LKC- Cowbiz Archerville Classic
08 Dec 2022
The Launceston Kart Club hosted the third annual Cowbiz Archerville Classic on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of December. Just under 80 competitors gathered at the Archerville circuit for a weekend of racing that provided drivers with some of the best weather conditions seen at any event this year. Sadly, this didn’t equate into a track that provided lap record setting pace. Nine out of the ten classes competing were on average 6 tenths slower than the lap records set earlier in the year. The only class to buck the trend was KA4 Masters which saw Malcolm Watson break the lap record on Saturday only to have it beaten by Hobarts Matty Mayne on Sunday in heat four. For the third straight year Robbie Edwards from Cowbiz has jumped on board as the major sponsor of this event.
Cadet 9 was won by Ethan Youd who drove a near flawless race in the final to secure enough points to see him win his first ever State Cup. Second place would go to Burnie’s Ayden McCullagh who recovered from a penalty in Heat 1 to finish thirteen points behind Youd. Hobarts Wil Cairns would finish equal second with McCullagh but would lose out on second due to McCullagh’s higher place finish in the final. Fourth place would go to Launceston’s Ollie Garwood who managed to win two of the four heat races but couldn’t recover from a heat one penalty as well as being turned around in heat three while fighting for second place to finish only two points behind McCullagh and Cairns.
KA4 Junior Heavy was won by Circular Head Kart Clubs Jaiden Marshall who was one of two drivers to finish the weekend on the maximum seventy-five points. On paper it would seem Marshall had an easy weekend, but two of his five wins would come by less than half a second. Second place would go to Jordan Wickham who was nineteen points behind Marshall, with Hobarts Angus Milne a further four points behind in third.
TaG 125 Restricted Heavy saw Billy McCullagh take his first State Cup trophy with a nine-point win over Nigel Sheahen. Sheahen would win the final race of the weekend, but it wasn’t enough to take the victory away from McCullagh. Third place overall would go to North Western Kart Club member David Fidler who finished fifteen points behind Sheahen.
KA4 Junior Light was won by Mitchell Conroy who took victory in two races over the weekend, including the sixteen-lap final. Conroy would beat home second place finisher Hobart’s Samuel Gorisch by eighteen points. A further five points behind in third place was Harry Bresnehan who was leading the final until lap eleven when an on-track incident with day one leader Oliver Wickham ended both of their weekend in a less than an ideal way.
TaG 125 Restricted Medium saw Zevie Eisentraut secure his second black plate victory after winning the Light division in 2020. Eisentraut would recover from a heat one penalty to win by nineteen points over Ben Dobson who went into the final in fourth position. Earlier heat race winners Dave McCullagh and Shane Stonehouse would both suffer from a DNF in the last race of the day to end the weekend in third and fourth place.
KA3 Senior Medium was won by Hobart’s Jonathan McDonald who won his second Archerville Classic after winning the same class in 2020. McDonald won all five races to defeat Jonty Darcy by fifteen points. Fastest qualifier Zane Wyatt would finish in third place a further seven points behind Darcy.
Cadet 12 saw current Tasmanian State Champion Harry Warmsley win four of the five races to convincingly win by twenty points over Hobarts Jack Kalbfell in second. Kalbfell was the only driver to beat Warmsley over the two-day event. Going into the final Elenah Rankin was in third place but thanks to Mason Woods second place result in the final he was able to score enough points to jump Rankin to finish third, eight points behind Kalbfell. Rankin would ultimately finish in fourth place only three-point shy of Woods.
KA3 Senior Light would see the second driver to clean sweep the weekend. Gemma Wyllie would score pole position and win all five races, resulting in a twenty-point win over Isabella Mayne who was in her first race meeting as a senior. Third place originally went to Launceston’s Tabitha Ambrose resulting in what would have been Tasmania’s first ever all female podium in karting. Sadly, due to coming in underweight in the final Ambrose was disqualified which resulted in Burnie’s Denzil Sargent inheriting third place in what was also his first race meeting in the senior division.
KA3 Junior will go down as the one that got away for defending champion Cooper Synfield. Synfield would be the man to beat all weekend, qualifying on pole position and winning three of the four heat races. Going into the double points final Synfield only had to finish in second place behind State Champion Oliver Wickham to claim his second consecutive state cup win. This final race would be one of the races of the weekend with Wickham, Synfield and fellow Launceston Kart Club members Marcel Byrne and Oliver’s twin brother Jordan putting on a clinic of close wheel to wheel racing without drivers ending up in the woodchips. Once the dust settled Oliver Wickham crossed the line in first which gave him a three-point win over Synfield. Marcel Byrne would finish twelve points behind in third.
KA4 Masters would end up as the closest finish of the weekend with first and second only being separated by a single point. Shane Stonehouse went into the final with a ten-point margin thanks to winning all four heat races but thanks to the double points final Malcolm Watson was still a huge threat. Malcolm Watson produced a flawless drive in the final to take the lead on lap two and win by over four seconds with Stonehouse having to finish in third place to secure the black plate victory. Stonehouse held off Anthony McCullagh in the final to cross the line in third to capture the black plate with Malcolm Watson in second. New lap record holder Matty Mayne would finish in third a further ten points behind Watson.
Racing will return to the Archerville circuit on the 21st of January 2023 for the twenty sixth running of the Young Guns event.
Report by: Jade Stone