by Russell Innes, Ipswich Kart Club
ROUND 1 IKC CHAMPIONSHIP – 5th FEBRUARY 2022 – IPSWICH KART CLUB – CADET TITLES
The 2022 Ipswich Kart Club Championship kicks off on Saturday the 5th of February with Round 1 of the Championship which also doubles as the IKC Cadet Titles. The Cadet classes will have qualifying and extra laps for their Heats and Final. All other classes will have random grid draws. At close of entries, a massive 256 has been received, which is exceptionally good seeing as quite a large number of IKC members are away contesting the AKC Shakedown meeting at Todd Road this weekend.
The Cadet classes will therefore have a few of the favourites missing and as always at the start of a new season, a lot of last year’s frontrunners have moved up, so in Cadet 9 we should see some new drivers at the front. Blake Haigh is a likely favourite for the win with the likes of Creed Patroni, Carter Grother, Harlen Bell, Andrew Thompson, Nicholas Kinder and Zander Watts also likely to figure prominently. The small 4SS Cadet field will run with Cadet 9 and Blake Whittall and Caine Caldwell will battle it out for the win. A huge 34 kart field has entered for Cadet 12 and Basilo Micale will start as favourite for the title with Baxter Jarrett, Gabriel Elkayam, Alester Flack and Zack Hilder his likely challengers.
The Cadet P’s will again feature on the programme at IKC this year as the massive amount of new Cadets keep progressing from practising to racing. In Cadet 12P, Leighton Thorley, Leo Wicks, Aidan Hackwood and Campbell Dawson will be toward the front whilst in Cadet 9P, Louie Preece, Paige Flack and Jeremy Broadbent will be likely frontrunners.
4SS Junior keeps developing into a hotly contested class with big numbers and a bumper field of 16 has entered for Saturday. Early favourites include last years club Champion Cody Scott, the Stratford boys, Charlie and Henry, Finn Woodley, Georgie Yeadon, Hannah King and Sebastian Simonelli.
KA4 Junior Light will be missing a few of the likely frontrunners but this will give others a chance to score some good championship points and James Cittolin, Sebastian Bennet, Luke Rinaldi, Jackson Cooper, Patrick Buckley, Dominic Penman, Toby Musico and Xavier Avramides will all be vying for the podium.
Jake Czislowksi, Jack Wells, Alice Buckley, Sebastian Tupackovski and Jordan Ensbey will battle it out at the front of KA3 Junior in a strong 16 kart field.
In the 4SS classes, a strong contingent in 4SS Senior Light will be led by Brynn Stewart, Xander Jacobi and Andy Mann. Tim Baker and Damien Poole will battle it out in 4SS Senior Medium. 4SS Senior Heavy will be a battle between Jason Ramsay, Edward Arendt and Harrison Arendt. In 4SS Super Light, the legendary Scott Pearce will be hard to beat, but Harrison Conroy, Matthew Smith and Riley Conroy will take up the challenge.
advertisement
With a lot of Juniors moving up, TAG Restricted Light will see a lot of new faces towards the front this year. The likes of Dean Silcock, Lilly Stevens and Ryan Silcock will join other young guns Jack Munro, Keegan Fraser and Keiran Stirling, taking on the “old boys” Robert Mortensen, Dean Vellacott, etc.
A huge 28 kart field will front for TAG Restricted Medium , with Pete Sattler, Adam Wood, Rudy Farkas, Jody Zaal, David Vogel, Tom Steinfort, Ben Lillis, Noel Smyth and Craig Balke all in with a chance of a podium. After missing most of last years IKC Championship because of border restrictions, Joshua Herne will return and will be a strong favourite.
Guy Wouti, Evan Broughton and Noel Smyth will lead the way in TAG Restricted Masters, whilst in TAG Restricted Heavy, Nigel Brokenshire, Brendan Gough and Darren Wong will battle for the podium.
A quality field in KA3 Senior will be led by 2021 National Champion Jace Matthews, with Keegan Fraser, Joshua White, Declan Matthews, Jai Brown and Brent Reading keeping him honest.
X30 will be making an appearance on the programme for this club round and is packed full of talent with Marc Tulloch, Jai Buckley, Ryan Hadden, Dylan Rudd, Alexander Hadden, Zane Rinaldi, Jace Matthews, Joshua White and Ben Jurczak all vying for the podium.
With a few of the regular TAG light frontrunners, running in X30 this meeting, TAG Light is opened up for the likes of Melanya Rudd, Lucas O’Connor, Miles Bromley, Jack Stimson, Coby Tucker, Jacques Goodman, Stewart Hare and Nathaniel Harrison.
Brendan Nelson, Brock Plumb and Christopher Williams are the usual suspects for winning TAG Heavy, but others to figure prominently will be Zane Morrison, Shane Castle, Jared Neinert and Andrew Gilliam.
Queensland Open Performance will have some fantastic talent on show with Brett Wells, Tristian Ellery, Scott Cleveland Angus Mathers, Keyan Appleby, Scott Sorenson, Lachlan Cowie, Dan Hutchinson and last year’s club champion Stephanie Duffy.
With 256 entries, it will be a massive programme to get through but the super efficient team of officials and volunteers at IKC will finish by about 7.30pm, with the 2 feature classes, Cadet 9/4SS Cadet and Cadet 12 expected to run their Finals under lights.
advertisement