2019 Victorian Kart Championship – Puckapunyal Vic
2019 Victorian Kart Championship – Puckapunyal Vic
After 5 years of trying different formats for the Victorian Open, we are back to a traditional one-weekend race meeting for the coveted “No 1 Blue Plate” which really puts the pressure on.
Friday practice was the first time this year we felt the struggle of a kart that wasn’t there but as usual the team at Melbourne Kart Centre lead by one of Australia’s best, James Sera went to work looking at Emerson’s data to find out why the Shannons driver was struggling.
Qualifying; Huge changes overnight & the pressure was on Emerson to perform, after a few laps the team knew the speed was back, unfortunately the Shannons back driver found himself on his own without a tow & Puckapunyal has one of the longest front straights in the country, so 9th was the best Emerson could manage.
Heat 1;It was clear that it was going to be hard racing this weekend with drivers taking risks so early in a race weekend, Emerson made a great start & drove with maturity, making clean passes every lap, bringing the Shannons rocket home in 5th.
As you can see by the results Emerson & the MKC team are always working towards the end game and we had great pace now. The first 2 heats Emerson started out of 9th; heat 2 was a stunning drive after dropping to 12th, driving back to 3rd. Heat 3 was a great race & Emerson took the lead with a couple of laps to go but a certain driver executed a perfect bump & run, so p2. Heat 4 was a lights to flag win.
Results for the heats were; H1 - 5th, H2 - 3rd, H3 - 2nd, H4 - 1st
Final – The Shannons team knew we had a fast Go-Kart for the 20-lap final and starting on the front row was a huge effort after starting the weekend in 9th and we are always quick to praise the team but Emerson showed his class in only his 3rd senior race meeting with absolutely no testing this year. The start as usual was hectic but considering the drivers approach turn 1 at over 110kph they all managed to make it through. Emerson dropped a position & the top 3 pushed each other away from the pack until about half race distance, Emerson made a move to P2 then a lap later took the lead. The eventual winner Herbertson drove a fantastic race to take the lead with 6 laps remaining. Emerson & Herbertson just started to get a gap on the driver in P3, Emerson stuck his nose on Herbertson at turn 2 but the move was shut down. What happen next was a pretty ordinary piece of driving, the driver in third hit Emerson 2 times into turn one then finished the job at turn 2, practically shoving the Shannons kart off the track, the end result was a 4th. We decided not to put up the $500 dollar fee to protest. Emerson was extremely disappointed but said, “ I can only control the way I race and I race hard but fair”.
