Desmond Harral took to the big stage of the Australian Kart Championship at his home circuit of the Southern Go Kart Club. Harral has raced around the state of South Australia but was excited of the prospect of taking on the countries best in the Cadet 9 category.
Friday practice came around and preparation was already slightly hurt due to Desmond father Tim breaking his leg four weeks prior to the meeting. With Pa and father Tim helping when he can the team quickly worked out in Friday practice that they had a huge mountain to climb.
Desmond in his D&S Auto sponsored entry hit the track for Saturday morning qualifying looking for improvement. Young Desmond improved setting his fastest lap for the weekend and ran inside the top twenty with his best time putting him in position nineteen overall. With the excitement of improvement, the team was looking to heat one.
Heat one and a nice start from young Desmon put himself up to position seventeen overall. Due to a few incidents ahead, he lost time to the group in front. The JK Tuning powered kart was showing improvement throughout the race until a spin put the young charger back a spot. Harral come through for an improved performance coming home in position eighteen overall. The team was happy with the pace and kept positive going into heat two of the weekend.
Another clean start away for Harral with him managing to not lose any ground to the pack ahead and jumping to position eighteen overall. The Evo Karts backed entry pushed hard on the back of the top fifteen, battling hard for position seventeen. With another improved showing position eighteen was the finishing position for young Desmond.
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Heat three and due to a rough start Harral had his nose cone dropped, this hurt his chances. Due to some other incidents for other drivers, Harral was able to move up to seventeenth overall recovering well from the start incident.
Harral had his best start of the weekend in heat four jumping up to position fourteen inside the top fifteen of the field. The D&S Auto sponsored entry showed good race pace and race craft but slowly dropped outside the top fifteen due to the high level of the Australian Kart Championship. Young Desmond continued to race hard and came home in position eighteen overall and was looking forward to the final race of the weekend.
Turn one was the scene of carnage in the final but not for Harral avoiding other karts and moving up to position thirteen overall. In his highest position of the weekend Young Desmond tried his heart out and battled inside the top fifteen in the early stages. The Evo Kart backed entry had great battles throughout the final, dropping down some places over the race. Harral set his personal best time on lap eighteen coming home in position nineteen overall in the final.
Young Desmond was happy with the weekend, the knowledge he took from it and the help he received over the weekend. “Thanks to JK tuning for a great engine, Jason from Evo Karts For some great advice, Sponsor D&S Auto, Brett Fortanier from Southern making sure we had a good pit spot since Dad was broken. Dad for his help and Pa for helping out with everything that Dad couldn’t do which was pretty much everything”.
Young Desmond looks forward to his next race meeting that he can take part in.
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