Hunter's Go Kart Challenge
29 August 2016 / Story: Rachel Crawford Photos: Grant Webber
The last Saturday in July saw us back at the Warners Bay Indoor Kart Track for the 2016 Hunter Jinba Ittai Go Kart Challenge. With 12 Drivers, 10 Club Members, 3 Ladies, 2 Novices and 1 International Guest, the attending spectators were primed for some close racing and exciting track action.
Having been billed as the Josh Allen & Josh Fitzgerald rematch, it was a shock result with Andrew Digney taking the overall championship trophy.
Andrew in his rookie event had done his homework in attending the Marulan Driver Training Day earlier in the month. A local track familiarisation session the week before may also have helped bring him up to the top of the field. Andrew’s key success factor was his consistency with only 0.11 of a second between his best lap times across the three sessions.
Josh Allen and Josh Fitzgerald started where they left off from their last event with a steely determination to best each other. Whilst rubbing is racing, there are some spots on the track where 2 karts just don’t fit. Josh Allen came off the loser, having to wait for the track marshal to get him going again. This clear air in session 2 did however allow Josh to post the best time of the day for the Championship and only 0.12 sec off the centre best time of the day.
Phil Mayo jumped categories to partake in this event, he found the steering weight a major change from his NA, but still showed the race craft he is known for. Grant Webber built on last year’s performance with a 0.5 second improvement across the sessions. David Gazzard and John Evans were the novice drivers of the day, but showing great commitment on the track and were rewarded with substantial time improvements in each session. Jarrod Digney had a side bet with his Dad for club membership although whilst attacking the track with gusto, he was not able to best Andrew. He finished the day in the running up position, but not a qualifier. Leaving us with Andrew, Josh A & Josh F qualifying for the inter chapter challenge in October.
The boys did not have the track to themselves with Helen Green, Lindsay Green and Yasmin Allen, also putting in some fine laps times during the championships. Helen appears to have been nobbled in the qualifying laps with an under prepared kart leading to her placing in the Group 2 championship races. Here she showed both her class and skill with the best time improvement of nearly a second over the championships, the greatest improvement of all our racers.
We had some international flavour added to our event with the Digney clan bringing along a Dutch racer Joran de Groot. Whilst having a good attacking style Joran was not able to overcome the lack of right hand drive experience but added to the fun of our event.
Post-race analysis was conducted at the pub, with both racers and spectators having enjoyed the thrilling event.
Grant Webber's Photos: CLICK HERE
