by Russell Innes, Ipswich Kart Club
Ipswich Kart Club rounded out its 2021 Club Championship racing with the 6th and final round, the Cadet Titles, on Saturday the 30th of October. Racing was conducted throughout the day under hot humid conditions and it was inevitable that storms would interrupt the programme later in the afternoon and into the evening, which resulted in several of the Finals being delayed and run on a very wet track, including the two feature classes, Cadet 9 and Cadet 12. The fantastic team of officials and volunteers at Ipswich though still managed to have the racing finished by 7.30pm.
- race wrap for each class below; full results are on speedhive HERE
As he usually does, Sebastian Eskandar-Mirandi set the pace in qualifying for Cadet 9, ahead of Riley Curtis and Gabriel Elkayam 3rd. These 3 filled the same placings in Heat 1 ahead of Alester Flack and Zack Hilder. Hilder was able to move up to 2nd in Heat 2 behind Eskandari-Mirandi, with Elkayam 3rd, Curtis and Flack were 4th and 5th. In Heat 3 Eskandari-Mirandi was again comfortably in front with Flack and Curtis following, Hilder 4th and Elkayam 5th. Eskandari-Mirandi and Curtis would start the Final from the front row, with Elkayam and Flack on the 2nd row.
With track conditions still quite wet for the Final, conditions were challenging. Eskandari-Mirandi initially led from Elkayam and Curtis, but Elkayam had great pace in the wet conditions and soon went to the lead. Hilder also moved up and grabbed 2nd on lap 3. Elkayam was driving superbly in front, whilst Eskandari-Mirandi moved back into 2nd from Hilder and Curtis who had started badly but was soon recovering to get back into the battle for podium placings. Elkayam and Eskandari-Mirandi though were the class of the filed and as the laps wound down got well clear of Hilder in 3rd whilst Curtis was well back in 4th. Hunter Fischle was also doing quite well in the wet and eventually moved up to 5th. Eskandari-Mirandi kept the pressure on Elkayam at the front but Elkayam just had enough to win the IKC Cadet 9 Title. Eskandari-Mirandi was only a second behind, these two well clear of Hilder in 3rd, Curtis 4th and Fischle 5th.
Jenson Burns set the pace in Qualifying for Cadet 12, narrowly ahead of Baxter Jarrett and Jaxson Burns, followed by Basilo Micale and Jye Flynn. The Burns twins and Jarrett dominated the first 2 Heats, Jenson Burns winning Heat 1 from Jaxson Burns and Jarrett, Basilo Micale 4th and Flynn 5th. Jaxson Burns winning the 2nd Heat with Jarrett 2nd and Jenson Burns 3rd, Micale 4th and Sebastian Bennett 5th and the big mover in the Heat after only qualifying 18th. Jenson Burns led all the way in Heat 3 for a comfortable win from Bennett who again showed great pace to come through to 2nd just grabbing the placing on the last lap from Jarrett. Micale was 4th ahead of Cooper Folley in 5th. Onto the Final and Jenson Burns and Jarrett were on the front row, with Micale and Bennett on Row 2 and Jaxson Burns back on Row 4 after a DNF in Heat 3.
As the last race of the day, track conditions were still quite wet and challenging. Jenson Burns led from the start with Jarrett in 2nd, but Micale soon moved up to 2nd and set out after Burns. Jaxson Burns had also moved forward and also got past Jarrett on Lap 7. Folley was also going well and was soon all over Jarrett in the battle for 4th and 5th. Jenson Burns was slowly being caught by Micale but was just able to hold him out over the remaining laps to have a narrow win. Jaxson Burns was quite a bit back in a lonely 3rd, whilst Jarrett was a comfortable 4th in the end when Folley spun trying to make a pass and he dropped back to 6th, allowing Louis Brown to finish 5th.
The Cadet P’s again featured on the programme at IKC as a separate class and a strong field of P Platers put on an excellent display of driving. Ashton Smith and August Soward were the only 2 Cadet 12P’s, with Smith comfortably leading all day and winning the wet Final by over 15 seconds. Jack Sydenham, Vincent Ter Horst, Zachary Simonelli, Dylan Di Sandro, Leighton Thorley and Paige Flack were amongst the placings throughout the day in Cadet 9P, but in the Final Thorley handled the wet conditions best to win from Harlen Bell and Brock McGill.
