SPENCER VERSUS FOTHERGILL IN PRO LIGHT TITLE FIGHT

Jake Spencer (left) and Cian Fothergill (right) with the James Courtney trophy.

There’s now less than two weeks before the Grand Final of the CIK Stars of Karting presented by Castrol EDGE launches into action at the Mount Sugarloaf Raceway near Newcastle, NSW, and in the chase for the Pro Light (KF1) Title it’s a two horse race.

Victorian (Wantirna South, Vic) Jake Spencer leads reigning series champion Cian Fothergill (Gladstone, QLD) by a mere six points entering this month’s (Oct 15/16) final round.

The JAM Racing driver started this year with the aim of securing a podium finish in a round and possibly claim a top five championship finish – now he is in with a shot of etching his name in Australian Karting history as a winner of the James Courtney trophy.

“I can’t explain how much it would mean to me to get my name on the James Courtney trophy, when you look at the names who have won this championship before there’s a lot of great names there,” said Spencer.

Coming in as the points leader, Spencer believes the pressure is on him more so than Fothergill in the title chase.

“The pressure is definitely on me going into the final round, especially after the last round when I lost a heap of ground in the points on Cian due to not finishing the first final,” said Spencer.

After a strong showing in the most recent round, also held at Newcastle, Fothergill is slightly confident of snaring his second consecutive Pro Light (KF1) Title. If successful, he will become only the second driver in series history to complete the feat – the other being Barclay Holden (2003/2004).

“I had a bit of bad luck at the start of the year, which made life a bit harder than it should have been and it’s given me a real challenge to chase down the title,” said Fothergill.

“Hats off to Jake, he’s done a fantastic job all year and been very consistent but hopefully I can get away with the win and make it two in a row.”

The unfortunate delays with the resurfacing of the Eastern Creek venue that forced series organisers to relocate the final round to Newcastle, isn’t something that fazes Fothergill.

“Just quietly I did jump up and down when I heard the news given the speed that I’ve shown at Newcastle over the past couple of years in the series,” said Fothergill.

While the leading duo will dice it out for the overall title, the race for third place is very tight with Grant Smith (Patterson Lakes, Vic), Matthew Waters (Horsley Park, NSW) , Adam Hughes (Mentone, Vic) and George Geranis (Wheelers Hill, Vic) set to battle it out.

CIK STARS OF KARTING SERIES
presented by Castrol EDGE

PRO LIGHT (KF1)
Championship Points (After 4 of 5 rounds)
1. Jake Spencer 266
2. Cian Fothergill 260
3. Grant Smith 219
4. Matthew Waters 213
5. Adam Hughes 203
6. George Geranis 196
7. Joel Smith 186
8. Jason Hryniuk 178
9. Jacob Parsons 163
10. Daniel Rochford 163
11. James Macken 160
12. Ben Edwards 156
13. Aidan Wright 154
14. Peter Hollings 146
15. Scott May 133
16. Daniel Baker 131
17. Matthew Erdmann 129
18. Elle Brydon 127
19. Kris Trotter 118
20. Daniel Holihan 115
21. Cameron Macqueen 103
22. Anthony Vince 88
23. Arie Hutton 82
24. Damien Radosevic 50
25. Shay Mayes 41
26. Matthew Hayes 37
27. John Martin 20

Pro Light(KF1) Champions
2010 – Cian Fothergill (Kosmic/IAME)
2009 – Hayden McBride (Gillard/IAME)
2004 – Barclay Holden (Trulli/Parilla)
2003 – Barclay Holden (Trulli/Parilla)
2002 – Adam Graham (Arrow/Rotax)
2001 – Mark Winterbottom (Tony Kart/Vortex)
2000 – Neil McFadyen (Top Kart/Comer)
1999 – Jamie Whincup (Tecno/Parilla)
1998 – Ryan Wlodzinski (PCR/PCR)
1997 – David Clark (Tecno/Atomik)
1996 – Jeremy Lohmann (Tony Kart/Vortex)
1995 – Darrell Smith (PCR/PCR)
1994 – Phillip Scifleet (Haase/Italsistem)
1993 – Richard McLeod (Azzurro/Fox)