Desmond Harral is a young Cadet 9 driver making his way through the ranks of the South Australian and National Karting scenes.
Desmond has made the move to the new Tecno chassis in the second half of 2021 and just wrapped up the runner up position in the South Australian Festival State Cup. Harral took place in the earlier season South Australian National round at Bolivar, coming away with position nineteen overall.
Friday practice was an excellent starting point, with Harral being as high as sixth in one of the sessions. Young Desmond was looking to improve on his nineteenth place finish at the early round and looked forward to a massive weekend of racing. Harral hit the track for qualifying and looked to put himself in a strong position for the opening heat races. The Tecno Karts Australia backed driver put himself into the top ten and looked strong throughout the session. Desmond after driving the wheels off his kart set the ninth fastest time of the session, having himself in the top ten and on the inside of the fifth row to start the heats.
Heat one came around and Harral achieved a clean get away and jumped up a spot into position eight at the end of the opening lap. With good pace, the CC Race Engines powered driver was able to stay there and apply pressure to position seven ahead. In another faultless drive, young Desmond was able to come home in position eight in the opening heat.
With improved results from qualifying to the opening heat, Desmond was looking to continue his momentum into the second heat. The Torzosine and DnS Auto backed entry once again jumped up to eighth off the start and chased after the top seven. Harral had improved his pace from the opening heat while also having ninth place Caylen Burke right behind. Desmond swapped positions in the back end of the race but fought back to come home in position eight once again.
Harral had an unfortunate start in heat three dropping back to position thirteen by lap one end. Desmond put his head down and by lap three was back up to position twelve. Harral crossed the line in position twelve but due to a two place penalty was classified in position fourteen.
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Sunday morning came around and Desmond and his Tecno Karts Australia team, were looking to put the third heat behind them and move forward. Harral got a clean get away to start heat four, sitting in eleventh just outside the top ten. The CC Race Engines powered entry continued to battle on the edge of the top ten. With many positional changes in a great battle, Desmond came home just outside the top ten in position twelve overall and looked to the final to try and get back inside the top ten.
Harral jumped away in the final but an incident at the opening corner put paid to the young driver’s chances. Desmond rejoined at the rear of the field and in a fighting drive, put his head down and tried to pass some karts. In a determined drive Harral crossed the line in position eleven overall just missing out on a top ten finish.
Both Desmond and his father Tim were happy with their pace and improvement from the earlier Australian Kart Championship round they competed in. “We had good pace but were just unlucky” Desmond told.
Tim spoke of how proud he was of his son and the sponsors that help him. “I was really proud of Des this weekend. Big thanks to Tecno Kart Australia, CC Race Engines and Torzoshine and Dns Auto. We’ll get them next time” Tim informed us.
This closed of young Desmond’s season and showed hell be a driver to watch in 2022.
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