4SS Junior continues to provide some of the best racing at Ipswich in recent times and the action throughout the day was thrilling to watch. The wet Final caught out a few of the normal frontrunners and Georgie Yeadon came through and got a well deserved win from Joe Bonnano and Cody Scott.
A smaller than normal KA4 Junior Light field was led home in the Final by Ryan MacMillan, ahead of Armand Hamilton and Dominic Penman. Newly crowned State Champion Max Walton was dominant in KA3 Junior with Armand Hamilton getting his 2nd podium finish for the day and Brodie Norris finishing 3rd.
In the 4SS classes, Brynn Stewart mastered the wet conditions best to win 4SS Senior Light from Andy Mann and Darcy Briggs. Harrison Arendt was the only one to stay on track in 4SS Senior Medium and Jason Ramsay narrowly won 4SS Supermaxx Heavy from Edward Arendt and Tom Tucker.
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David Vogel, Pete Sattler and Adam Wood were the class of the field all day in TAG Restricted Medium and finished the Final in that order. Peter Nolloth continued his recent good form to win TAG Restricted Masters from Michael McLean and Nick Newman. Brent Reading after a horror last club round, got back to form with dominance in TAG Restricted Light, winning the Final comfortably ahead of Jacinta Hoey and Keegan Fraser.
With several of the normal frontrunners away contesting the Tasmanian State Championship, a small field of KA3 Senior was hotly contested with Will Marshall, Hamish Fitzsimmons, Josh Miller, Keegan Fraser and Ryan Uhlmann amongst the placings in the Heats. Uhlmann narrowly winning the Final from Fraser with Marshall in 3rd.
The TGR (Tyler Greenbury Racing) boys were on fire in TAG light and dominated during the Heats and once again took out a podium cleansweep in the Final with Ryan Haddin 1st, followed by Ryan Laycock and Alex Hadden.
TAG Heavy was a mix of results in the Heats with Chris Williams, Jared Neinert, Jessica Golding, Finlay Derry, Andrew Gilliam, Aaron Packer and Jeremy Glover in the placings. In the Final though Williams was too good, with a comfortable win from Gilliam and Neinert.
Open Performance was dominated by some of the younger drivers during the Heats, but come the wet Final it was Leorra Devisser showing the boys how to do it and a couple of the more mature drivers, Scott Cleveland and Bill Miller completing the podium.
The IKC Clubday Challenge Program Group Winners for this meeting were:
- Cadet 9 Group 2 – Hunter Fischle
- Cadet 12 Group 2 – Jaxson Fischle
- Cadet 12 Group 3 – Cooper Horwell
- TAG Restricted Light Group 2 – Jason Stimson
- TAG Restricted Light Group 3 – Brody Barton
- TAG Restricted Medium Group 2 – Sam Tollasepp
- TAG Restricted Masters Group 2 – Michael Mitrovic
Ipswich Kart Club was also celebrating their recognition as the Sporting Organisation of the Year at the City of Ipswich Sports Awards on Friday evening. Club representatives were in attendance on the night and before racing commenced on Saturday, all officials and club volunteers gathered together for a group photo with the award.
The final race meeting at Ipswich for 2021 will be the Capri Cup on Friday evening the 3rd of December and Saturday the 4th of December, followed by the IKC end of year presentation evening on the Saturday night.
The Capri Cup will be extra significant this year of course, with the passing of Alf Capri several months ago, so Ipswich Kart Club will be running this race meeting in the “Reverse Capri Cup” configuration and racing will commence at 6.30pm on Friday evening with Round 1 of Heats, followed on Saturday morning by the 2nd Round of Heats and then the Finals on Saturday afternoon, with racing and presentation expected to be finished by 4.00pm.
Everyone will then have a few hours to get ready for the IKC end of year presentation dinner starting at 6.00pm.
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