King Of The Hill

by Chris Mitchell

The 2021 edition of the King of the Hill at Hurricane Go Kart Club on Saturday was set to be an absolute cracker. 240 entries over 11 classes, the event followed its popular format of a single-day, all-in-one race meeting.

Typically referred to as the unofficial State Title for the TaG 125 Restricted classes, King of the Hill 2021 boasted 53 entries between Restricted Light and Medium classes, along with 31 KZ2 entries for round 4 of the West Australian KZ series.

In the lead up to the WA Kart Championships being held at Wundowie in 5 weeks (September 24 to 26), many drivers were using this event as a test-bench to see where they stand in the competition, and how much work they have to do in the coming four weekends.

Cool August weather combined with a forecast of patchy light rain made the day an interesting mix of dry tyre and wet tyre racing. Rain settled in for the finals, forcing wet tyres and setups in the closing stages of the day, and setting up for some incredible racing all the way to the end!

In five weeks time we do it all again – cannot wait for the 2021 WA Kart Championships at Hurricane Go Kart Club!

Top 5 stories of the day (as determined by commentator Chris Mitchell) with videos of the finals queued up for each class, below:

KA3 Senior – Bree Rhodes Wins On Debut!

Her first step out of Juniors, 14-year-old Bree Rhodes took out her maiden win in KA3 Senior on Saturday afternoon, storming from the third row of the grid to lead home Thomas Loughton and Brandon Duncombe in the pouring rain.

1st: Bree Rhodes
2nd: Thomas Loughton
3rd: Brandon Duncombe

Cadet 12 – Pickpocket Win by Ben Hall at the line!

We saw intense battling between both young drivers Ben Hall and Chase Wildman through the wet 15 lap final. Chase led every lap, getting lucky with lapped traffic on most occasions, but Hall never gave up, dragging him to the line to win by 0.053s at the flag!

1st: Benjamin Hall
2nd: Chase Wildman
3rd: Leeroy Toon

125 Restricted Light – Sebastian Fiorenza with a Breakthrough win to become the new King of The Hill

Young privateer, backed by Mum Tracy and Dad Joe, Sebastian has been consistently in the picture throughout the last 12 months. Taking advantage of the wet conditions he out-drove three time KoTH winner Thomas Bowsher and a hard charging Jacob Potts to claim his breakthrough open event win with his Rotax powered OTK kart.

1st: Sebastian Fiorenza
2nd: Jacob Potts
3rd: Thomas Bowsher

125 Restricted Medium – Carlos Del Toro turns around a last-placed quali effort to win from the front row!

After a shocking start to his day failing to qualify in the morning session, Carlos Del Toro made the most of his heat races, earning himself a front row start alongside Christopher Straughan. 15 laps in the wet, Del Toro never looked back, claiming the King of the Hill win ahead of Brad Smith and Christopher Straughan.

1st: Carlos Del Toro
2nd: Brad Smith
3rd: Christopher Straughan

KZ2 – Vision hampers Mitic in the wet; Dicker shines once again

Nic Mitic looked a sure-thing as he rolled out for the 25-lap final, for the 4^th round of the West Australian KZ Series. But a combination of pre-race visor treatments and poor conditions rendered him helpless, struggling with poor vision. Sam Dicker mounted a charge before the halfway point after dropping as low as sixth, storming through to take the win over Jake Klarich and Thomas Schou. Dicker increased his championship lead as they head into the final round of the series.

1st: Sam Dicker
2nd: Jake Klarich
3rd: Thomas Schou