Xander Clements, October 31st, 2015

 

As the Sim Karting World Championship's sixth season of competition nears the halfway point, the Leopard Senior Farewell Tour returns to a familiar circuit in San Jose, Uruguay.

Qualifying/Super Pole

Braden Eves (Comp Kart) came back to the SKWC with a bang, besting point leader Ben Hamlet (Intrepid) by five one thousandths of a second. Hamlet got the upper hand when it mattered, though, taking Super Pole by a similar margin of six one thousandths of a second over Eves with Brenden Baker (Intrepid) rounding out the Top 3.

Heat 1

After getting through the first lap cleanly, Hamlet kept up his streak of domination with a solid heat race victory over Baker, who remained just under a second behind at the finish. All eyes remained focused on the battle for third place between CRG USA driver Adam Rylance (CRG) and PSL Karting driver Michael Avansino (Ricciardo) though. Avansino remained in front until the final lap, where he made contact with the tire barriers entering the backstretch surrendering the spot to Rylance.

Heat 2

Braden did what he needed to do in his heat as well, starting from the pole and winning by a distance of over six seconds back to Intrepid Driver Program driver Dan Burgess (Intrepid). Alex Frazer (Ricciardo) fell back to quite a gap from the front two, but would hold off a hard-charging Alexander Kirkwood (Energy) to finish in third. Kirkwood finished fourth and Carson Clements snagged the final transfer spot finishing in fifth respectively.

Last Chance Qualifier

Without Alexander Kirkwood in the Last-Chance-Qualifier, Rookies Brendan Burcroff (CRG) and Tyler Hervias (Praga) started on the front row. Outpacing the rest of their competitors, they pulled away to a comfortable lock-in to the Final, with DCT SpeedSport driver Rick Gizzi (Kosmic) finishing in third, just outside of the transfer spots.

Final

For the first time since PFI, spectators got to see Ben Hamlet get challenged for the lead. On lap 2, Braden Eves made a succesful pass on the Brit, only to lose the position in the next corner due to some unforseen internet lag. This put Eves far back of Hamlet and allowed Brenden Baker to take over the top spot. Baker's lead was shortlived, though, as a bent axle caused the 2015 X30 World Champion to fall back into the grasp of Eves and finish in third. While the Comp Kart driver drove his guts out to catch Hamlet, his efforts would be in vein as Ben extended his winning streak to three rounds with a mistake-free performance.

 

Now with half of the season complete and a near perfect point total for Intrepid driver Ben Hamlet, the rest of the field will be working extra hard just to remain in striking distance at the final round of the season. Hamlet's performance coupled with Baker's consistency has kept Intrepid Driver Program on top of the Team Championship over CRG USA with a commanding lead as well.