a beast to drive and he was glad to see the chequered flag come out.
The third race saw a repeat of the first two races with Russell clearing out to lap most of the field and take the chequered flag in front of Tim. Tim left the nose cone as was, but they made other changes. He had also felt a vibration that he felt was not engine related and so rebalanced the rear tyres. The kart felt much better in this race. Not having competition is a good opportunity for some testing.
125cc
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Jon had good speed for the first couple of laps of Race 1 with Greg, hanging onto his tail and it looked like it was going to be a good race when John pulled off and into the area behind the tower with electrical problems. Greg made the most of this lead and held onto it despite Liam doing his best to get past him and they finished in first and second. Kyle ran around behind them but was experiencing fuel surge through corners one and two but was able to finish the race. His carby had fallen off during qualifying and he had put it back on but was not sure that he had put it on right. Ross had no revs on the warmup lap so came back into the pits.
Race 2 Greg and Liam took up where they had left off in the first race. Liam would close up on him going into the corners but Greg’s speed down the straight would put a bit of a gap on Liam again. Turned out Greg’s brakes were not operating at optimum and so would have to start to break at around the 150 mark and Liam was braking at the 50 mark. However, despite this issue Greg held on to first with Liam crossing behind him. Liam’s kart also only has a plastic sprint kart nosecone, and he would like to replace it with a Superkart nose cone to give him more speed. Kyle was there with them at the start of the race but his fuel issues continued and finished at the tail of the field but in third when both Jon and Ross wasn’t able fix their problem in time for this race.
Race 3 Jon changed his ignition back to his old one and came out and set a good pace for the entire race with Greg and Liam hot on his heels. Liam had missed 2nd gear off the start but caught the front two by the 2nd corner. There was a lot of close racing but neither were able to pass Jon before the Chequered flag. Greg was very happy though, as chasing Jon saw him clock laps a second faster than the previous race. Liam stopped on the 6th lap with engine problems. Back in the pits he described it as sounding like a bag of marbles when you turned it over. Kyle took the fuel filter out, hoping this would solve his fuel surge problems but they continued and he finished back down the field. Ross was unable to solve his problem and called it a day.
NGB Heavy and Lights
Despite his old tyres Peter got a good start to lead Leighton into the first corner. Peter passed Kyle in his 125cc but Leighton wasn’t able to stick the pass on Kyle till the 5th lap but this didn’t stop them enjoying some very close racing with Peter taking the win in front of Leighton. Ben had a brief dice with Peter and Leighton but on the second lap as they went into turn 4 Leighton went under him on a tight line and Ben ended up on the Rumble, (rough outside ripple strip) which stuck the chain off the sprocket and he was unable to continue. Leighton ran wide onto the other ripple strip but continued racing.
Glenn in his NGB Heavy also got to tag along with this group and join in this close racing. Amber followed around behind this group. Her best time of 1.32.76 was almost 2 seconds faster than her fastest qualifying time, showing she is coming to grips with her new Kart on this track. Jeff had some jetting issues and was circulating around at the back of the field till the last lap when between turn 4 and 5 he was distracted by a faster guy (Greg) going past him and muffed his line running a bit wide but kept it going to finish.
The start of race 2 saw some jostling for positions in this class as the green was waved with Peter quickly established himself as the leader of this group with Leighton, who had misjudged how warm it would be and had put too much pressure in his tyres for the first race, right behind him. Ben had to start rear of the pack because of the DNF but tagged onto these two and they enjoyed some close racing but finished in these positions. Glenn also tagged along at the back of this group followed by Amber and Jeff.
Leighton got the better start in Race 3 to lead the NGB Light group around but Peter was back in front by the 2nd lap, Ben was right in the mix and on the 5th lap he was able to get in front of Leighton and keep him there to take 2nd behind Peter. Leighton lost power on the last lap but still finished. Glenn crossed the line next but first in his class. Amber had a bit of an off at turn 3 on the first lap but got back on the track and finished behind Jeff.
Race 4 All Classes.
Due to delays during the day it was after 5.30pm when the Karts went out for their last race of the day. (Sunset was 5.23pm). This should have been the last race for the day but the Excel’s raced after them instead of before. Due to the fading light all Karters went out with their rain light on and the race was reduced from 10 laps to 5.
Russell cleared out as per all the other races but did not have to lap as many Karts this time due to the shorter race distance. Tim also ran around behind him but described being out there as sketchy at best. Although all the corners had lights on them, you were only in it briefly and then back to darkness and once Russell was more than 20 metres in front of him all he could see was his rain light.
Greg and Jon despite the low light raced each other to the chequered flag with Greg beating Jon across the line.
The NGB Light Karts of Peter, Leighton and Ben also diced for places throughout the race. Leighton got the jump at the start but Peter was back in front by the 2nd lap and stayed there, despite the best efforts of Leighton and Ben. These two fought it out for 2nd with Leighton finishing split seconds in front of Ben. When he came back to the pits Peter showed me his visor and it was covered in bugs. He “jokingly” wondered whether he would be able to see through them all by the end of the race. Ben, however was very enthusiastic about the race and felt it was the best racing he has had for a while. Bernard later made the comment that he thought that today was the best racing Ben had done since he started racing with the Club. Jeff, Kyle and Amber circulated around finishing in that order.
So all in all it was a good day of racing and now we can start looking forward to the next round also here at QR on the 22nd May 21.
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