Debutant Scott Sorensen delivered the Harrington Doyle Racing Arrow Karts team its first victory in the Castrol EDGE CIK Stars of Karting Championship in Ipswich on Saturday night.
Making the step up into the KF2 category for 2014, Sorensen and team-mate Jarryd Ebzery were the pacesetters all throughout the two-day event.
In the first 25-lap final, Sorensen had an intense with Bundaberg driver Troy Loeskow, who ended up sneaking home in front to win three Stars of Karting finals in succession.
In the second final though, the Harrington Doyle Racing squad wouldn’t be denied, firing Sorensen home to win by over five seconds from Loeskow and the super impressive Nathan Tigani who staged a dramatic forward surge from deep in the grid during the first 10 laps of the final to finish third.
The win by Sorensen in the was the first by a driver in the elite single-speed class aboard an Australian-made Arrow chassis since Matthew Wall won in the final round of the 2003 Championship.
Just as Sorensen was in the KF2 class, Sydney-sider Jayden Ojeda came into the weekend as a relative unknown in the KF3 Junior division, however leaves having shown a level of dominance that has not been seen for some years in the elite junior division of Australian karting.
He topped every session from qualifying onwards and put the exclamation mark on the weekend by winning the final by over six seconds. He beat home a fellow debutante in Zane Goddard and Exprit team-mate Christopher Sandrone. It looked like a podium full of debutantes until late in the race when Aaron Cameron’s kart expired.
In KZ2, Maranello recruit Kyle Ensbey set his main event charge up with a fourth place finish in the opening final won by reigning champion Joey Hanssen.
The opening laps of the 25-lap second final were nothing short of intense who the top six drivers exchanging positions while testing the limits of adhesion.
While the swapping and changing behind him continued, Ensbey skipped away at the front to the tune of a two second lead.
Sera battled with Gold Coaster Chris Hays, ultimately, that battled ended with Hays taking second place and charging to within 0.9s of Ensbey at the end of the race. Sera finished third, with Hanssen holding off a charging Kel Treseder to come home in fourth and score some more solid Championship points.
It is the first time Ensbey has won a round of the Championship since July 2012.
In the support categories, wins were taken by Jack Doohan (Rookies), Ryan O’Sullivan (TaG Restricted Light), Nicholas Hobbs (TaG Restricted Heavy), Kris Walton (TaG Light) and Brendan Nelson (TaG Heavy).
A memorable opening round held under lights was a fitting way to get the Championship underway with the next round due to take place on the weekend of May 3-4 at Adelaide’s Bolivar Raceway.
