KA3 Cup & Bec Wyatt Memorial

Bec Wyatt Memorial – Wyatt Family – 1st Toby Callow,           2nd Nathan Zuj, 3rdJackson Callow

The Launceston Kart Club hosted their 26th annual KA3 Cup event which featured the second running of the Bec Wyatt Memorial on Sunday the 19th of June 2022 with the event being sponsored by the FT Guy Bodyworks & Energy Corse Tasmania. Just under 90 competitors representing all Tasmanian clubs as well as Ben Walter who made the trip from Victoria to race in the Memorial Event after not being able to attend last year due to covid restrictions.

Cadet 9 saw a return to form in Tasmania for current Australian Championship leader Cruz Kelly who successfully passed Harry Warmsley on the last lap to take the victory. Warmsley, who took advantage of lapped traffic with 3 laps remaining to take the lead, would eventually finish in second position. Third place would go to Ethan Youd who recovered from two early dnf’s to move his run of consecutive podium finishes to three.

Cadet 12 would see a three-horse race between Logan Potter, Elenah Rankin and Lucas Furphy. The margin between the three drivers at the chequered flag would only be 0.245 seconds. In the end it would be Logan Potter taking the win in his first race in the Cadet 12 class. Second place would go to Elenah Rankin with Smithton local Lucas Furphy finishing in third after leading the race going into the final lap

KA4 Junior Light saw a rather convincing win for Hobarts Harry Bresnehan who would lead the twelve-lap final from start to finish. George MacMillan would finish in second place 2.166 seconds behind Bresnehan with Samuel Gorisch rounding out the podium in third.

      KA3 Winners – Keenan Slater (Light),                   Cooper Synfield (Junior) & Zane Wyatt (Medium)

KA4 Junior Heavy was won by Denzil Sargent who took the victory by just over four seconds. Second place went to Hobarts Angus Milne who continued his strong form of podium finishes. Third place went to Launceston local Adelaide Ambrose.

KA3 Junior was won by Launceston’s Cooper Synfield who is the thirteenth driver to have their name etched on the perpetual KA3 Junior trophy.

KA4 Masters was won by current Tasmanian State Champion Malcolm Watson who led the final from start to finish. Second place went to fellow Launceston member Ken Jones.

TaG 125 Restricted Light was won by Hobarts Matthew Mayne.

TaG 125 Restricted Medium was won by current Tasmanian Statewide Series leader Shane Stonehouse who took the lead on lap four of the final. Second place went to Troy Sheahen who finished only 0.272 second from victory. Early race leader Dave McCullagh would finish in third place.

TaG 125 Restricted Heavy saw Declan Sherburd make his return to karting after ten months on the side lines but there were certainly no cobwebs as he went on to register a dominant win by over thirty-six seconds. Second place saw Damien Grimwood register his first ever podium finish with Dallas Harris finishing in third.

KA3 Senior Light saw Keenan Slater win his first ever KA3 Cup after taking the lead in the final on the last lap. Slater would lead home Gemma Wyllie by only 0.058 seconds which would be the smallest finishing margin of the race meeting. Early race leaders Ethan Wyllie and Fletcher Bellars final would come to a dramatic end on lap eight with both drivers ending up in the tyres in turn one. Third place in the final would go to Launceston’s William Blair.

KA3 Senior Medium ended in a Launceston trifecta with Zane Wyatt taking the win for the sixth time in the weight division. Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Lochie Dalton led the final from the start and drove a near perfect race but left the door wide open on the last lap for Zane Wyatt to make the move into turn two to take the lead. Troy Stone would finish in third place after starting the final in fifth position. Stone made the move into third on lap nine on eventual fourth place finisher Daniel Hinds who debuted his brand new Lando Norris Kart.

The main event for the race meeting was the Bec Wyatt Memorial which is a 21-lap feature race dedicated to a beloved Launceston Kart Club member Rebecca Wyatt who was taken away from us way too soon. This year was won by Toby Callow who started the race well down the field. Toby took the lead on lap 12 when Lochie Dalton ended up in the pebbles when the heavens opened and sprinkled some rain mid race to spice the racing up. Second place went to Nathan Zuj who did lead the feature race but didn’t quite have the pace to match either Dalton or Callow. Third place went to Hawthorn Football Club player Jackson Callow who held off a fast-finishing Fletcher Bellars who ended up in fourth. The Hard Charger award winner Gemma Wyllie passed a total of nineteen karts after starting the feature race in twenty-fourth position and finishing the race in fifth.

The Launceston Kart Club also ran a raffle raising money to be donated to the Launceston ICU on behalf of the Wyatt Family. As of this writing over $6500 has been raised with a fully signed Hawthorn Football Guernsey also still being auctioned off on the Launceston Kart Club Facebook page.

The next race meeting to be held will be the second round of the Club Titles in Hobart on 26th June. Racing returns to Archerville on December 3rd and 4th for the Archerville Classic III.                                     Jade Stone