TKC Australia Day Open 2012 – Race Meeting Report

It would be fair to say that the TKC Australia Day Open would have to be one of the hottest race meetings in Perth for many a year and when we say HOT we mean all 42°c of it!!!!

The 80 odd karts that turned up to race proved that even the worst of our summer weather can't stop these guys from racing, great effort everyone as at one stage the event was looking pretty shaky for numbers. Not only was it stinking hot for the racers but spare a thought for our dedicated crew of volunteers who did the things we need to run the event including running around with the pick up trolleys!!!

For each of our open meetings this year we are trying to develop a feature around the event and for this year it was everything Australian to celebrate our great country. Aussie flags were flying everywhere and the place looked great with a real vibe even though the weather was extreme to say the least.

The day started off with Kevin Offer running some laps with the Aussie flags flying from his kart and congratulations to Thomas Gray who won the prize for the most Australian kart or team on the day, great effort Thomas.

As a bit of a side note the first few races saw at least 3 karts loose wheels, one incident had the chance to be pretty nasty as the kart virtually demolished one of the flag points. It's a timely reminder to double check those wheel nuts after each race that's for sure.

Onto the racing...........

It was great to see Scott Foster taking a win in Sportsman 125 Light. 2012 is his first year in seniors and he took a convincing win over the field. Scott will be one to watch during the year that's for sure and with the kart preparation done by his Dad Kip the current Australian # 1 in Clubman Heavy I'm sure he's going to be taking a lot more wins in the future.

Another standout was Jessie Elliot in Jnr Clubman (he also won Jnr National Light); easy to see how he won the Australian Championships in this class last year with a dominating display. It was good to see Jnr Clubman running as the class builds momentum from last year, big thanks to Shane Macpherson from Kart Magic who is really pushing this class along.

Ashley Morrissey, Jack Cattalini and Michael Lino took the first 3 places in Cadets with a big field of these young karters proving again these kids are so keen to race no matter what the conditions. Big thanks to the Mum's and Dad's who no doubt sweated it out all day on the karts and ensured the kids kept there fluids up and kept cool where they could.

Nikola Mitic won Jnr Light getting a great start to 2012 and Thomas Gray took out Senior National Combined with another convincing drive in a good field of J's.

Kevin Offer drove really well to win Restricted 125 Heavy and Blaine Powell took the 1st place trophy home in Restricted 125 Light (this was Blaine's first race – he has only just taken out his licence in January 2012). It was pleasing to see so many P platers racing in both classes, and excellent fields in all the 125 classes is a good showing for the 2012 season with Sportsman 125 karts really starting to build numbers this year.

Well it was not the best weather to be racing in but taking that into consideration the 2012 season looks very promising, our sport in WA is really growing, and you guys have some awesome events to look forward to this year. Our club is undertaking a big change to how we promote and run both our club days and open meetings this year.

TKC club days are already getting to the stage that entries are close to what most open meetings would be proud of and the committee has signed off on some excellent prizes and giveaways at all of these events during the year. Our club days run so efficiently now with combined fields, the option of pre paying entries on line and our unique pick up trolley system ensuring each race flows out the gate as the last one finishes. That means more laps, more races and more value for every TKC member on 2 of Australia's best kart tracks, no wonder our numbers are increasing at every event...

Our first point's club day is on Saturday February 18th at the Wanneroo circuit, this is the first meeting of the year for our Wanneroo track and a great chance to kick off your club championship campaign. The guys have been busy preparing the facility in preparation to kick things off and we look forward to seeing as many TKC members racing as possible. For any new TKC members who might not have raced at our "other" track yet this is a great opportunity to develop your skills at another world class facility. How cool is it to have 2 tracks of that standard to call our own, the TKC is certainly "the place to race" in 2012

Race Safe.......Sean