North Western Kart Club – Statewide Series Round 4

The North Western Kart Club hosted Round 4 of the Karting Tasmania Statewide Series on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of August. Around 85 competitors gathered at the Highclere circuit to compete in the final round of the series, which was sponsored by DGA, Diesel Generations Australia.

The final round threw a mixed bag of track conditions to the drivers with clear blue skies on day one providing some fast and intense racing but day two provided the complete opposite with some heavy rain throughout the day resulting in quite a few drivers going off the circuit.

Cadet 9 was won by Launceston Harry Warmsley who won all four races but didn’t have it all his own way with eventual second place finisher Ayden McCullagh leading in three of the four races over the weekend. Third place went to Ollie Garwood who had a strong round with only a drop-down bumper penalty in race fourteen stopping him from a clean sweep of third place finishes. Fellow Launceston member Andy Rowlings finished the round in fourth place. Overall series winner Harry Warmsley won by a total of 476 points thanks to his twelve consecutive race wins. Second place went to Burnie’s Ayden McCullagh who finished the sixteen-race series with fifteen top three finishes. 838 points behind McCullagh in third place was Ollie Garwood who is in his first full season of racing.

Jack Kalbfell dominated Cadet 12 clean sweeping all the four races and having his strongest round of the series. Smithton’s Lucas Furphy finished the round in second place with four top three finishes with Elenah Rankin ending up in third place. Elenah’s third place for the round was enough to claim the victory in the series winning by 341 points over Lucas Furphy. Hobarts Eli Davey held on for third position after a few rough results in round four to be 642 points behind Furphy.

The final round of the KA4 Junior Light series was hands down the closest three drivers could have been at the completion of a

weekend. Three drivers separated by only thirty-six points. Harrison Duske, Mitchell Conroy and Harry Bresnehan put on a clinic with all three drivers taking a victory. With his win in race sixteen Harrison Duske took the win from Mitchell Conroy in second and Harry Bresnehan, who was leading going into the final race, taking third position. Overall, for the series Hobarts Harrison Duske took the win by 152 points from fellow Hobart member Harry Bresnehan. Third place went to Burnies Mitchell Conroy who was a further 597 points behind.

Denzil Sargent again dominated KA4 Junior Heavy winning all races in round four. Second place went to Hobarts Angus Milne who registered four top three finishes. Bryden Elphinestone recorded his best round of the series to finish up in third place. The overall winner for the series was Denzil Sargent who with his win in race thirteen had registered enough points to be unbeatable and didn’t even have to compete in the final three races to win. Second place went to Hobarts Angus Milne who gained two positions in the series thanks to his strong round four but would ultimately finish 1093 points behind Sargent. Third place went to Burnie’s Cameron Jeffreys who finished a further 166 points behind second place.

KA4 Masters served up a mixed bag of results with five of the six entrants taking a podium place but it was three Launceston members who took the overall spoils. Reigning state champion Malcolm Watson saw a return to form to win round four after struggling in the previous round. Second place went to Clint Pease with his workmate David Parry finishing in third. Overall results saw Malcolm Watson win by 458 points from Hobarts James Bresnehan in second. Sadly, there was no third-place getter as there wasn’t any other driver to compete in three of the four rounds.

In TaG 125 Restricted Light Joel Clements took his first-round win by winning three out of four races. Nigel Hildyard continued his consistent run by finishing in second with fellow Hobart member Matty Mayne finishing in third. Unfortunately, due to entry numbers in round four these points didn’t go to the overall series point score. Nigel Hildyard would ultimately win the series by 360 points from Joel Clements with Henry Pears finishing in third place a further 424 points behind.

Shane Stonehouse again dominated TaG 125 Restricted Medium taking four relatively comfortable wins to take the win in round four.

Second place went to Troy Sheahen who finished on the podium three times out of the four races. Third place went to Burnie’s Dave McCullagh. Overall results saw Shane Stonehouse produce one of the most dominant series seen in a long time. Shane finished the series with fourteen consecutive race wins to take a 1156-point win over Anthony McCullagh with fellow Burnie member Nigel Sheahen a further 500 points behind.

Damien Grimwood was victorious in TaG 125 Restricted Heavy with Burnies David Fidler in second. John Lee finished in third place. Unfortunately, there was no series winner for this class as there wasn’t enough drivers willing to enter in enough of the rounds.

KA3 Senior Light was won by Hobarts Fletcher Bellars who won three of four races. Second place went to Toby Callow who suffered two separate drop-down bumper penalties which ultimately cost him the round four win. Third place went to Launceston’s Tayla Heath with Fletchers young brother Elliot Bellars in fourth, who put forward his best performance of the series. Overall KA3 Senior Light saw a series dominated by two drivers in Fletcher Bellars and Toby Callow, with fifteen of the sixteen races being won by these drivers. Fletcher would take the win by only 64 points from Toby with the only other driver to win a race in the series, Gemma Wyllie finishing in third a further 1030 points behind.

KA3 Senior Medium saw Launceston’s Nathan Zuj return to the top step after finishing second to Harry Ward in Hobart. Zuj would win all four races convincingly. Second place went to Burnie’s Jordy Distill who missed round three in Hobart with Jason White taking third position. Nathan Zuj would end up winning the series by 1417 points over Hobarts Riley Newick. Third place would go to Evan Livingston who was sitting in second place overall until he lost a wheel in race fifteen which resulted in a DNF. Livingston would finish 77 points behind Newick.

Racing returns to the Highclere circuit on August 27th and 28th for a series held by the Circular Head Kart Club and the North Western Kart Club.
By Jade Stone