Simon Gwilliam wins Rotax heavy at the Dash For Cash

The races run and the cash won – what a fantastic weekend for the 118 entrants at the Eastern Goldfields Kart Track earlier this month, Nov 8-9. Eleven 125 Heavies and it was local driver and state Rotax Heavy champ Simon Gwilliam with 4 wins from 5 starts. Second was Tiger member Gary Dunlop with third going to Mathew Chambers, Tiger. In the heavy class Rotax filled the podium.

Waylon Sims gets ready for the Tasmanian State Titles

The North West Tasmanian town of Highclere (near Burnie) will come alive to the tune of kart racing engines this weekend (October 31 – November 2) when drivers come from all across the State and the mainland to contest the Tasmanian Karting Championships.

After winning the prestigious Masport Cup event held at the venue last month local driver Waylon Sims will lead the way for the Tasmanian drivers in this weekend’s Event. However, Sims will face tough opposition from a number of fellow local and mainland drivers in the battle for the top prize.

Sims will be competing in the highly competitive 125cc Rotax Heavy category where he will come up against fellow Tasmanians Aiden Shelton, Harley Aitken and Matthew Coates. Adding further quality to the field will be the current Victorian and New South Wales State Champion Rick Pringle.

Sims will also contest the Senior National Light category where the former two-time State Champion will be aiming to improve on his eighth place finish last year.

“I’ve done a lot of testing recently for both classes so I’m confident that I should have some good speed to be near the front but it is going to be very competitive in both classes,” said Sims.

 

Simon Gwilliam wins Rotax heavy at the W.A. state titles.

Simon Gwilliam has taken victory in W.A. state titles with a close fort victory in Rotax Heavy. Simon set pole in the Azzurro R6B and set the pace for the rest of the heats and final. Simon also competed in Leopard heavy and was unlucky not to take two blue plates from the weekend. A broken chain 3 laps from the end of the final was a bitter disappointment after a 1st and two 2nd's in the heats. Well done Simon, and well done Ron from Track side Spares W. A. for the excellent ongoing support.

Trackside Spares WA team results

Austin Pearson 12th in midgets Azzurro

Jason Lecocq 3rd in rookies

Mitchell Rock 4th in rookies

Nick Pearson 5th in junior national light Azzurro

Nick Pearson DNF in junior clubman

Micheal Rock 10th in senior national light

Micheal Rock DNF in senior national heavy

Richard Devine 9th rotax light

Simon Gwilliam leopard heavy, Azzurro, beaten for pole in time trial by 0.026 second, 2nd heat 1, 1st heat 2, 2nd pre-final, DNF final, note 9 of 23 drivers were ex state or national title holders

Simon Gwilliam 1st in rotax heavy, Azzurro, pole time trial, 2nd heat 1, 2nd heat 2, 2nd pre-final, 1st final, note 5 of 20 drivers were ex state or national title holders

Nick Cooper 11th rotax heavy

John Devine 15th rotax heavy Azzurro

Regards

Ron Vandermeulen

 

Simon Gwilliam is back in form in W.A.

We just had our shakedown meeting on the weekend for our upcoming state titles and Simon Gwilliam driving for Trackside Spares WA, Auto One Osborne Park and Grizzly Power energy drinks took out convincing class wins in Leopard heavy and Rotax heavy against quality fields of current and past State and National Champions, we commissioned a photographer to come 1 hour out of Perth to the Hurricane Kart Clubs Wundowie circuit and here are some of his favorite shots.

Simon raced Leopard and rotax in the Azzurro R6B and dominated.

Regards

Ron Vandermeulen

Trackside Spares WA

 

Azzurro 1st & 3rd in the Japanese Qualifier.

In the second class which had a trip to Japan on offer, the Yamaha TAG class for 100SEC engines driven by C Grade licence holders, it was Toowoomba’s McCleverty who simply dominated the field.

Despite not having raced for over six years McCleverty showed that he had lost none of his touch behind the wheel on his way to victory.

Aided by karting identity Ralph Van Doorn as his mechanic, McCleverty steered his Azzurro chassis across the line first in every race of the event to secure his entry to the 32nd Annual Toyota All Japan Kart Championships. Jeff Johnson, Azzurro's dealer from Townsville, came third.

Rotax Double in the N.T.

Azzurro Karts took the double in Rotax in the Northern Territory title. Tom Williamson won Rotax Light and Tony Grant won Rotax heavy to clean sweep the Rotax class in the top end. With only 9 Azzurro Karts competing and with good results in other classes it was a very successful weekend.

Azzurro No1 at 2nd round of the QLD Rotax series.

Across the weekend, the Lismore Kart Club played host to an impressive field in the second round of The Advance Australasia Queensland Rotax Max Challenge. The second event in the five round series attracted fields of 19 in Rotax Light a.

