CHKC – Statewide Series Round 3 – 8th & 9th July 2023

The Circular Head Kart Club hosted Round 3 of the Karting Tasmania Statewide Series on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th of July. Just under 60 competitors convened at the Briant Park circuit in Smithton for a weekend of wet racing. Round three produced four clean sweeps which is impressive considering the treacherous track conditions.
KA3 Tas Masters would see Clinton Slatter take pole position over State Champion Shane Stonehouse by 0.131 seconds. Stonehouse would dominate heat racing taking three wins by an average margin of five seconds. The final would be no different with Stonehouse taking his eleventh win of the series by 3.142 seconds over Slatter with Geoff Lawrence crossing the line in third. Heading into the final round Stonehouse takes a commanding 1,285-point lead over Matty Mayne in second. Clinton Slatter sits in third place a further 872-points behind Mayne.

TaG 125 Restricted Heavy would see Dave Fidler take pole position by 0.462 seconds over current State Cup champion Billy McCullagh. Heat racing would see Fidler taking one victory with Michael Wilson taking the remaining two wins, giving him pole position for the final. Wilson would initially cross the line in first place but a post-race penalty would drop him back down to third. This would elevate series leader Luke Millar into first place and Dave Fidler into second. Millar takes a 227-point lead over Fidler heading into the final round, Marcus Howe sits in third place an additional 742-points adrift.

Elenah Rankin would take pole position in Cadet 12 by 0.045 seconds over Launceston’s Ollie Garwood. Both Rankin & Garwood would back-up there pace from qualifying to take a heat win each with Levi Bush taking the other remaining heat victory. In the final however current State Champion Harry Warmsley fought his way from the rear of the grid to take the win over Garwood by just under five seconds. Levi Bush would cap off a strong weekend to cross the line in third. Warmsley will take 169-point lead over Burnie’s Elenah Rankin going into the final round. Hobarts Levi Bush sits in third place, a further 13-points behind Rankin. Cadet 12 will go down to the wire with seven drivers within striking distance of a podium finish.

KA3 Junior Light would see Smithton’s Lucas Furphy take pole position by only 0.001 seconds over Hobarts Samuel Gorisch. This would be the closest Gorisch would get to Furphy, who completely dominated racing winning all three heats and the final by an average margin of 10.587 seconds. Second place would go to Hobarts Kai Bush who put together one of his best ever performances in his karting career. It was evident that Kai’s recent trip to the mainland for round three of Victoria’s Golden Power Series has improved his overall pace and race craft immensely. Third place would go to Hobarts Eli Davey. Thanks to his monster round three Lucas Furphy takes a 604-point lead over Gorisch, with Eli Davey a further 124-points behind in third.

KA3 Senior Light would be a copy of round one for Gemma Wyllie who registered a pole position and four race wins. In the final Wyllie would cross the line 6.696 seconds in front of Cameron Jeffrey with Hobarts Lewis Turnbull crossing the line in third place. Jeffrey will take a 420-point lead over Turnbull into the last round. Gemma Wyllie who has won all eight races she has competed-in is a further 289-points behind in third. Wyllie will need another dominant weekend and some misfortune for both Jeffrey and Turnbull to overcome the 709-point deficit but with whispers of a field of at least seven competitors anything can and will happen.

TaG 125 Restricted Medium saw Troy Sheahen take pole position over young brother Allan by 0.315 seconds. Troy would win all three heats races by an average margin of just over half a second. In the final however it would be Allan who would flip the script from heat racing to win by around a second over Troy with relative newcomer Gareth McCarthy crossing the line in third place. Thanks to his near perfect round Troy Sheahen will take a 108-point lead over Dave McCullagh into the series finale. Allan sits an additional 12-points behind in third place with eldest Sheahen brother Nigel in fourth.

KA3 Junior Heavy would see current State Champion Jonty Rowbottom take pole position by 0.352 seconds over Jack Taylor. Rowbottom would dominate heat racing going three from three by an average winning margin of just over 4.5 seconds. Jonty’s perfect weekend would come to an abrupt end in the final after a first lap DNF. Burnie’s Ari Lawes would register a dominant win by over twenty seconds back to Jack Turnbull in second place, with Boyd McCarthy crossing the line in third. Jaiden Marshall will take a 426-point lead over Rowbottom going into the final round with Jack Turnbull maintaining his third place in the series a further 93-points behind.

KA3 Senior Medium would see Launceston’s Jonathon Harris take pole position by 0.244 seconds over Patrick Johnston. Heating racing would see Johnston take two heat wins with Brodie Sward taking the other. Johnston would cap off a strong weekend by winning the final by just over six seconds back to series leader Riley Newick with Burnie’s Ben Dobson in third place. Thanks to a strong start to the series Newick will take a 590-point lead over Johnston into the final round. Joel Howe retains his third place sitting a further 460-points behind.

Cadet 9 would see Cooper Lockett dominate by registering a pole position and four race wins for his most successful weekend of racing ever. Eli White would cross the line just under two seconds behind in second with Launceston’s Makenzie Leonard in third. Lockett will take a slender 30-point lead over White into the final round with Andy Rowlings a further 436-points behind in third.

The series will conclude on the 29th and 30th of July at the Archerville circuit in Launceston.

Report by: Jade Stone