FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2014

The Bar Up Bullbars Bob Hinde Memorial and Festival of the Kids, was once again held on the last weekend in June, at the Bogolong Race Way, Grenfell.   Friday saw the majority of the 208 entrants take advantage of free practice, and then stay on at the track for the Friday night BBQ dinner, by a roaring fire.  All competitors enjoyed the new track facilities, and were particularly appreciative of the new covered double outgrid, which would offer some respite from the less than desirable weather conditions to come.

SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2014 - HEATS

Overnight rain saw Saturday dawn to a damp track, and the officials declared the track wet, before the first kart took to the circuit, for the first of the 3 heats.  The first three classes went out on slicks, which saw some interesting racing in light drizzle, before consistent rain forced the remaining classes to switch to wets.

In Senior National Super Heavy (SNSH) Heat 1, the big mover was Kurtis Dickson, who came out of P6, to claim 1st, while Reece Harradine, who held 1st for most of the race, finished 3rd, with John Horsburgh finishing a respectable 2nd.    In Heat 2, Tony Lawson was out of 2nd, moved quickly into 1st, and was not challenged, with Dickson and Harradine, DNFing early in the race.  Ian Sadler, made great gains to come home 3rd out of P9, to finish just behind Wayne Oglivie.  Heat 3 saw Dickson take to the lead out of P1, with Harradine out of P9 into 3rd, only to be challenged for the position by Horsburgh in the 2nd lap.  Lawson was the big mover though, working his way from P8 to challenge for the lead midrace, pull ahead, and then to go on to win by a comfortable margin ahead of Dickson in 2nd and Harradine in 3rd, only just ahead of Horsburgh.

A small field of Open Performance took to the track in Heat 1, with several battles on the field.  Robert Hogan and Adrian Hogan battled it out for 1st and 2nd, with Robert eventually taking 1st ahead of Adrian.  Meanwhile, Harrison Knight and Marc Townsend, fought hard, to finish 3rd and 4th respectively.  Heat 2 saw Robert Hogan into 1st, only to spin and end up 4th.  There was close racing between Knight, Brent Logan and Stephen Hampson, before Knight drove away from Logan to finish 1st, and Hampson dropped off to finish 3rd behind Logan.  A high attrition rate saw 5 karts DNF.  IN Heat 3, Adrian Hogan took advantage of P2, to jump ahead, but with Robert Hogan on his tail.  Meanwhile the action was back in 3rd, with Hampson, Townsend and Knight all vying for the position. Ultimately the race was decided with Adrian Hogan in 1st, Robert Hogan in 2nd and Hampson in 3rd.  

Senior National Pro was a large field of 26 competitors, and the random grid format made for some interesting racing across the heats.  Heat 1 saw Matthew Piper out of P11 take the win, with Jarrod Whitty from Griffith out of P22 being the biggest mover, to come home 2nd.  Scott Harris managed a respectable 3rd.  Heat 2 saw a wet track, but no rain, but neve-the-less resulted in a tentative start, which saw karts strung out across the track.  Big movers in this race were Riley (P12 to 2nd), Harris (P22 to 6th) and Piper (P23 to 7th).  The heat was eventually won by Jeremy Lavelle, ahead of Riley and Terry Selwood.  In Heat 3, Riley got a great jump and sped away to a 6 kart lead, and then it was back to an angry pack comprising Shaun Costello, Andreas Chronis, Piper, Harris, Whitty, David Dunbar and Stephen Angelucci.   Riley finished 1st, unchallenged, ahead of Costello and Chronis.

In Heat 1 of Junior National Heavy, Cody Donald from Victoria, started out of P1, to finish ½ second ahead of Ryan Pike from NKRC and 2 seconds ahead of Jacque Isarin from NSKC.    In Heat 2, Donald made it 2 from 2, with Pike the big mover out of P11 to 2nd, challenging Donald in the closing laps, and finishing ahead of Luke Wrigley from Dubbo.     In Heat 3 Lochlan Chancellor from Canberra, took advantage of P1 to jump into the lead, only to be quickly chased down by Donald, Pike, Wrigley and Jack Dare from Wagga.  Wrigley took off and led the first 2 laps, before being chased down by Pike, leaving Donald, Dare and Chancellor to battle it out for 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.

21 Cadets in all, contested the Bob Hinde.  Heat 1 saw Mia Bolton from Canberra take the lead from Finley Allen (Canberra) in the last lap, after he lead most of the race.  Joshua Sargent from Grenfell, put in a solid drive, to finish 3rd.  In Heat 2, Baydon Phillips established a handy over Noah Sands and Makk O’Neill, to eventually finish 1st, while Peter O’Brien had a good run through the field from 7th to 2nd, picking off O’Neill who finished 3rd, ahead of Kynan Brooks and Sands.  Heat 3 saw Bolton take a 1st corner advantage, but Finley Allen soon took the lead.  Both O’Brien and Sargent started midpack, but worked their way forward to finish 4th and 5th respectively.  Meanwhile, Bolton re-took the lead midrace, but Allen continued to pressure her to the end.  Lapped traffic in the last lap, saw Allen take the lead, to finish ahead of Bolton and Josh Haynes, making it a Canberra trifecta.

In the Cadet P race, Tyler Horner-Donnelly, made it a clean sweep in the Heats, with mixed results across the heats for the remaining positions.  In Heats 1 and 3, Mikayla Boots came home 2nd, while Cruz Brencher finished 2nd in Heat 2.  Brooklyn Sciberras had a solid drive to finish 3rd in Heat 1, while Boots and Brencher took 3rd place in Heats 2 and 3 respectively.  All the Cadet P’s showed tenacity and determination through the very wet heats, improving dramatically over the course of the day.

An all-but full capacity grid saw 29 Junior National Light competitors take to the track this weekend.  In Heat 1, it paid to start mid to rear of field, with Tommy Harradine finishing 1st out of P9, Benito Montalbano finishing 2nd out of P25, in his first race in JNL, and Lewis Hodgson finishing 3rd out of P27.  In Heat 2, Tyler Everingham jumped into the lead from P4, but spun in the last corner of the 1st lap, to fall back to 10th.  Meanwhile, Jordan Pike and Cameron McLean, took advantage of the situation to speed away, to finish 1st and 2nd ahead of Montalbano and Byron Woolner from Griffith.  Heat 3 saw Kyle Bonser take advantage of P1, to jump to the lead and lead the race home from there.  The big mover however, was Pike, who moved up from P16 to 2nd place by lap 4.  Montalbano and Hodgson were also big movers, with Hodgson taking 3rd, ahead of Everingham, with a blistering run from 22nd to 4th.

In Clubman Heavy Heat 1, Michael Hazelton, Josh Buchan and Nicholas Cooley, lead home the field.  In Heat 2, Russell Becker and Ryan Reynolds had a great fight for the lead, with Reynolds ultimately being the victor, after Becker led all but the last lap.   Meanwhile, the best battle on-field was for 3rd, between Buchan, James Taylor and Hazelton, before Buchan broke ahead, to also challenge for the lead in the last lap.  Heat 3 saw Becker and Buchan again battle it out for 1st, while Harry Hayek, Taylor, Jackson Delamont and Jarrod Farrawell had a great nose-to-tail battle for 3rd, with Delamont eventually pulling away for 3rd, behind Becker and Buchan.

A combined field of Clubman Light and Superheavy saw some interesting racing, with the Superheavy boys giving some of the Lights something to think about.  Nicholas Becker (CL), who raced his first race in Seniors, having only just moved from Juniors early that week, took a comfortable win from Ian Beeraz (CL), ahead of local race Peter O,Meley (CSH), Alex Tayler (CSH) and Kurtis and Brent Dickson (CSH).   In Heat 2, Michael Riley (CL) took the lead from P1 and continued to extend his lead early on, until Becker (out of P4) and James O’Malley (CL), hunted him down.  Riley and Becker had a great fight until the end, with Becker throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, while O’Malley continued on, unchallenged for 3rd.  IN Heat 3, Waters took the lead out of P2, while O’Malley, Beeraz and Brent Logan battled it out for 2nd place.  Logan and Beeraz then worked together to drive down Waters, were Logan successfully challenged for the lead, to come home ahead of Beeraz and Waters.

TaG 125 Light and Heavy raced together, and the Heats saw a different winner each time in Lights, whilst the Heavies were slightly more consistent, with Alexander Milward winning 2 of the 3 heats, with Andrew Smith taking out the 3rd.  Bradley Newman took out Heat 1, with Chris Cooper and Jeffrey Rahaley coming home 2nd and 3rd.  In Heat 2, Jack Koening got the jump over James Hutchinson, only for both to fall back though the field, when Cooper took to the lead midway through Lap 1.  Newman proceeded to make his way forward to 2nd, while Coire Donnelly finished 3rd.  In Heat 3 the rain started again and Rahaley excelled, along with Shaun Costello, while most of the field struggled.  Meanwhile Smith was on the charge into 3rd, and then taking 2nd, and eventually taking 1st, to finish ahead of Rahaley and Costello.

In the 24 strong Rookie field, the top positions in the heats was constantly changing.  Heat 1 saw Taylor Hazard take the win over Cody Burcher from Orange and local racer Thomas Sargent.  On Heat 2, Burcher took advantage of P1 to grab a handy lead, with Sargent making some big moves though the field from P14 up to finish 2nd, ahead of William Seal.  In Heat 3, Sargent went from P19 to 7th position by the end of Lap 1, and continued to move though the field to claim 3rd place.  Meanwhile, Aaron Turney made the most P1, initially battling with Nikki Watson from South Australia, before drawing away from the field to win, leaving Watson to battle it out with Hazard, with Hazard eventually claiming 2nd.

In the Junior Clubman heats, the attrition factor was quite high, with a large number of competitors not finishing.  In Heat 1, Cody Gillis took the win ahead of Zane Morse and Lochlan Chancellor.  In Heat 2, Gillis shot ahead to take a handy lead from Alec Morse, whilst Tyler Everingham moved from P7 to 3rd.  In Heat 3, Zane Morse took the win ahead of brother Alec and Thomas Chitty, after Gillis was out of P1, but got swamped when he suffered engine trouble.   Josh Hemphill was quickly into 3rd, only to be shuffled down through the field by Sean Shibutare and Everingham, before DNFing.  

SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2014 

– PRE-FINAL AND FINAL

Sunday arrived, and conditions at the track had not improved, and may in fact have been worse, with the wind now driving the rain sideways.  Today was pay-day, with a final only counts format, and racing was going to be intense.

Senior National Super Heavy pre-final saw Horsburgh jump to 1st out of P2, but this was short-lived, as an early mistake allowed Lawson into 1st, only for Horsburgh and Lawson to touch, with Lawson ending up 8th in the 2nd lap.  This allowed Harradine to take 1st, which he managed to hold until the last lap, when Lawson regained 1st, after working his way through the field at an impressive rate, again tangling with Horsburgh on the way.  Dickson meanwhile continued to chase down the leaders to finish 3rd behind Harradine, after several laps of them mixing it up.

Later that day in the Final, Lawson took to the lead out of P1, and was not challenged for the remainder of the race.  Meanwhile Dickson and Harradine battled it out for 2nd position, with Dickson eventually coming home in 2nd ahead of Harradine and Ogilvie.

In the Open Performance pre-final, Hampson was into 1st from P4 by the 2nd corner, and streaked away, never to really be challenged.   Daniel Humphries settled comfortably into 2nd place, after challenging Adrian Hogan early on, who took 3rd.  In the final, there was an intense battle at the front between Robert Hogan, Hampson and Knight, with the lead changing several times in the first few laps.  Hampson soon took a 2 kart lead, ahead of Knight who then proceeded to leave Robert Hogan.  Mid-race, Townsend entered the fray, but ultimately could only finish 5th behind Knight in 1st, Robert Hogan in 2nd, Hampson in 3rd and Humphries in 4th.

In the Senior National Pro pre-final, Riley again moved forward quickly, with Costello edging by Harris mid-race into 2nd.

The first 6 karts broke away from the field, and whilst there was lapped traffic, it did not come into play.  Riley took the win ahead of Costello and Harris.  In the final, Costello got a huge jump, and Lavelle made a good start before Riley moved into 2nd.  Harris made some great gains and fought hard with Whitty for 3rd, but the race was between Costello and Riley at the front of the field.  Riley got into the lead, but then ran wide on the last corner, allowing Costello to take the win ahead of Riley, Whitty and Harris.

In the Junior National Heavy pre-final, Pike and Donald battled hard during the 1st lap, with Wrigley hot on their trail.  The rain soon set in during the race, with several great battles on the track, notably between Iasarin and Charlotte Poynting and then Donald, Pike and Dare, with Wrigley DNFing on the 2nd last lap.  In the end Donald led home Pike and Dare.  In the final, Donald took to the lead, then in lap 4, ran wide at the start-finish line, which put Pike into the lead.  They continued to battle all the way to the end with 4 lead changes in the last 3 corners, with Pike being victorious in the end.  Meanwhile, Wrigley and Dare battled for 3rd, with Wrigley eventually talking the honours, after starting out of P12.

On cue, the rain set in for the Cadet pre-final, and Bolton again got a great start, before being run-down by Allen. 

Early in the piece, there was a four-way challenge for the top position, between Bolton, Allen, Hayne and Sands, the arrival of several other players, saw O’Brien come first, ahead of Sands, Brooks, Bolton and Sargent. In the final, Brooks had an intense battle with Haynes, for the first half of the race, to see Haynes take the lead for a number of laps, before Brooks eventually won the race, with Haynes taking 5th.  Meanwhile O’Brien fell back through the field from 1st to 6th, to slowly make his way forward again to finish 2nd. 

Theodore Livanes was the big mover finishing 3rd out of P11, while Allen had a solid drive to finish 4th.

The pre-final for the Cadet P’s was very wet, but Horner-Donnelly excelled, taking out 1st again, to finish ahead of Boots, Sciberras, Joseph Waddell and Isabella Jess.  It was a great effort for Waddell and Jess, both competing for the first time. 

The final saw Horner-Donnelly make it a clean sweep for the weekend, to finish ahead of Boots, Sciberras, Waddell and Laurence Shepherd-Ashby.  Isabella Jess was awarded the Cadet P encouragement award, courtesy of Inflight ER.

The Junior National Light pre-final saw Pike pull away to lead every lap home, with McLean in 2nd.  The battle on-field however, was for 3rd, between Bonser, Harradine and Hodgson, until Bonser DNFed midrace.  Cameron Skelton soon moved into the fray, to eventually finish 4th behind Harradine and ahead of Hodgson.    In the Final, Pike lead every lap to the finish, with Harradine finishing 2 seconds behind him, and McLean a further 2 seconds back. 

In the Clubman Heavy pre-final, Buchan lead every lap home, while Taylor moved swiftly to 2nd, after being shuffled back to 4th at the start, to finish 1 second ahead of Reynolds in 3rd. 

 In the final, Buchan again took to the lead, to finish a comfortable 4 seconds ahead of Reynolds, who in turn finished 4 seconds ahead of Cooley, who managed to get past Taylor early in the race.

In the Clubman Light and Superheavy pre-final, Becker and Riley, lead home the Superheavy boys of Kurtis Dickson and Bruce Otter, ahead of Waters and Brent Dickson.  In the final, Becker cleaned up ahead of Beeraz and Waters in the Lights, while, Otter lead home Tayler and Brent Dickson, whilst a large number of the front runners DNFed early in the piece.

In the TaG combined pre-final, Rahaley took an early lead but was chased down by Costello, meanwhile Jacob Fripp, Jarrod Whitty, Newman and Cooper tussled it out further down the order.  Ultimately, it would be Costello, Rahaley, Donnelly and Wells who would start the final on the front 2 rows.  The Final saw Costello tale the victory ahead of Donnelly and Rahaley in the Lights, while Milward would lead home Smith and Stephen Brencher in the Heavies.

The Rookies pre-final saw Sargent take the lead from Lap 1 to eventually win by 11 seconds ahead of Turney. 

Meanwhile the battle for 3rd was between Burcher, Hazard and Zac Heard, with Hazard eventually claiming the spot.  In the Rookies final, Sargent was unstoppable in the wet leading every lap from start to finish, with Turney also having a solid drive to finish 2nd, ahead of Heard, Jack Hutchins from South Australia and Seal.

In the Junior Clubman prefinal, Gillis drove away from the field in the damp conditions, leading all but the final lap, when be DNFed.  This allowed Alec Morse to go on and win the race head of Chitty and Byron Woolner.

 In the final, Alec Morse and Gillis battled it out, with Morse eventually taking the win less than 1 second ahead of Gillis, who finished ahead of Chitty.

Despite some fairly ordinary weather, the weekend was a huge success. With all of the competitor’s and crew who travelled from all over the country having a great weekend and enjoying the country hospitality looking forward to coming back again for the State Championships in October.

 The prize pool for the junior racers was exceptional as always, with Xbox’s, Huffy Sliders, Roboraptors and Zoomers, just some of the fabulous stuff up for grabs. 

The random draw chassis’ courtesy of Bar Up Bullbars from Wagga and DPE Kart Technology, were won by Chloe Cosis (Cadet/Rookie) and Blake Fardell (Junior).  The Club would sincerely like to thank its other sponsors, who also made the event possible, including: Ruiz Construction, The Kart Shed, Inflight ER, Caltex Grenfell, Grenfell Bowling Club, Mad Harry’s Steel Yard, Tegra Australia, Carlos IGA Grenfell, Gordon Garling and Moffitt, Reids Thrifty Link Hardware Grenfell, Mitton Bros, Dougies Bobcat, Clint Baker, Greg Bowerman, Makcrete, and Westlime. A special mention also goes to Weddin Shire Council for its help and support with the preparations at the Bogolong Raceway and continued support over the weekend.