by Russell Innes
Ipswich Kart Club will start off a huge 2024 season of racing with Round 1 of the Club Championship this Saturday 3rd February, with the running of the IKC Cadet Titles.
289 entries have been received with several classes at track capacity and huge fields across the classes, in what will be an exciting opening to the 2024 racing season at Australia’s biggest kart racing club.
Cadet 12 is a full capacity 40 kart field and there are a multitude of drivers who may feature at the front of the pack. The likes of Brock Helm, Michael Quintilliani, Blake Haigh, Roman Krutil, Orlando Raso, Alester Flack, Riley Curtis, Cooper Folley, Zander Watts, Monty Jamieson, Riley Grande, Chase Saxild, Cruz Patroni, Jack Larsen, Vincent Ter Horst, Brock Nolan, Alistair Leggatt, Aston Mills and Jordy Butler will all be towards the front, but relative newcomers to the class, Jeremy Broadbent, Carter Grother, Ayrton Hobday and Kenichi Morita will also figure prominently.
In Cadet 9, Riccardo Johnston, Lukas Loeskow and Harlen Bell will start as favourites, but Felix Sim, Martin Hsieh, Luca Raso, Samual Grande and Oscar Ray will all be aiming for a podium spot.
In the 40 kart capacity KA3 Junior Light field it is exciting to see some of last years Cadet 12 frontrunners jumping up to Juniors to take on some of the established stars in this class. Annabel Kennedy, Jye Flynn, Sebastian Bennett, Declan Hicks, Loclan Hennock, Sebastian Simonelli, Ryan Reid, Basilo Micale, Henry Stratford, Isaac McNeill, Charlie Stratford, Jack Szewczuk, Hamish Campbell, Cooper Fysh, Chad Rissman, Quade Powers and Gabriel Elkayam, will all be in the mix for the honours.
KA3 Junior Heavy steadily increased in numbers toward the end of last year and a fantastic 24 kart field will have Jaxson Fischle, Michael Janusz, Charlotte Page, Tyson McGill, Ky Burke and Lochlan Hennock fighting at the front.
Some of the frontrunners from last year in 4SS Junior have graduated to KA3 Junior this year so a new batch of drivers will be battling for the honours in the Junior 4 Stroke class. Jaxon Duong should start as favourite but Jack Doull, Blake Kratzmann, Jaxon Turner, Harrison Lippiat and Jacob Neale will have some great battles.
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KA3 Senior struggled to get big fields last year at IKC club days, but the numbers have swelled considerably and a huge 23 kart field will start on Saturday and it is a field with a huge amount of talent. Current Australian Champion Keegan Fraser will have some great competition from Lachlan Platten, Max Walton, Brieann Moyse, Dominic Penman, Jake Czislowski, Declan Matthews, Toby Spinks, Maddie Feather, Jackson Cooper, Liam Thomson, Rayner Costello and Luke Trost.
The TAG Restricted classes all have big fields with many visitors from across the state and Northern NSW as they all prepare for the Qld State Championships to be held at IKC in late June. In TAG Restricted Light, Jack Munro will be looking to keep his strong form from last year at IKC, but he will be challenged by Robert Mortensen, Lilly Stevens and Nathaniel Harrison.
TAG Restricted Masters was great racing in 2023 and 27 drivers will line up on Saturday to try and beat the established stars such as Aaron Rabjones, Lee Robinson, Gavin Soward, Gavin Whitmore, Noel Smyth and James Morrison.
In TAG Restricted Medium, the established stars such as Noel Smyth, Alan Czislowski, David Vogel, Pete Sattler, Bradley Cox, Zac King, Evan Broughton and Justin Voight will battle for the podium placings.
TAG Heavy will feature top level drivers like Rudy Farkas, Bradley McNaught, Sam Houston, Will Marshall, Zane Morrison, Christopher Williams, Josh Dagg, Brendan Nelson, Scott Gray, Jumpei Morita and Andrew Gilliam.
TAG Light has a huge field of 32 entries and is stacked with talent like Jack Wells, Mika LeMasurier, Harrison Hoey, Kayden Thompson, Toby Spinks, Troy Loeskow, Bailey Sagaidak, William Gallagher, Jac Preston, Kurtis Tennant, Brent Reading, Max Walton and Brodie Norris. Try picking a winner from that lot?
Queensland Open Performance Medium will be a battle amongst Bailey Sagaidak, Marcello Surace, Dan Hutchinson and Finlay Derry. Whilst in DD2, Scott Cleveland and Scott Howard fresh from their impressive performances in Malaysia in the Rotax Asia Cup will go up against defending club champion Jason Smith, Adam Wood and Angus Mathers.
Racing will get underway on February 3rd at 8.00am to start what will be a huge season of racing at Ipswich Kart Club.
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