Australian Superkart Festival

from Rolf Greve

5 September 2016


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History was made on August 20th and 21st at the famed Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit when the first annual Australian Superkart Festival made its grand debut.

A mouth-watering sixty two karts competed across six different classes over the weekend, hailing locally or travelling from interstate to be a part of this exciting new event.

pi karts
Above: 250s roll up to the start line
pic - Mark Wicks, KartSportNews

Over the course of two days the grid showed the best of Superkarting, with close wheel-to-wheel action and excitement being the feature for the entire weekend along with ever changing weather conditions also being thrown into the mix.

The early pace-getters were Kristian Stebbing, Jordan Ford, Geoff Lawrence, Nathan Pryor, Russ Occhipinti and Brandon Stillwell, all getting the early psychological advantage over their opponents by claiming pole position.

The Saturday races produced nothing but carnage; the Non-Gearbox race was cancelled after two attempted starts that ended with a big calamity that claimed multiple karts, including poor Scott Ellis, who barrel rolled and received a broken scapula and sternum for his trouble (we would like to wish him the best in recovery).

Above: Jordie Ford's 250 Inter gets some discreet attention
pic - Mark Wicks, KartSportNews

The 250cc classes encountered worse when the heavens opened up big time on the dummy grid, causing a quick turnaround before the race got even crazier, with the 250cc National class only having two classified finishers. Stock Honda had an insane race for better reasons, with Tim Clarke edging out Justin Ford in a close one.

Sunday toned some of the on-track carnage down while keeping the close racing. The weather still played a role in the early and last races but it was the drivers who stole the show. The most notable was Jordan Ford and Tyler Williams swapping positions multiple times in the last 250cc class race, with Williams edging Ford out over the line on the last lap.

The Stock Honda boys also played their part, with Tim Clarke, Dalton Rowell, Nathan Pryor and Justin Ford putting everything on the line by being mere centimetres away from each other in their duels.

When all was said and done, there could only be one winner in each class that took out the honour of being the first Australian Superkart Festival winners.

Above: Kieran Morling, Stock Honda
pic - Mark Wicks, KartSportNews

In the 250cc International Class, Gary Pegoraro added to his long list of achievements in the sport by taking out the overall top honours over his protégé Brendan Luneman and young gun Matt Bass.

podium superkart festival
Above: 250cc Inter podium
pic - VSC

Jordan Ford continued his domination of the 250cc National Class, but Tyler Williams proved he could take it to the best and followed home in second with Queenslander Dan Lewis third.

Brad Stebbing took out the overall win in the 125cc Gearbox class over Jarrod Lethborg and Geoff Lawrence, with Tim Clarke beating out Dalton Rowell and Justin Ford in the Stock Honda class.

Russ Occhipinti had a clean sweep of the 125cc Rotax Light class. He finished ahead overall of Jim Gorman and Patrick Ross while Rod Clarke joined his son in claiming the win in 125cc Rotax Heavy. Brandon Stillwell finished a close second with Bobby Jane in third.

podium superkart festival
Above: Non-Gearbox Light podium
pic - VSC

After such a successful weekend, we have a slight break before our final race meeting of this year, the prestigious Victorian State Titles held at Phillip Island on November 12 and 13. Entries for this race meeting shall be open sometime in October, so make sure to watch this space regarding that.

podium superkart festival
Above: Non-Gearbox Heavy podium
pic - VSC