North Western Kart Club – Daniel Johnson Memorial – 24th April 2022
27 Apr 2022
Photo by Rhys Jeffrey @ 10 Photography
The North Western Kart Club hosted their 17th annual Daniel Johnson Memorial on the Saturday 24th April, 2022 with the event sponsored by Dion Wyllie from Wyllie’s Kart City. Just under 50 competitors from around Tasmania descended on the Highclere circuit for what was a perfect sunny day, which made for an incredibly fast track. Seven new class lap records were set out of the ten classes competing.
Cadet 9 final was won by Launceston’s Harry Warmsley who shared two race wins a piece along with second place finisher Hobart’s Logan Potter. Third went to Ayden McCullagh closely followed by Ethan Youd in fourth.
Cadet 12 proved to have some of the closest racing all weekend with the margin in the final being 0.298 seconds. The final was won by Hobart’s Jack Kalbfell who in turn won his first ever Cadet 12 final after moving up from Cadet 9. Second went to North West local Elenah Rankin followed by Smithton’s Lucas Furphy in third who was the only driver to take a heat victory away from Kalbfell.
KA4 Junior Light was dominated by Hobart’s Harry Bresnehan the weekend by winning all four races. Second place in the final went to Mitchell Conroy with Samuel Gorisch taking home third.
KA4 Junior Heavy saw Cameron Jeffrey show the rest of the field a clean pair of heels convincingly winning all races from Hobart’s Joshua Faux in second and Launceston’s Jonty Rowbottom in third.
KA4 Masters Final was won by current Tasmanian State Champion Malcom Watson closely followed by James Bresnehan who going into the final race was attempting to make it a father son clean sweep after winning the three prior heat races. Third place went to Hobarts David Hazell.
TaG 125 Restricted Light was won by Ben Dobson who was the only finisher. Unfortunately, Hobart’s Matty Mayne stopped with only two laps remaining.
TaG 125 Restricted Medium was a Sheahen showdown. Three entries, three Sheahen brothers. In the final it was youngest brother Allan taking the win from oldest brother Nigel by a margin of 0.267s. Middle brother Troy sadly didn’t finish the final after leading 13 of the 14-lap final as well as winning the three prior heat races.
TaG 125 Restricted Heavy was also a family affair with brothers Garry & John Lee being the only two entrants. On this occasion it was the older brother Garry taking four race wins from young brother John in second place.
KA3 Senior Light was dominated by former Tasmanian State Champion Gemma Wyllie who won all four races. Second went to Launceston’s Tayla Heath who has recently returned to karting after a few years away from the sport. Third place went to Hobart’s Oliver Webb who was in only his third race meeting in a senior class.
KA3 Senior Medium saw Hobart’s Riley Newick win all four races from North West local Patrick Johnston in second and Cale Medwin in third.
The final race of the weekend was the Daniel Johnson Memorial. This year was its seventeenth running in eighteen years and was won by Elenah Rankin after starting in midfield. Elenah didn’t have it all her own way with Hobart’s Eli Davey leading the first nine laps and pushing her all the way to the end of the sixteen-lap journey. Third place went to Smithton’s Lucas Furphy with Launceston’s Ayrton Myers in fourth. Cadet 9 was also included in this feature race but competed for their own overall result. Harry Warmsley won this race but in similar fashion to Elenah was made to work for it. Launceston’s Ethan Youd led the first 12 laps but fell short to finish in second place. Third place went to Ayden McCullagh.
The next race meeting to be held in Tasmania will be on the Phil Goss Memorial on Saturday the 14th of May at the Launceston Kart Club. This event will be held under lights for the first time ever. Racing will return to Highclere on Saturday the 28th of May where they will hold a club day incorporating a cracker night once racing has completed. Report written by Jade Stone