CORDATO SHOWS THE WAY IN HEAT RACES AT ROUND TWO

Sydney-sider Lewis Cordato got his championship aspirations well on track after a stellar day of competition at the second round of the SP Tools Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol in Victoria, winning two races and finalising his day in second.

Lewis Cordato on the way to victory in KA2 (Pic: TF Design)

Coming into the round 20 points behind round one winner, Kobe McInerney, in the KA2 points standings, the Scape Student Accommodation-backed Cordato closed the gap significantly as the TF Race Engines pilot McInerney securing a trio of top 10 finishes.

Isaac McNeill took his Empire Kartsport machine to the third heat race win in a stirring drive. McNeill entered this weekend third on points.

Former Australian Champion Joshua Fife had the best of the running in the KZ2 gearbox category taking two of the heat race wins.

Heading to heat three when the grids were re-assigned after the first two heat race results, BirelART’s Dylan Guest secured the pole after topping qualifying on Friday and sharing the first two heat race with Fife.

Guest dropped to third in the final race of the day, meaning he will start from the outside front row. He was in a strong battle with defending Australian Champion and fellow West Aussie, Sam Dicker in the final heat, which fell the way of the Flatout Karts’ Australia #1.

Jack Szewczuk leading the KA3 Junior field (Pic: TF Design)

In KA3 Junior, Championship leader Jack Szewczuk finished Saturday on a maximum pointscore for the JND Racing outfit. After securing the fastest time in qualifying – he was peerless in his three heats. Christian Sasso had a pair of wins, one including a tight run race with Mathew Basso, the Castrol kid the other KA3 Junior winner.

Jumping into KA3 Senior has been a good decision for BirelART’s Mika Lemasurier. He led proceedings in the category taking two wins.

Son of a Magpies gun, Ayce Buckley for Pro Karting was another to impress taking a pair of seconds and after leading heat three dropped back down the order.

New South Wales driver, Luca Belardo did his best to close the 23 point deficit to Championship leader, Josh Elliston with a win and a pair of seconds in his group races. The field was so well entered, it had to be split into groups for racing until tomorrow’s final.

Other winners included perennial KA3 aspirant, Benito Montalbano in his Andrew Starkey Racing machine, Pro Karting’s Amos Orr and Hunter Salvatore, who made amends with a heat three win after being spun during an earlier heat race.

Elliston finished with a sixth, a DNF and fifth from his outings in the TD Racing machine.

The TaG 125 Championship has been blown wide open after a tumultuous day. Belgian, Ean Eyckmans took two wins for BirelART and finished his third heat across the line first – however a post race technical infringement saw his result from that race eradicated.

That promoted Jackson Souslin-Harlow to the top spot in that heat in front of current Champion Harrison Hoey. Hoey ended his three races with a pair of seconds and a win; Souslin-Harlow got bottled up in his second heat, but fought back for fourth and scored a third.

South Australian, Jacob Dowson came home with a pair of wins for MFK Racing and a second and is in the box seat heading to finals day. Another whose day came to him was Kart Class’ round one TaG winner, Ben Holliday – executing a second fourth and third. Pro Karting’s Brad Hewson has been among the front runners and threatens to be on the ball come tomorrow’s finals.

X30 Championship leader, Brad Jenner is on track in his quest to reclaim his Australian title, taking his JND FA Kart to three solid victories. He dominated as he did at round one taking comfortable victories in all heats.

BirelART’s Mika Lemasurier seemed to recapture some of his mojo finished the X30 heats with a third, second and a fourth. Max Walton is in the hunt for Parolin once again, aiming to emulate his Bolivar round winning heroics.

Current Australian Champion, Jace Matthews is in the mix and has built up to it, ending heat three in a close second placing for CXR Racing and working alongside Lemasurier, European Eyckmans ended X30 with a second and two fifths.

Archie Bristow continued his Championship leading form in Cadet 12 winning all three of his races today. He was under pressure all the way through, however did enough to extend his lead in the title race.

The other heat wins were shared by Jay Kostecki (who finished second to Bristow in their only clash of the day) and Jack Larsen. While others in the mix heading into finals day included Queenslander, Michael Quintiliani, Alaster Flack, Tommy Hart and Joseph Bianchini. While Alana Gurney, despite a non-finish in one of her heats had pace all day.

Cadet 9 appears a race in three among title front runners Oliver Armitt, Oliver Williamson and Jarvis Hindle. Victorian Hindle ended the best of the bunch with two wins today, the first heat going the way of Williamson.

Armitt was the one not quite with the pace to challenge for wins, however was nipping at the heels of the other two, although did drop some places late in two of the heats.

Velocity Race Division’s Lukas Loeskow is the one most likely to challenge with some overnight work, while Felix Sim is among the top crew ending the day with a third placing.

Tomorrow, action gets underway at 8am with the final round of heats and the finals later in the day.

All the action can be watched through Karting Australia’s official streaming partners, MySportLive.TV or you can attend the event free of charge at the Eastern Lions Kart Club outside Seymour, adjacent to the Puckapunyal military training area.