CIK: AUS: Round two race summary

The rivalries were rekindled at the second round of the Sparco CIK Karting Championships at Adelaide's Bolivar Raceway today, seeing a tense battle forming throughout the four Australian Championship classes.

Drivers were greeted with mixed weather for qualifying, the Formula A competitors cancelling their final qualifying sessions after a deluge hit the track whilst they were sitting on the grid.

In Junior Intercontinental A, presented by Dunlop, Amrit Kandola set the pole time for the second round in succession, whilst local driver, Mason Merritt qualified himself on the front row. Tellingly, defending Champion, Kristian Lindbom slotted himself into third in qualifying.

Wet conditions greeted drivers for the opening heat and with Kandola having problems getting out of the grid, it allowed Lindbom to start on the pole, from there the signs were ominous, as he moved away from the competition for an easy win. "I'm very happy with how we are going," said Lindbom. "The last round was incredibly difficult for us, but we are back today and hoping that it will continue throughout tomorrow!"

Heat two and it was a similar situation, although this time, Kandola went off the track under his own accord in the rollup laps. Amrit's brother, Deepal, kicked away at the start, however it wasn't long and Lindbom had disposed of him. Jake Williams was another man on the move, finishing third in the heat. Another impressive performance has come from New Zealand's Earl Bamber, switching chassis this weekend to a Kosmic, finishing with a second and a fourth from his heats.

Motor Quality Intercontinental A again looked as though it would be an Ashley Walsh benefit, setting a blisteringly fast lap time in qualifying, after he struggled for setup yesterday on his Trulli. JT Team Arrow's John Martin had other thoughts though, driving out of sight in the wet conditions of the opening heat. Martin took a dominating win from Paul Laskazeski in the Top Kart and fired up local, Alex Schultz, who has switched to an Adelaide-manufactured Omega Chassis.

Heat two though and Walsh was back, he and fellow Trulli driver, James Mann pulling away from the field at a rate of around two-tenths of a second per lap, trading fastest laps. Behind those two, it was all happening, the battle between Tim Ball, John Martin, Eddie Wignall and Leah Unsworth was scintalling, swapping positions at will, before the inevitable happened and Wignall and Unsworth came together. This allowed Martin to cruise through for third from Ball and Schultz.

Vega Tyres Intercontinental C saw Bart Price take his second pole from two events, again dominant. Brett Hobson put his Top Kart onto the front row. Racing was a similar story, Price got away and took an easy win in both heats. Mathew Sofi finished second in both of his heats, showing a great turn of pace.

The battle between the Arrow drivers in the second heat was phenomenal. Scott Harrison, Karl Wilson and Blake Varney were going at it hammer and tongs for the entire heat, even beforeso, with Varney driving over the back of Wilson in the warmup laps!

Dunlop Formula A is delicately poised for a tense battle in tomorrow's third heat, pre-final and final. Daniel Elliott and Barclay Holden shared the front row for the heats and it was Elliott that took the opening heat win by just over two seconds. Jason Hryniuk struck back to be in third for CRG, but the big story is Matthew Wall and Glenn Powles, both seemingly struggling for pace. Wall was unable to get any grip into the Arrow chassis he was using, whilst Powles is quietly confident that he can strike back tomorrow.

In the second heat, Holden skipped away at the start, before Elliott reeled him in, the two staging a heat long precision driving exhibition, never more that one-tenth of a second away from one another. Elliott was unable to effect the pass, leaving Holden to take the win.

Tomorrow will see the final round of heats, pre-finals and finals for all four Sparco CIK Classes and the pre-final and final for Sparco Junior National. Action kicks off at the Bolivar Raceway, Summer Road (off Port Wakefield Road), Bolivar, South Australia with the first heat race at 9:30am.

Full results are available from the interim Sparco Australian CIK Championships website at www.auscikchampionship.com.

-auscik-