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Supremacy in the South
KZ2 – Troy Loeskow
Patrizicorse driver Troy Loeskow has taken back control of the Australian KZ2 Championship, aboard the VORTEX powered Ricciardo Kart S10-SH, after a clean-sweep of Round 3 which took place at the Go-Kart Club of South Australia. After qualifying on pole position by a narrow margin, Troy was able to control the pace of the heats, convincingly winning all three races on day one.
Heat 4 on Sunday was the only time Loeskow was troubled, after rain started to fall with a handful of laps remaining. Despite running wide into turn 1 and conceding the lead, he fought back to retake his position at the front only a couple of corners later and was able hold onto 1st place across the line. With the Final again dry, Loeskow focussed on making a clean getaway from the line, securing his position into the first corner. From there he was able to pull a convincing lead early, which he then controlled for the remainder of the race, crossing the line 2.2 seconds clear of his nearest competitor. With the full haul of points, Loeskow now climbs back to the lead of the championship by 20 points, after trailing Jason Faint by 10 points coming into the weekend.
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BirelART combatant, Chris Hays, worked his way forward during the heats to start the final off the front row next to Loeskow. However, a mistake off the start into turn one saw him off the track and re-joining at the back of the field. After fighting hard all race, he was able to cross the line in 8th spot. With Loeskow’s strong run over the weekend, Hays has fallen back to third in the championship fight, only 6 points behind Faint.
X30 & KA3 – Ryan Wood
Our young Kiwi, Ryan Wood, had a troubled weekend, struggling to find his feet with the flowing nature of the Monarto circuit. Wood looked to be in the mix in X30 after putting himself in P14 in qualifying, only a couple of tenths off of the front running pace, something the team believed was able to be found. However, after some tough heat races, including a big incident in heat 3, Ryan was forced to start the final from well down the order in 18th. After racing hard, Wood was able to cross the line 12th, but was relegated back to 14th after a nosecone infringement.
It was also a tough debut in KA3 for Ryan. After qualifying 21st, a good result was always going to be difficult. Ryan battled through the heats, earning himself a final grid position of 19th. Heavy rain just before the gate opened saw a frantic change to wet tires for the entire field, but no time for any other changes. With a full dry setup, Ryan was able to move forward to 14th by the end of the race.
Cadet 12 – Mika Lemasurier and Mattia Fittipaldi-Marzella
Round 3 saw Patrizicorse have 2 competitors in Cadet 12, Mika Lemasurier from Ipswich, QLD, and Mattia Fittipaldi-Marzella from Melbourne, VIC. After showing some promising signs during practice, both were unable to string a competitive lap together in qualifying, with Mattia placing himself in P35 and Mika in P43. After working hard on kart setup and driver development during the heats, both were able to make up a good handful of positions in every race, which saw them both make the final grid.
Unfortunately for Mika, he was caught up in some early race dramas which dropped him down the pack and having to fight his way forward. He still managed to gain a position by the end of the race, finishing 27thafter starting 28th. Meanwhile Mattia, starting from 27th, was able to survive the early carnage and move his way forward during the race. He would get as high as 10thon the track and cross the line 12th, a total position gain of 23 positions since qualifying. Unfortunately, a post-race 10 second penalty for an on-track incident meant that his official finishing position was 30th. Despite that, both our Cadet 12 drivers went home happy after their improvements over the weekend, knowing they have the potential to run at the front of an extremely competitive Cadet 12 field. Mattia will be re-joining us for the final round at his home track at Todd Road and is thoroughly looking forward to making an impact there.
Cadet 9 – Seth Huth
Seth once again worked his way through the weekend, learning and improving every time he hit the track. After qualifying 23rd, Seth made sure to have a clean set of heats, moving his way forward in all of them, finishing as high as 14th in heat 4. He started the final from 20th position and battled through the wet conditions, getting as high as 12th before a last lap spin saw him cross the line in 18th. Round 4 of the Australian kart Championship will be held at Emerald, a track that Seth is much more familiar with, and we are expecting to see him perform better, putting what he has learnt so far this year to good use.
Race Results, Championship Points and Live Stream Footage of Round 3 of the Australian Kart Championships can be found here: