ADELAIDE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS A DAY OF HOT RACINGWith strong fields in all classes and the clay track banking glistering from the overnight watering in the morning sun light the days racing was potentially going to be the best seen for the season. The track on the day held up better than all expectations with a flat moist surface supplied all day, a great effort by the track maintenance crew on the day.
When the days racing started off with a title class field of 100 Opens all knew we were going to be in for a greats days racing. The 100 Opens created some great heat action with heat wins to Lisa Walker, Rhys Hackett, Patrick Merritt and NT’s Bradley Connor. The exciting final had plenty of action with Ben Brown starting from pole not having the day he would have liked finishing 6th and 4th overall. Rhys Hackett started from 4th and was the eventual winner of the final and the championship from Bradley Connor who finishing 2nd from 3rd position and Lisa walking finishing 4th with enough points to finish 3rd for the day.
The KT heavy’s was the scene of the “Action Man” Brett Woodifield finishing with 3 wins and a drive from 12th to 2nd in heat 2 behind Wayne Madden. Runner up places on the podium was filled by Wade Hackett 2nd and Mathew Lane 3rd.
J Opens was dominated on the day by the No 10 of Joseph Caruso with an outstanding result of 4 first including the final and winning the day on points. The other heat win going to Jake Armstrong assisted Jake in finishing 2nd on the day from 3rd place Matthew Baker.
The KT Medium was the scene of some great action and memorable drives with a field of 17 karts starting each heat. Heat wins were shared by Ben Brown, Jack Wenham, Rhys Hackett and Mark Burford. The final started with Rhys Hackett on pole from Mark Burford and Ben Brown even though Ben had a DNF in one heat. The final was fast and furious with Mark winning the day from Ben who finish 3rd and Rhys finishing back in the pack still having enough points for 2nd place overall.
Junior Heavy’s had 4 separate heat winners with John Dempsey, Kayla Woods Josh Hoare & Shantel Hall all meeting the chequered flag. The final and the day was won by the pole sitter John with Josh 3rd in the final and still having enough points for 2nd with Shantel coming home 2nd in the final and 3rd for the day.
It was the strongest Statesman’s field outside of a title creating plenty of action over the day. Heat wins went to the NT rocket Tony Connor, Andy Wundenberg and Brad Scotcher winning the remaining 2 heats. In the final Brad didn’t waste his start from pole to finish 1st and taking the top step on the podium. Larry Furler was the big mover starting from 5th and finishing the final in 2nd and 3rd overall and Andy is back after several months layoff found the competition so much stronger than previous with finishing 4th and 2nd overall.
The mixed class of twins and 200CC’s were able to use full power on the grippy track with Ben Brown & Mark Burford sharing the heat wins with 2 each and Ben winning the final from Mark and Bruce Heinrich finishing 3rd for the day.
KT lights started with Chantelle Lutze winning the 1st heat with other heat winners being Joseph Caruso, Aiden Hall & Lisa Walker. The final started with Joseph from pole and finishing 1st at the chequered flag followed by Aiden finishing 2nd with Lisa starting 4th and finishing 3rd to fill the 3rd podium step.
The largest field for the day was the 125 Heavy’s with 18 karts greeting the green flag in the heats. Again the heat wins were shared around with the winners being Tom Bawden, Dwayne Ames, John Smith and Brett Woodifield. With the championship on many of the front runners want list the final wasn’t going to disappoint. The final started with Tom on pole, Jason Minicozzi from 2 and Brett from 3. The racing was fast and furious with many place changes over the duration of the race with the starting positions greeting the chequered flag and becoming the final podium order, a final worthy of the title.
Junior Lights had a field of 17 karts all wanting to win the 2010 club championship creating the closest finish on points of all classes. With heat wins to Lachlan & Nathan Cowling, Keaton Szach and Joanna Caruso it was only ever going to be an exciting final. With Joanna starting from pole, Nathan from 2nd, Keaton from 3rd and only 3 points separating them it was going to depend on final placing to determine podium positions. With some great racing to finish the day Nathan greeted the chequered flag claiming 1st for the day, Joanna finishing 3rd still had enough points for 2nd overall and Keaton finishing strong in 2nd had the points for 3rd.
Supporting the great day of racing was the demonstration class of 12 Rookies with many of the drivers showing massive improvement over the full season.
With the huge day and season of racing over for another year, many stayed back for the presentation with monster smiles filling the podium in all classes. Congratulations also must go to Jake Armstrong for winning the Darryl Paine Memorial for the Best Presented Kart & Driver as Jake has always had a highly presented team wherever he races.
With the enormous changes to the club, pit area and track over the season it was only fitting the quality of the fields and racing had lifted to an exciting new level and will obviously flow on to make the “ADELAIDE CLASSIC” a prestige event worthy of being a “World Title” in 2011.
See ya trackside in 2011
