Melbourne’s Go-Kart Club of Victoria held the grand final round 5 of the 2017 Australian Kart Championship at the weekend September 1 to 3.
Just over 230 drivers and team were in attendance for the big last round which would determine the Australian karting champions and number 1 green plate holders for 2017.
All of the big names of Australian karting were in attendance including some competitors from as far away as New Zealand along with Supercar drivers Nick Percat, James Goulding and Macauley Jones running in the ultra fast KZ2 shifter kart class.
Many of the Victorian drivers used their local knowledge and practice from the recent City of Melbourne Titles meeting to their advantage and came away with some excellent results winning 5 of the 9 classes.
KA3 Senior class
In 26 driver KA3 Senior Oakleigh driver #37 Jack Bell backed up his victory from the City of Melbourne Titles to claim his first win at national level, from #94 James Sera who finished 2nd which secured James his 5th Australian karting title and 1st overall in the KA3 Senior championship with Geelongs #1 Matthew McLean 2nd and local GKCV driver #14 Leigh Nicolaou 3rd overall in the championship.
Cadet 9 class
18 Cadet 9 drivers were competing with Oakleigh/Eastern Lions driver #94 Cadel Ambrose continued his impressive pace that he showed at the City of Melbourne Titles meeting to take out the victory, New South Wales driver #1 Ryan Tomsett finishing 2nd and local GKCV/Oakleigh driver #33 Lewis Francis finishing on the last step of the podium.
In the overall championship Bendigo driver #40 Harry Arnett secured 2nd in the championship, Cadel Ambrose 3rd and Oakleigh driver Toby Dvorak 4th.
TaG 125 class
25 TaG 125 drivers were competing and in the final a freak rain shower engulfed the west end of the circuit with the driver being on slick tyres almost half of the field went off at the end of the circuit, with local driver #15 Matthew Wall doing his best to avoid the carnage and was about to make it out clean through the exit of the turn only to be taken out by another competitor skidding off the track.
This meant that only 7 of the competitors would finish the race with New South Wales driver #15 Josh Carr taking 1st and securing 2nd in the championship, local GKCV driver #12 Trent Harrison taking 2nd and New South Wales driver #26 Toby Webb in 3rd. Local GKCV drivers #27 Benjamin McMellan and Bjorn Schultheiss finishing in 4th and 5th.
KA4 Junior class
A huge field of 34 drivers were competing in KA4 Junior and it was local regional driver Ballarat’s #31 Jaxson Cox who put in an awesome drive in the final to take out the victory and put the Ballarat Kart Club back on the map at national level, the clubs first win at this level in a very long time. Oakleigh driver #94 Kobi William was running at the front of the pack all weekend and finished 2nd with local driver #23 Jai Stephenson taking the final step of the podium after finishing heat 4 in 21st!
In the championship Eastern Lions/Geelong driver #2 Jay Hanson would take the Australian title with GKCV driver #1 Cooper Webster 2nd, and Portland driver #26 Kai Allen finishing 3rd in the championship.
Cadet 12 class
A maximum capacity field of 36 young drivers were running in the Cadet 12 class and it was Rochester Kart Club driver #25 Fletcher Harris who backed up his win in the City of Melbourne Titles going on to take victory, #13 James Wharton had already secured the Australian title by the start of the weekend due to his excellent performances in the previous 4 rounds and finished 2nd, and Queensland driver #11 Marcos Flack took 3rd.
X30 class
Another full field of 36 drivers were competing in the X30 class and it was a clean sweep of the podium for Victoria with GKCV driver #14 Leigh Nicolaou 1st, GKCV #56 Dean Foster 2nd and Geelong’s David Sera finishing 3rd. Oakleigh / GKCV driver #13 Justin Francis finished 6th which was enough to secure him 3rd overall in the championship behind NSW driver Joshua Car and Queensland driver Marc Tullouch.
KA2 class
In the 22 driver KA2 class Oakleigh driver #76 Christian Pancione continued his good form this year to take 2nd place behind Queensland #15 Lachlan Hughes with fellow Queensland driver #3 Broc Feeney finishing 3rd and securing 1st overall in the Australian championship.
KA1 class
In the KA1 class in was a Queensland clean sweep with #1 Scott Sorensen 1st, #74 Jace Matthews 2nd and #34 Matthew Stenner 3rd.
KZ2 class
In a big field of 29 drivers in the super fast KZ2 class in was New South Wales driver #11 Pierce Lehane taking the victory from local GKCV drivers #95 Aaron Cameron and #35 Jason Pringle, Supercar driver #8 Nick Percat with an excellent 4th and #39 Antonio Astuti in 5th.
