by David Fidler, NWKC
The North Western Kart Club held their annual Junior Feature last weekend at Highclere. 49 entries were received, with a few drivers away at the Golden Power Series on the mainland. Saturday practice had approximately 35 people trying to set times and work out their best set-ups.
Sunday got underway with Qualifying, KA3 Junior Heavy taking to the track first. Elenah Rankin set the quickest time to secure Pole position for Heat 1, less than a second covered the first 4 karts in what would be a hotly contested class. Ollie Garwood securing second on the grid by 0.149 of a second, Boyd McCarthy just over half a second off the pace being the third fastest. Heat racing had the top 4 drivers, Elenah Rankin, Ollie Garwood, Boyd McCarthy and second race P-Plater Baxter Badenach fighting it out up the front of the group. Elenah Ranking taking out Heats 1 & 3, Ollie Garwood taking out Heat 2 and also setting a new track record in the first heat. Unfortunately, Ollie Garwood had an exhaust issue in the Final, causing him to have to pull infield after the 2nd lap. Elenah Rankin took her first win convincingly in KA3 Junior Heavy ahead of Boyd McCarthy in 2nd place and Baxter Badenach in 3rd place. Unfortunately, Elenah had a nasty accident in the KA3 Junior Light final and couldn’t make the podium presentations.
Cadet 9 saw only 2 drivers attend for the weekend. Hugh Beechey being the more experienced of the 2 drivers this weekend as first-time racer Mason Ryan took to the Highclere track for the first time. Beechey was able to set the quickest time in qualifying, leaving Mason to start from the 2nd spot in the class. Hugh Beechey was able to set the pace in this class for the weekend but unfortunately both Beechey and Ryan were both DNF in heat 3. Hugh making sure he didn’t make the same mistake again in the final to finish on the top step with Mason Ryan second.
Cadet 12 was a very close contested class with some rather clean racing at times. Cooper Lockett was the one to beat this weekend, setting a cracking qualifying time of 40.450 to take the number 1 spot on the grid, Harry Page and Rupert Diprose fought it out for spots 2 & 3 on the grid with Harry Page grabbing 2nd and Rupert Diprose taking 3rd, Harry Ralph was also hot on the tail of Rupert finishing a close 0.109 behind for position 4. Cooper Lockett, Rupert Diprose and Harry Page spent most of the heat races fighting it out for the top 3 spots in some extremely close racing. Cooper Lockett ended up being too good and took away the top spot on the podium from Rupert Diprose in second positions, closely followed by a hard charging Andy Rowlings in 3rd spot.
The TaG class this weekend was combined, TaG 125 Championship, TaG 125 R Medium and Heavy all took to the track together. Sam “ Cone Pulveriser” Chettle used this weekend as a practice event for the upcoming Tasmanian Kart Championship in his class of TaG 125 Championship, setting some serious times during the day, as Sam was the only entrant in this class he took the top spot on the podium. TaG 125 R Medium had a battle between Nigel Sheahan and Gareth McCarthy. Sheahan getting the upper hand over McCarthy during qualifying setting the quickest time of 38.883 with McCarthy with a 40.216. The reamainder of the day was a repeat of qualifying with Nigel Sheahen taking the win in the final and Gareth McCarthy second. TaG 125 R Heavy was a battle of the Tyler brothers, Brady and Kurt. Brady was quickest in qualifying by the smallest margin being 0.055 of a second. Brady Tyler remained the one to beat, taking out all heats and the final to take bragging rights away for the weekend, Kurt Tyler finishing second for the weekend.
KA3 Senior Light had a small field of 6 this weekend, qualifying was very close between the top 3 of Baylin Pease, Gemma Wyllie and Luke Sapwell, less than half a second covered all three at the end of qualifying. Pease coming out on top with a 36.729, Wyllie with a 36.846 and Sapwell a 37.179. Sapwell and Wyllie fought out the minor positions during the heat races, with ease using his AKC experiences to his advantage throughout the day. Gemma Wyllie took the early lead of the race and was never to be worried by the eventual second place finisher of Baylin Pease, returning driver Matthew Peck, who has had a few years out of the sport racing Sprintcars was right on the pace when it mattered, finishing his first event back third on the podium.
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KA3 Senior Medium was also a small field this weekend with only 4 competitors. Riley Newick was right on the pace all weekend in his Devil Engine powered Tony Kart, Newick setting the fastest time in qualifying with a 37.792. Tyson Slatter was right on the heals of Newick with a 38.170 and rounding out the top 3 was Jack Redpath, who has made his way up to the senior division and a few years in Juniors. Redpath finished with a time of 40.053 and Sam Braid with 40.125. Heat racing finished off the same was it did in qualifying with the same top 3 being the quickest throughout the day. Riley was too quick for the rest of the field finishing the final almost 4 seconds ahead of Tyson Slatter in Second, Redpath rounding out the podium in third.
KA3 Tas Masters had a quality field albeit it with a few regulars unable to attend this weekend. Qualifying has Clinton Slatter set the fastest time in the allotted time with a 37.992, Ben Marley also looking fantastic on track only 0.048 behind the time set by Slatter. Scott Hildyard was next in line only 0.081 behind Slatter also. STKC driver Matthew Mayne was also looking very quick but unfortunately forgot to put his transponder on and therefore was unable to set a time. Heat races were very close, Clint Slatter was the one to beat during the heats, Mayne who started Heat 1 in 8th position got back up to 4th spot before the flag came out, Marley, 2nd and Hildyard 3rd, fought it out for the minor placing in Heat 1. Heats 2 and 3 ended up with a tight tussle for the minor placings between Mayne, Hildyard and Marley. The Final had the closest racing of the day with Ben Marley taking the chocolates with a margin of 0.385 over Matthew Mayne in Second and Scott Hildyard a further 0.251 behind Mayne in third place.
Rounding out the weekend of racing was the Second of the Junior Feature class of KA3 Junior Light. Racing was close all day in this class, Elenah Rankin on her home track taking the fastest lap in qualifying with a 37.591, Launceston’s Harry Warmsley finishing a close second to Ranking with a 37.845 and Noah McDougall who was also hard on the tail of Warmsley with a 37.905. Elenah Rankin was the one to beat during the heat racing, taking out the top spot in all 3 heats. Ayden McCullagh found some speed to finish second in Heats 1 and 2 and fourth in Heat 3. Harry Warmsley had a DNF in heat 2 and was a very close second to Rankin in heat 3. Jack O’Neill who just made the move from Cadet 12 to Juniors, took 3rd spot in heat 3.
Unfortunately, the final didn’t finish how we all expected with Elenah Rankin clipping the back on Harry Warmsley causing Rankins kart to climb over the back of Walmsley’s kart, this caused the Red lights to come on. Medical attended both Elenah and Harry before deciding to call an Ambulance to get them checked out at the hospital. The meeting was declared with the eventual podium winners being Ayden McCullagh 1st, Jack O’Neill 2nd and Noah McDougall 3rd. Harry and Elenah were discharged from hospital a few hours later and allowed to go home to rest their sore bodies from the collision.
Special thanks go out to all those who helped on the day whether they were officials, ladies in the kitchen or simply those who lent a hand to help cleaning up after the racing had finished, thank you.
Our next event will be the NWKC Speedy Tyres Shakedown on the 8th and 9th of November as a prelude to the 2025 Phil Maney Pie Company Tasmanian Kart Championship.
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