Jamieson Dominates Rockpress Australian Superkart Championship Day One

Queensland driver Russell Jamieson has dominated the first day of the Rockpress Australian Superkart Championship. The Coach Design Anderson-DEA qualified on pole position by 1.6 seconds ahead of the Safe Evolutions Anderson-DEA of Karl Wilson, then pulled steadily away in the race to win by over five seconds.

"It's a good start," said Jamieson cautiously. "We've had weekends start like this before only to turn into a pile of rubbish. Hot days like this the tyres dropped away as the race went on, but we're very pleased. We'll just continue to fine tune the kart."

Gary Pegoraro (Dunlop Kartsport/BRC Engines Anderson-BRC) finished in second position, having spent the entire race with Warren McIlveen closing and attacking in the Mac's Marine Stockman-Honda. Wilson's front row qualifying performance came to naught when he sheared a drive sprocket bolt on the warm-up lap.

"That's a start," said Pegoraro, echoing Jamieson's comments. "We'll try and get it better. We hung with Jamieson for a while. The kart went quite well, we can't complain."

"Nearly got past in traffic at the end," said McIlveen, "but there was not quite enough room. My kart was understeering which made attempting the overtake difficult. We're quite pleased with third."

Defending champion Jason Smith (Fuji Xerox/Zahl 1 Karting Anderson-DEA) climbed into fourth after battling with a fast starting Anton Stevens and Ilya Harpas. Once clear Smith moved away from pursuit but was never a threat for Pegoraro and McIlveen. Stevens in the artmotorsport.com.au PVP-FPE held onto fifth until the closing stages when a resurgent Carlo Chermaz (Superkart Evolutions SKE-PVP) took the spot with two laps to go. Kristian Stebbing overcame a slow start in the Suburban Accounting Stockman-Yamaha to finish seventh while Harpas fell to eighth in the Your Amigo/Alex EMS/Davtec Zip-BRC.

Behind them Matt Bass (Top Torque Engines Stockman-BRC) and Alex Soravia (Stockman-Honda) completed the top ten finishers ahead of Chas Maddern (Maddern Oil PVP-Yamaha) and a recovering Brendan Luneman (Wizzer Engines Anderson-BRC).

Dalton Rowell had 250 Nationals all-but wrapped up after qualifying two seconds ahead of Bernie Walsh and running away in the race when something broke on the final lap.
"Gearbox possibly," was Rowell's suggestion but the DLR Racing Stockman-Honda was stranded. The opposition fared little better. Bernie Walsh had a bottom end failure in his engine causing major damage to the CR250 Honda engine, putting him out for the weekend while a seizure also took out Dale Williams in the UBS Stockman-Yamaha. Williams team mate AFL star Jason Akermanis could not take the win after the exhaust broke on the Super Sonic Global Payments Anderson-Yamaha. "Aker" pitted and resumed to finish fourth.

John Pellicano claimed the class in the Giova Design Avoig-KTM.

"You know the story about the old bull and the young bull," paraphrased Pellicano, who builds the Avoig Elise chassis here in Sydney. "It's all about consistency today. We're shaking down a new Avoig Elise for the karts new owner Chris Ball along with a new nosecone design. A win is a win and it will do me just fine."

Darren James finished second in his Anderson ahead of the GR Industries Stockman of Frank Giglio.

Pellicano clashed during the race with the 125 cc winner Tony Lappas. Lappas took pole and claimed a 13 second win in the debut of the Superkart Evolutions chassis in 125 cc class. Lappas raced SKE Evo II chassis with the BRC 125cc engine and the combination worked well with Jeff Reed 13 seconds behind in The Chrome Factory Stockman-Honda.

"Slowly slowly improving," said Lappas. "We're slowly getting there. We want to thank Carlo Chermaz from Superkart Evolutions, Gary and Pam from Wizzer Engines and Dave Hepworth from BRC. We're here to have fun and its working well."

Reed was just a second ahead of the improving Lindsay Jamieson in the Linra Properties Stockman-Honda. Jamieson, cousin of race winner Russell, is racing at Sydney Motorsport Park for the first time and his race laps continue to improve over his qualifying performance. Paul Campbell pitted while fighting in the second place group in the Redback Racepaint Avoig-Honda, but resumed to claim some points. Garry Haywood (Water Tunnel Car Wash Bakker-Honda) finished fourth in the factory Bakker Superkart ahead of Tim Philp in the Floth Sustainable Building Consultants Avoig-Honda who had been plagued with electrical problems and replaced the wiring loom before the race start. Mehmet Sinani was next in his new Stockman ahead of Anthony Cristallo.