Xander Clements, October 7th, 2015

 

At the beginning of every new season, all drivers look to start their championship campaigns off with a victory. To let the rest of the field know that they are the ones to be reckoned with. At PF International, we saw this come to light as early as Super Pole, with 4 different teams represented in the Top 6.

 

This new portion of the raceday was sure to bring some excitement to qualifying, but some new faces came to the forefront. Brenden Baker (Intrepid) is the 2015 X30 World Champion, and he showed that no speed was lost over the lengthy off season by setting top time with a marginal gap to second place. Michael Avansino (Ricciardo) has been hot and cold in previous seasons, but set his best qualifying effort yet by besting the rest of the field to start on pole in Heat 2. Corrie Hiatt (BirelART) would round out the top 3 as the highest qualifying Privateer.

 

In Heat 1 it appeared intially that Baker would have to fight for the victory. The IAME Leopard powerplant does not have an on-board rev limiter, allowing for drafting behind other karts to magnify suck-up and speed. This initially kept Hiatt within striking distance of Baker until a slip up on Lap 5 would see Hiatt end up facing backwards and deep in the field. Adam Rylance (CRG) is usually the dark horse when it comes to contending for a win and after sneaking a 5th place qualifying run in Super Pole, he would maintain his silent consistency to finish 2nd and start the Final in a solid third spot.

 

There was quite a different story in Heat 2. Ben Hamlet (Intrepid) was excluded from qualifying due to a technical DQ, meaning that he would have to start from dead last in the even-numbered heat. In his home race on the tour, Hamlet was not to be denied and quickly moved his way through the field, finishing in third place. Avansino got some help from his PSL Karting teammate Alex Frazer (Ricciardo) on the start of the race, which ultimately allowed the pair to pull away from the field for a 1-2 result. Dan Burgess (Intrepid) and Ian Bushey (Intrepid) did finish inside the Top 5, but after review from the Steward they both were placed into the LCQ.

 

In the Last-Chance-Qualifier, Alexander Kirkwood (R) (Energy) broke out from the pack to take the lead off the start. Charlie Jafari (CRG) battled with all his might to hold onto the last transfer spot but some contact between himself along with Burgess, Bushey, and Hiatt penalized him to the back of the grid. Burgess and Bushey ended up failing to finish due to these incidents while Hiatt was able to cruise into the Final.

 

In the Final it was clear who the top three drivers would be. Right off the start Ben Hamlet went to work on methodically picking his way through the field, and by the end of Lap 2 he was on the tail of Michael Avansino challenging for the second spot. By lap 5 he had maneuvered his way around Brenden Baker for the lead and for a second appeared to try and pull a gap, but the aero package kept Avansino and Baker in toe. The top 3 broke away from Adam Rylance and Corrie Hiatt who ran fourth and fifth, and the three battled tremendously lap-after-lap. However, on Lap 11, contact between Michael and Brenden under the bridge left Baker out of the race and Avansino with a significant position penalty. Hiatt set a blistering pace to catch Hamlet late in the going, but it was not enough as the Brit was able to hold on for a win on his native soil. Hiatt would hold on for second while Adam Rylance rounded out the podium with once again, a solid run.

 

3rd Place: Adam Rylance (CRG/CRG USA) - "I'm very happy to finish on the podium at the first race of the season. I struggled yesterday in practice, but today was fortunately able to pull it together and have a good result. I qualified 5th and started 3rd for the heat race, and ended up finishing 2nd. I dropped to 5th at the start of the Final, and did what I could to keep with the karts ahead but just didn't quite have the pace I needed. I then just focused on keeping my nose clean and staying consistent, and it ended up paying off as I was able to make my way up to 3rd after Brendan and Michael collided. Of course it would have been nice to be up there with them fighting for the lead, but I will need to improve if that's where I want to be. Looking forward to the next race next weekend."

 

2nd Place: Corrie Hiatt (BirelART/BirelART Factory Team) - "I'd really like to give a huge congratulations to Ben Hamlet on his win! He had a fantastic race and I really enjoyed the battles the latter half of the race. He's been a class act this season and I can't thank him enough for such a great race. BirelART Factory supplied me with the fastest kart I've had in a long while. The support I recieved from them has been unmatched - its an honor to have such an experienced group behind me. We showed pace through qualifying, second in qualifying and third in super pole, but I slipped up in the prefinal. The LCQ I was able to transfer into the last grid spot for the final. The final was a true testimate to luck and pace. I am extremely happy to have made my way through the field and into second position. A huge thank you to Ian Bushey, Dan Burgess, and the entire Intrepid Driver Program crew - they raced hard, clean, and fair. Thanks to SKWC for putting on a great event. Looking forward to the next one!"

 

1st Place: Ben Hamlet (Intrepid/Intrepid Driver Program) - "The meeting started strong for me being very quick in practice and we went into the race with good confidence but it was a big set back having to start last in the races after a misunderstanding led me to be DQ from qualifying but with some luck i managed to skip the lcq making life easier. starting 6th in the final got a good start moving me too 4th on the first lap. the kart felt great from the start and i was able to move my way to the lead in a matter of laps and had a great battle with the number 3 Brenden Baker who was later involved in accident so sadly was out of the contention. This left it between me Corrie Hiatt we had a great race to flag and showed good respect while racing. We were very close but i was able to come out on top and take the win, this is such a relief after the disaster in qualifying. Id like to thank Ian Bushey of intrepid for giving me a team to race in and Xander Clements for hosting the event I look forward to next week."