Albany City Kart Club hosts successful first round of newly formed WA Karting Series

The first-round winners of the newly formed WA Karting Series were crowned at Albany City Kart Club on Sunday, wrapping up an exciting weekend of racing action for the annual Southern Sprint. The WA Karting Series will travel to tracks at seven clubs Albany, Mid West, Esperance, Bunbury, Hurricane, Tiger and Eastern Goldfields in 2023. Albany played host to the augural event with nearly 200 entries received across 13 divisions. In the highly competitive KA3 junior light division, Tiger member Connor Radford claimed a narrow win in Sunday’s 14-lap final. Radford started on the front row and quickly hit the lead in front of Benjamin Hall, going on to win by 1.823sec. Hall was second across the line ahead of Campbell Thompson while Bailey Riordan and Zac Mettam rounded out the top five. Albany driver Ayden Tempany enjoyed a strong weekend of competition and recorded the fastest lap in the final with 45.497sec. Tempany finished sixth in the field of 19 drivers while fellow Albany driver Cody Colmer finished seventh. Experienced kart racer Kip Foster showed his class in the Tag 125 light class, a mid-race pass for the lead paying dividends. Foster started third on the grid and was up to second after an early slip up from Flynn Thompson, getting past Robert West at halfway. A Tiger member, Foster went on to cross the line 1.559sec. in front of Aidan Dekkers while West finished in third place in the 14-lap final. A dominant display from Tiger’s Mason Walczak secured honours in the KA3 junior heavy division. Walczak cleared out in the final to beat Aiden Nichols by 4.911sec. Albany’s Jayden Lister finished fifth in the Tag 125 restricted light final, setting the fastest race lap. Eastern Goldfields’ Joshua Nichols was the winner, edging out Daniel Clark by 1.542sec. The Tag 125 heavy final ended in thrilling fashion as Bunbury member Thomas Sparkes got the upper hand over Simon Gwilliam in the dying stages — only 0.74sec. separating the pair at the line. Jay Kostecki was a dominant force in the cadet 9 division, winning the final by more than 13 sec. from his nearest rival. Hurricane driver Simon Minton powered to victory in the Tag 125 restricted medium class, defeating Nathan Terrell by 4.158sec. There was a strong Albany representation in the KA3 senior championship with Dekkers proving too strong in the final. Dekkers won by more than six seconds from James Micucci-Allen and Michael Jones. Albany’s Shane Burns was sixth across the line and Riley Munro (ninth) with Harrison Apostoles 10th. In the KZ division, Jake Klarich crossed the line first but was relegated to third place after the race. Nikola Mitic was crowned the winner and Daniel Currey officially claimed second place. Other opening round winners in the series were Sachen Smith Wei (KA2), Beau Casagrande (cadet 12), Terrance Flynn-Dowell (KA3 senior heavy) and Gwilliam (Tag 125 restricted medium).