A trio of podiums for Kart Class at the AKC Shakedown

The first round of the AKC Shakedown took place at the Go-Kart club of South Australia on the 11^th-12^th of February. With many of the leading candidates for this years Australian Championships present at the event, it was a good opportunity to see how the Kart Class team would stack up against its challengers.

The team fielded drivers in Cadet 9, Cadet 12, KA2, X30, TAG & KA3 Senior. After qualifying, it was Ben Holliday who lead the charge qualifying fastest in KA2 with team mates Brad Majman in P8 and Jack Szewzcuk in P11. Carter Grother put his ‘borrowed’ kart on the front row in Cadet 9 and the TAG contingent of Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Nick Percat, Jake Spencer & Daniel Rochford ended up 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th.

In Cadet 12, we fielded three drivers (Dom Mercuri, Beau Casagrande and Riley Harrison), with all three qualifying inside the top 10. X30 wasn’t the best session with the 2022 KA2 Aus #3 Peter Bouzinelos ending in P11 and Jaxon Johnstone in P16. Miley Miller was having her first senior race of 2023 in KA3 Senior and finished the session just outside the top 10 in position 14.

Sunday morning greeted drivers with much cooler temperatures and no wind, so times were set alight in most classes. After the three heat races, our Kart Class team had won every race in Cadet 9 (Grother), KA2 (Holliday) & TAG (Spencer 2, Rochford 1) with Harrison storming through from position 10 to have the pole position for Cadet 12 in the final. Majman had a trio of top 3 finishes to be alongside Holliday on the front row, and Casagrande & Mercuri were inside the top 10 after the heat races. Bouzinelos had climbed up the rankings to start the final in 5^th in his X30 debut, but unfortunate incidents to Percat and Szewzcuk (thankfully is fine after his nasty accident) put a halt on more karts being in contention for the finals.

After our earlier dominant display, the Kart Class team was able to manage a trio of podiums with Harrison 2^nd (Cadet 12), Holliday 2^nd (KA2) & Bouzinelos 3^rd (X30) as a number of our drivers didn’t take to the start line for the final as they had to depart for travel requirements.

Young Carter Grother unfortunately had a mechanical issue in the final, taking him out of the race, which was a disappointing end to what was on track to be a perfect day. Miley Miller made progress throughout Sunday, being inside the top 10 at different stages of the event and considering being the youngest driver in the field held her own against more experienced drivers.

“Overall it was a hugely successful weekend for our whole team having 6 karts on the front row for the finals. Unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalise on those positions and turn them into race wins, but with what we learnt, and how we worked together, I’m confident at the AKC we can grab some more silverware.” Said team owner David Sera.

“It was a scary scene to see one of our drivers taken away in the ambulance, but thankfully we’ve received some good news on Monday from Jack, and he’s already working out ways to get his new kart to Monarto in a few weeks”

The team will now take a couple of weeks off before venturing back to the same circuit where 370 drivers have entered for the opening round of the Australian Kart Championships on March 3-5. We will welcome four drivers from the Tasman Karts New Zealand outfit, who will all make their debut in the championship.