Round 4 of the island karts 'n' parts Tasmanian Leopard Series

Circular Head Kart club 18 August 2007.

Ben Walter and Jason Wyllie battling in the pre-final

The final round of the island karts'n'parts Leopard series provided the feature event for the Circular Head Kart Club's North West Truck Centre event. The meeting attracted good support from the neighbouring North West Kart Club although a number of regular runners skipped this meeting as it clashed with the City of Melbourne titles.

At one stage the finals of the meeting were in jeopardy because the generator for the back-up lighting system would not start. The Circular Head Kart club's permanent lighting system operated properly, but without an independent lighting source the meeting could not continue. Fortunately a host of officials managed to coax the yellow beast to life and the finals were run.

Due to the small number of karters making the trek to the far northwest of Tasmania the Light and Heavy classes were combined in the island karts'n'parts Leopard final.

Steven Wrigley under attack by Jason Wyllie

Spectators were treated to exciting racing under lights, with the leading contender from Light, Jason Wyllie going at it with Heavy leader Ben Walter, providing a top Saturday night's entertainment.

Walter came out on top in the late afternoon twilight to be first across the line in the pre-final, despite giving a twenty kilograms weight advantage to Wyllie. The advantage showed in acceleration out of slow corners.

In the final Wyllie jumped to an early lead from the front row and resisted Walter's efforts to get past. While the pair had an enjoyable tussle there was always a note of caution, as they were in separate races so there were no desperate overtaking moves or aggressive blocking.

Steven Wrigley had the best view in the house of the Wyllie-Walter battle from third position on the track. Despite Wyllie winning the final round of the Leopard Light class, Wrigley's second position ensured a comfortable win in the island karts'n'parts Leopard series over Wyllie.

Harley Aitken from Ben Walter and Jeff Dickson

The Leopard Heavy class win by Walter completed a clean sweep of the series rounds, giving him maximum points on the way to winning the class in the island karts'n'parts series.

The Smithton Saturday meetings present a unique challenge in Tasmania with all the practice and preliminary events held during the day, with the finals after a tea break at night. The track cools when the sun disappears and the pit crews have to anticipate how much less grip there is for the final.

It probably looked worse than it really was but in the pre-final George Bowe had a moment around the back of the circuit right in front of Jeff Dickson. With nowhere to go, Dickson's kart rode up the back of Bowe's machine and it appeared that Dickson's nose cone hit the back of Bowe's helmet. Both drivers continued on and finished the race.

island karts'n'parts
Unit 2/135 Bathurst St
Hobart

Ph: 03 6231 5135
Mobile: 0416019411
Fax: 03 6231 5011

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