With some atrocious weather hitting the east coast in the lead up to the weekend it looked like racing may have to be cancelled for the weekend. With some of the drivers and their crew donning their gumboots and doing sunshine dances around the pits, the Gods must have been listening as the sun managed to poke it’s head out for most of practice on Saturday. Sunday we had some isolated showers but it did not dampen the spirits of those drivers who made the journey to Lismore despite the conditions. Round Two was run under a qualifying format and there was non-stop action the whole day. Damian Ward in his debut drive in seniors came out firing qualifying for Rotax Light and securing pole for the start of the heats with Tom Williamson in hot pursuit taking grid 2.

Fast and furious finals action dominated both senior classes. In Rotax Light, Tom Williamson got a great start and opened up an early lead with Damian Ward putting into practice everything he learnt racing in the junior ranks to close the gap. The two standout drives were by Shae Davies who was involved in a couple of early race contacts eventually clearing his way into 3rd position and Damian Ward with an absolutely impressive drive for his first time in a senior feild. In the end a rock solid drive by Azzurro's Tom Williamson saw him take the chequered flag with Damian Ward 2nd and Shae Davies 3rd.

Tom Takes Out ACT Title

With another dominating performance, Tom Williamson has added the A.C.T. Rotax Light Title to his impressive list of career results.

The Titles held last weekend in Canberra were well supported with a large field of 24 Rotax Lights & 27 Heavies.

Winning two of the three heats, Tom charged through in heat one with a blistering drive from grid 18 to take first blood from Victorian Champion Troy Woolston. The Boscotek, Azzurro, Karting World driver also won heat two & was second to Woolston in heat 3.

In the final Tom jumped straight into the lead at turn one with Woolston in close pursuit. Woolston was not able make any impression on Williamson & by mid race Tom was able to establish a comfortable lead which he continued to extend to race end.

This great result adds the ACT Title to the Pacific Coast Title Tom won just two weeks ago at Port Macquarie.

Tom is certainly enjoying a very successful year of Rotax Racing. After his magnificent 4th at the Rotax World Final last December he has won every Rotax meeting he has entered this year bar one where he finished a very close 3rd.

Williamson is now leading the National Rotax Rankings & is looking to further consolidate that lead over the next few months & is hoping to return to the Rotax World Final this year stating "The Rotax World Final is a very special & prestigious event . Now we have a good familiarity with the Mojo tyre & some more testing with the DD2 kart I would really like to go back & have another crack at it this year in Italy. I must also say that the success I am currently enjoying could not be achieved without the support of Ian Saville from Karting World and the Azzurro chassis."

Tom's next race meeting will be Rd 2 of the Qld Rotax Series this weekend in Lismore.

Pacific Coast Titles
The annual Pacific Coast Titles were run at Port Macquarie on the weekend of May 10-11. The weekend saw another great drive from Azzurro's Tom Williamson taking the victory honours in Rotax Light. Tom now leeds the National Rotax ranking for the prize of a chance to race at the Rotax finals in Europe.

A rather relaxed Rotax Light winner Tom Williamson.

Rotax Light form up, Tom Williamson (5) and Brinley Gread on the front row.

A1 Racing win at Raleigh

On the eve of this year’s State of Origin Rugby League opener, the Queenslanders have managed to dominate proceedings after they took out all three spots on the podium over the weekend at Raleigh International Karting Raceway, near Coffs Harbour , during the latest round of the Powered by Honda ProKart Australia Endurance Kart Championship.

Heading the podium at the completion of the ‘Raleigh 6 Hour’, which doubled as rounds of the National, New South Wales and Queensland Championships, was the A1 Racing team who finished with a total 367 laps, and a complete lap ahead of their nearest rivals in what a was a strong performance, as they managed to bounce back from their last lap defeat at the previous round.

Tom dominates Camberra

Boscoteks Tom Williamson took an outstanding win in Rotax Light with the Azzurro R6B at Round 3 of the NSW Southern Zone Series held at the Canberra circuit last Sunday.
Williiamson dominated the class all weekend winning 2 of the 3 heats as well as taking out both the pre final & final in great style. The all points format saw Tom go into the final with a commanding points lead allowing him to control the pace with local experts Rob Amess & Geoff Connell to fight out the minor placings.
Tom enjoyed his return to Canberra stating ‘ I havn’t raced at Canberra since My junior days & it was fun to tackle this tricky racetrack again. The Azzurro was really quick around here & made it easy to pass & establish an early break in every race. I must also thank Ian Saville of Karting World who builds our engines . He provides me with engines that are very fast with a great power spread throughout the rev range. I would also like to thank the club & the officials for a well run weekend of racing’
Tom plans to contine competing in the major Rotax events thoughout 2008 as well as the Qld & NSW State Titles in both Rotax Light & Cluman Light classes as well as the Rotax Nationals.
Tom said ‘ The Azzurro is such an adaptable & user friendly chassis, it works equally well in both clubman classes as well as Rotax.
Tom’s next meeting will be the Pacific Coast Titles at Pt Macquarie on Sunday 11th May.

