Pegoraro Flings the Gauntlet

Gary Pegoraro made the opening statement at the Rockpress Australian Superkart Championship, under the lap record as many of the classes at the Round 7 of the Shannons Australian Motor Racing Nationals push the barriers of speed at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

The Dunlop Kartsport/BRC Engines Anderson-BRC recorded a 1:31.0077 to lead the timesheets in the third practice session yesterday. The Victorian veteran is 14 points behind series leader Russell Jamieson heading into the championship finale.

Pegoraro will need more than speed though, in a scenario where Pegoraro wins every race and Jamieson finishes second Jamieson claims the title by two points. Finishing all four races will be paramount, but Pegoraro will also be dependant on assistance from the rest of the field. Matt Bass was second fastest for the day, debuting a new Anderson Maverick in the Top Torque Engines team and Matt and the team were instantly impressed with the step taken and will be looking for a further step forward from the 1:34.9040 set yesterday. Defending champion Jason Smith in the Fuji Xerox/Zahl 1 Karting Anderson-DEA was off the pace down in the 1:35 bracket with handling problems, the team though confident of plenty of speed left in the kart. Smith is the only driver in range of providing a threat to Jamieson and Pegoraro in the pointscore. Warren McIlveen, effectively fourth in the points in the absence of Carlo Chermaz and Karl Wilson is over 50 points behind Jamieson.

Although as is traditional on Friday in practice not every team were setting times and some, like McIlveen did not go out at all. The Coach Design team of the points leader is quietly confident with Russell Jamieson's pace and Ilya Harpas and Kristian Stebbing are both also set to figure while Anton Stevens left the circuit early to take his artmotorsport PVP-FPE back to the workshop in a precautionary move as an engine related issue surfaced in the second session. Stevens won this round last year.

In 250 National class rookie Queenslander Dan Lewis set the pace in the DHM Motorsport Anderson. Lewis is debuting a new Gas Gas engine this weekend and is happy with the additional pace and adoring the Phillip Island circuit, setting a 1:41.0731. Championship rivals Jason Akermanis and Dalton Rowell however did not record a lap while the other driver in championship speculation, John Pellicano is down in the 1:45 bracket, working his way through his early meeting program. Dan Lewis' fellow rookie and DHM team mate Sean Maberly is also working his way down to times after a steep learning curve on his first day at Phillip Island and is a second behind Pellicano.

Bakker Superkarts factory racer Gary Haywood led the 125 cc division all day in his Bakker X4, setting a 1:44.5780 lap time. Paul Campbell (Redback Racepaint Avoig-Honda), Lindsay Jamieson (Linra Properties Stockman-Honda) and defending champion Jeff Reed in the factory Stockman-Honda are all circulating steadily. Although electrical issues have reared an ugly head within the Linra Properties team. Lindsay Jamieson's team mate, his father Drene Jamieson is additional struggling after an engine siezure on the Wayne Gardner Straight left the team with a rebuild of the RS125 Honda engine for overnight homework.

Sunday's racing will be streamed live on the internet at:
http://new.livestream.com/itvl/events/2360955 with races 2, 3 and 4 all being broadcast on the Nationals ITVLive.

You can keep across all the action this weekend through the website at:
http://www.superkartsaustralia.org/home.php
and also at the Shannons Australian Nationals website:
http://thenationals.com.au/

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