Australian karting veteran Matthew Wall added a 12th National Championship to his resume when he was victorious in the Rotax Nationals in Dubbo, New South Wales on Sunday.
Wall, who won his first crown at the national level in 1997, led home fellow Arrow Karts driver Brendan Nelson and Tony Kart pilot Matthew Greenbury in the Rotax Heavy category.
It’s the second time in four years that Wall has enjoyed success in the class.
“I haven’t done a lot of Rotax racing over the past few years, so it took a fair bit of time to get my head around the engine again to make sure I was getting the best out of it,” said Wall.
“The Arrow X2 chassis was working perfectly from the first time I put it on the track but for a lot of the weekend the engine wouldn’t run cleanly.
“I lost some pace in the pre-final, but we worked pretty hard on improving the package for the final and I was able to have a little bit of an edge over Brendan, who I knew would be tough to beat.”
In the Rotax Light ranks it was Sydney teenager Pierce Lehane who ended David Sera’s stranglehold on the category.
Sera, who was going for his sixth consecutive victory in the category, had an intense battle with Lehane in the pre-final before the Exprit driver took the win in both that race and the main event.
During a frantic start Lehane was shuffled down to fifth place but he wasn’t fazed knowing that he had the pace to climb back up the order. Picking his opposition off one by one Lehane found himself in second spot by the end of lap five. On the next lap he caught Sera by surprise at the end of the main straight, the pair touched exiting the turn that led to some minor front end damage to Sera’s Arrow kart.
Shortly after Sera was caught up in a battle with Nathan Tigani, Daniel Rochford, Fraser Hart and Tyler Greenbury which allowed Lehane to open a slender lead. At the end of the straight Sera made an ambitious move which led to him having a coming together with Hart rolling out of contention. The race was red flagged shortly after for the New Zealander to be checked out by the medical staff.
From the restart Lehane was never challenged as he went on to claim his third national championship in less than 12 months.
Joseph Mawson and Daniel Kinsman, who started from the back of the field in the pre-final, had a titanic battle for the runner-up spot.
Victorian FA (Fernando Alonso) Kart driver Thomas Randle extended his unbeaten streak in Australia to five successive events with victory in the Junior Rotax category. Since taking out the Junior Clubman category at the National Sprint Kart Championships in July the 16 year-old has been victorious at the Rotax Pro Tour, CIK Stars of Karting Series, City of Melbourne Titles and now the Rotax Nationals.
Randle was victorious over Joseph Burton-Harris and James Golding.
