Former Supercar driver Michael Patrizi took his team of eleven drivers across six classes to the Emerald Kart Club over the weekend for the fourth round of the SP Tools Australian Kart Championship. Patrizicorse had a strong hand of drivers in current KZ2 national champion Troy Loeskow, current KA4 Junior state champion Xavier Avramides and earlier championship pole sitter Mika Lemasurier leading the team. With six classes having drivers of the Patrizicorse Australia outfit, the team were in for a flat out weekend of racing!
The premier KA2 Junior class had Mika Lemasurier and Armand Hamilton putting their best foot forward for the team. Lemasurier put in blistering pace in qualifying, putting himself on the second row in third position, with Hamilton just outside the top twenty in position twenty two in a class field of forty drivers. Lemasurier put himself right in the mix, coming away with three top five finishes in the heats highlighted by a third in his final heat race. Hamilton had improving pace but had two DNF results in the middle heats putting him on the back foot and out of position thirty three for the final.
Mika put in another stellar performance in the final crossing the line on the podium. A cruel post-race infringement dropped him down to fifth spot in a brilliant drive. Hamilton put in his best result of the weekend making up a huge nineteen positions and bursting his way into the top fifteen in fourteenth place overall!
Bryce Lane was the sole Patrizicorse driver in the TAG 125 category in another near full field. Lane qualified in the top twenty in position seventeen but the opening two heats didn’t quote go his way, dropping down to position twenty seven and twenty. Bryce was able to rebound well in heats three and four, making his way up to position seventeen and into the top fifteen in thirteenth in his final heat. Lane left his best result for last pushing hard on the back of the top ten and coming home in twelfth position overall!
Shaun Jaques was running in the X30 category and was another driver looking to do the Patrizicorse team proud. With nearly forty drivers in the field, after finishing practice inside the top 6 Jaques qualified in position thirty. Jaques charged into the top fifteen in his final two heats, with a position twelve and fourteen putting him in good stead for the final. The result didn’t reflect the speed that Shaun showed throughout the weekend finishing P17 in an intense final.
Zack Hilder and De’argo Stewart were the youngest drivers in the Patrizicorse team, running in the Cadet 12 category. Stewart just missed the top fifteen in qualifying with sixteenth position overall, with Hilder down outside the top thirty in position thirty three after some mechanical issues. Stewart and Hilder both raced competitively across the heats with Stewart running as high tenth in heat two and running in the top fifteen in his other three heat races. Hilder burst into the top ten in heat one and raced in or on the top fifteen in his remaining heats. Both drivers raced their hearts out in the final with Stewart leading the way in position fifteen. Hilder was right behind his stable mate in sixteenth position moving up seventeen positions across the weekend!
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State champion Xavier Avramides and Oceane Colangelo were in the KA4 Junior class in their Patrizicorse chassis. Avramides was right on the pace in qualifying just missing the top five in seventh position. Colangelo is just outside the top twenty in position twenty four looking to move forward. Avramides showed superb pace in the heats, cumulating in second in heat two but had a DNF in heat one and an incident in heat four, hurting his starting position for the final. Avramides after showing electric pace and starting the final lap on the podium, finished his weekend with an unfortunate DNF with the young driver looking to bounce back in the remainder of the season. Colangelo put in one of his best performances of the weekend moving into the top twenty in position eighteen overall.
KZ2 was the final class for the Patrizicorse team with national champion Troy Loeskow, Zac Zamprogno and Carter Mobbs all taking the start. Loeskow qualified in a brilliant fourth position overall, with Zamprogno and Mobbs around the top twenty in position nineteen and twenty one overall. Loeskow never left the top three in heats until a mechanical failure in heat four put him out of position six for the final. Zamprogno raced his way into the top ten with ninth in heat one and tenth in heat three, while Mobbs was pushing on the top fifteen bar a DNF in the final heat race. Loeskow wasn’t quite able to convert his heat results in the final after a poor start dropping outside the fifteen. Troy managed and recovered the race extremely well to come home inside the top ten in position nine. Both Mobbs and Zamprogno made their way into the top fifteen in the final with Mobbs in position twelve and Zamprogno position fifteen overall!
Team owner and manager Michael Patrizi spoke post weekend on his team’s weekend in the sunshine state. “AKC at Emerald was great weekend for our team and the material we use, in all categories we showed the speed of the S14 BirelART manufactured go-karts. Our drivers inside the Patrizicorse tent were a little unlucky on Sunday, Mika Lemasurier crossed the line third in KA2, Loeskow was sixth after falling back to sixteenth off the start in KZ, Avramidies in KA4 was third on the final lap before a late incident caused him to DNF and our newest D’Argo Stewart had a super weekend finishing in thirteenth (pre drop down penalty) in Cadet 12.
“A special Congratulations goes out to Jai Brown winning KA3 aboard his all-new Charles Leclerc Kart and Henry Johnstone for his second Place in KZ as well as Fraser Blyton in X30 who showed tremendous speed for someone fresh from Juniors qualifying in position five and running inside the top ten most of the weekend. The team have some important races coming up over the next few weeks in preparation for the final round of AKC starting in Newcastle for the Newcastle City Cup followed immediately by the City of Melbourne Titles”.
Patrizicorse have a busy and hectic month of karting before the final round of the SP Tools Australian Kart Championship in Newcastle next month.
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