by Russell Innes, IKC
Over 330 entries have been received for Round 3 of the 2023 Ipswich Kart Club Championships on Saturday the 1st of April, which will be the KA100 Titles for KA3 Senior, KA3 Junior Light and KA3 Junior Heavy. In addition, KA2 Junior and Gearbox will contest Round 2 of the Queensland “Pineapple Cup”. Entries have come from across the nation to contest Australia’s premier club championship with KA3 Junior Light reaching capacity less than 2 hours after entries opened and Cadet 12 also reaching capacity as well.
The frontrunners in KA3 Senior will come from Jai Brown, Keegan Fraser, Avia Anagnostiadis, Ryan Uhlmann, Lachlan Platten, Logan Eveleigh, Rohan Gresham, Brieann Moyse, Marcos Flack and Jordan Costa.
KA3 Junior Light will be strongly contested with many possible winners. The usual strong local drivers will have some good competition from some interstaters and the likes of Max Walton, Dominic Penman, Luke Rinaldi, Sebastian Bennet, Maddie Feather, Zack Hilder, Isaac McNeill, Jye Flynn, James Anagnostiadis and Brodie Norris will put on a great display of competitive driving.
In KA3 Junior Heavy, early contenders for the win will be Michael Janusz, Cody Scott, Lucas Lesmes, Lachlan Evennett, James Cittolin, Isabella Wagner, James Raaymakers and Tyler Tilmouth.
Favourites in the 4SS Junior class will be Georgie Yeadon, Buster Bailey, Jett Saraghi and Jaxon Duong.
In Cadet 9, Jeremy Broadbent, Jack Musico and Riccardo Johnston have been the form drivers at club rounds so far, but they will have some strong competition this Saturday from Carter Grother, Harlen Bell, Cruz Kelly, Oliver Flack, Oliver Williamson, Rhett Moylan, Brock Nolan, Kenichi Morita, Lukas Loeskow, Visili Baralos and Kenichi Morita.
Cadet 12 has a full field of 40 and the big names to watch will be Alester Flack, Caylen Burke, Lana Flack, Gabriel Elkayam, Michael Quintiliani, Cooper Folley, Zander Watts, Roman Krutil, Jack Jensen and Blake Haigh.
The Cadet P Class again has attracted a big field and a few of the normal frontrunners have graduated out into the open Cadet classes, so opportunity presents itself for drivers like Samual McColl, Blake Cowie, Archer Bailey and Oliver Tresillian to contest for the Cadet 12P win, whilst Oskar Kozac, Oliver Jones, Lenox Carson and Darian Arius will contest for the Cadet 9P win.
A star studded lineup will contest KA2 Junior for the 2nd Round of the Queensland “Pineapple Cup” with drivers such as Brodie Norris, Jack Webster, Ruben Dan, Isaac McNeill, Mika LeMasurier, Ky Burke and Ryan MacMillan expected to be towards the front.
In the TAG Restricted classes, the usual frontrunners in TAG Restricted Light will be Jacinta Hoey, Josh Frew, Robert Mortensen, Riley Van Den Broek, Ethan Blackband, Jake Czislowski, Lilly Stevens, Luke Lane, Jack Munro and Xander Jacobi. In TAG Restricted Medium, Rudy Farkas, Gaven Whitmore and Bradley McNaught will all be towards the front, whilst in the large TAG Restricted Masters field, Christopher Williams, Evan Broughton, Gavin Soward, Simon Russell, Phil Smith, Kevin Castles, Lee Robinson and Kevin Johnston are expected to all challenge for the win.
TAG Heavy will be very closely contested amongst James Morrison, Brock Plumb, Kyle Booth, Justin McCartney, Tim Farrell, Christopher Williams, Josh Goddard, Will Marshall, Hayden Egan, Scott Gray, Riley LeGarde, Jumpei Morita, Sam Houston, Andrew Gilliam and David Vogel. TAG Light as usual will be exciting to watch as the strong local contingent of Declan Matthews, Hamish Fitzsimmons, Jack Wells, Harrison Hoey, Brent Reading and Jett Adamson, will be joined by the interstate visitors like Zachary Heard, Beau Pronesti, Rohan Gresham, Zane Morrison and Ryan Hughes.
X30 will also be on the programme for this round, although not as a club championship class and a hot field with the likes of Sam Seccombe, Jace Matthews, Jack Stimson, Jordi Slater, Jonathon Marcusson, Kurtis Tennant, Joshua White, William Gallagher, Kayden Thompson, Fraser Blyton, Jordi Slater, Jacques Goodman, Beau Pronesti, Shaun Jacques, Joshua Miller and Cohen Day will put on a great display.
Queensland Open Performance Heavy will have the usual suspects at the front from the likes of Scott Cleveland, Tristan Ellery, Angus Mathers and Keyan Appleby. In Queensland Open Performance Light, it will be a fantastic battle between Reece Cohen, Leon Cordato, Jack Childs, Christian Cowie, Cameron Laws and Bailey Sagaidak.
Quite a few of the drivers who have entered Qld Open Performance Light are also doubling up and running Gearbox in the 2nd Round of the Queensland “Pineapple Cup” and it will be some great racing action amongst the likes of Cameron Laws, Christian Cowie, Jordan Ensbey, Dan Hutchinson, Lachlan Murphy, Lachlan Cowie, Bailey Sagaidak, Jac Preston, Jack Childs, Leon Cordato, Billy Myers and Reece Cohen.
The super efficient team of officials and volunteers at Ipswich Kart Club will have a massive task to get through to run all these entries and all these classes, but should have racing finished by about 7.00pm on Saturday night.