2019 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship – Rd 2 Newcastle NSW

Emerson Harvey’s senior form continues  

2019 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship – Rd 2 Newcastle NSW

Newcastle is one of the toughest kart tracks in the country, real drivers track that has a bit of everything, going there knowing we were oversubscribed by just 5 karts was going to make things really tough. This would mean 3 groups, A-B-C, and with a massive storm due, everyone knew some drivers were going to get a raw deal, group A for the young Shannons Ambassador. 

Friday practice went really well and the team worked hard to find a good race set up, with only 5 sessions and no testing after Rd1 due a little race at the Melbourne Grand Prix, we were happy we had a fast go kart.

Qualifying; As predicted, the heavens opened up at about 2am Saturday morning & when we arrived at Cameron Park Raceway, the circuit was under water, racing was delayed while officials worked out what to do. After a 2-hour delay, the decision was made to cancel qualifying all together, so unfortunately for Emerson he would start 13th.

Heat 1 – A vs B; This would be the only wet race for our class and starting out P13 was always going to be fun and the track was drying really fast. Emerson got a great start and in fact went from 13 to 6 on lap 1, however the leaders had a pretty big gap. The Shannons driver put his head down chasing the leaders and was one of the fastest on the track, Emerson really showed his class driving his Shannons backed kart up to 4th, setting the second fastest time.

Newcastle is a track known for its difficult starts due to its first 2 corners, a right left complex, extremely fast set of corners reaching 90km\h. 

Results for the heats were; H1- 4th, H3 DNF rear contact, H4 - 6th, H6 - 6th

Final – The Shannons team knew we had a fast Go-Kart for the 20-lap final and starting P12 wasn’t too bad considering the DNF. A typical senior start resulted in some hip and shoulder racing, causing Emerson to lose some positions. Some tough driving from the 16yo saw him pass around 8 karts on the opening laps and he was able to get in a rhythm and set out after the lead pack. The stopwatch doesn’t lie & with 8 laps to go the Shannons star was the second fastest on track and catching the lead pack fast.  Unfortunately the young charger went for a move that resulted in contact, Emerson said “it was a late move and I thought I was far enough up the inside, I’m extremely disappointed in myself & I just feel bad for the team at Melbourne Kart Centre, Dad, James & Josh put in so much hard work and to go out like that hurts but we’ll bounce back that’s for sure.”

Next meeting TBA; We are hoping to be at Rd2 of the Australia F4 Championship.