A1 Racing Azzurro Enduro chassis on top of the podium at Ipswich 6 Hour.

The A1 Racing 103 Team comfortably took out victory in the opening round of the 2008 Powered by Honda ProKart Australia Queensland Endurance Kart Championship that was held last Saturday (February 16) at the Ipswich Kart Track.

After topping the time sheets in qualifying and earning pole position, the A1 Racing 103 Team took a comfortable lead ahead of the Wollongong City Raceway Jets and the A1 Racing 102 Team who finished in second place and third position respectively.

It was certainly a good performance for the Lismore based A1 Racing Team as their newest team, A1 Racing 103, took out the top spot on the podium, while the main team, A1 Racing 102, finished on the podium in third place after being in a winning position until a pit stop misjudgement cost them a winning opportunity.

A letter to Azzurro Karts

To Whom It May Concern,
Just to keep you up to date, I brought two new Azzurro's for my son's from
Ron over here in Perth. On the weekend of January 27th we had our first
round of the WA State title series. My oldest son Nicholas finished third
in his second drive in Junior Nat Light while my youngest son, Austin won the
Midget class with 3 1st's a 3rd (reverse grid p19 start) and a 5th
(reverse grid p21 start) from a field of 22 karts. The kart handled so well that Austin was able to pass other karts around the outside on the off camber
left hand sweeper, the karts were able to drive around other karts that where not just
slower tail end drivers. This kart is really working well.

Regards

Steve Pearson

Victorian Open Karting Championships

Tom Williamson in his first race in the Azzurro R6B, quallified in pole position in Rotax Light.

Australasian Masters Games

Bolivar hosted the 2007 Australasian Masters Games recently, around 100 drivers over the age of 30 competing in 22 different class and age categories.

Congratulation go out to Glen Chadwick and Michael O'Shannessy on a excellent result in the 50+ clubman light. Glen who runs the R6B Heavy chassis proved to strong taking the win for the weekend. Michael O'Shannessy, our dealer in Melbourne, came third for the weekend. Well done boys'.

50 Plus
1. Glen Chadwick
3. Michael O’Shannessy

Storms Can't Stop A1's
Azzurro Enduro

Local team A1 Racing once again came out on top in the latest round of the ProKart Australia Queensland Endurance Kart Championship last Saturday (September 15) at Lismore Kart Raceway (Northern NSW) and in the process took out their fourth round victory in 2007.

After starting from pole position for the eighth and penultimate round of the Queensland Championship, the A1 Racing Team started strong and built on that throughout the 6 hour event.

The four hour mark of the race saw the teams having to tackle a change in weather conditions, when a thunderstorm broke out, despite the wet weather, and their closet rivals Civic Avengers being comfortably quicker in the conditions, the A1 Racing team claimed a comfortable victory. For the Civic Avengers team although they made ground of the leaders they managed to finish in second, while the third place finishers were the C & R Tint Racing team.

Just outside the podium finishers were the PDF Racing and Shire Racing team in fourth and fifth place respectively at the fall of the chequered flag after a race long battle between the pair.

A further indication of their speed, the A1 Racing team recorded the fastest lap of the race, proving that their home track knowledge played a big part in their success.

In regards to the best presented kart of the round that honour went to the PDF Racing team for their superb efforts in presenting a two kart team.

For the A1 Racing team, they continue to consolidate their lead in the Queensland Championship point standings with this latest victory.

The ninth and the final round of the Queensland Endurance Championship will be held on the streets of the Gold Coast on Saturday, October 13 for the running of the annual 12 hour Enduro.

 

Sean Butcher QLD State Title winner JNL and QLD JNL closed title winner.

Sean Butcher impresses in latest Azzurro Junior chassis
Azzurro R6BAfter scoring an impressive win over Tonykart’s Christopher Hays at the recent Lismore Kart Club’s Young Guns Titles driving an ancient Azzurro Z3 chassis, young Queensland racer Sean Butcher was given the latest R6B Junior chassis to try at the Lismore meeting on June 3rd. “While it was good to see a 10 year-old Azzurro still blowing away all the latest machinery, I was keen for him to show our competition how much better the latest R6B chassis is now performing,” said Azzurro” Jeff Hutchinson.
Sean won all four races in the Junior National Light class by a comfortable margin despite having never run the kart before the first race. After a couple of minor chassis set-up changes throughout the day he was very happy in the kart and lapping as quick as the pole winning time for the Young Guns Titles, despite an old set of tyres and track conditions that were a lot slower than they had been the previous month.