The first round of the Australian Superkart Championship saw a very successful weekend of competition for RedIce racing, with Yiani taking two heat wins and Ilya finishing consistently in the top four positions.

Yiani experienced various small technical problems over Friday and Saturday, however, resulting in him having only 3 laps in qualifying in which to set a lap time. Amazingly, Yiani managed to qualify 2nd, being the only driver apart from Gary Pegoraro to register a lap time in the 1:06’s.

Ilya’s weekend began in less dramatic fashion, with a solid day’s practice on Friday and an uninterrupted qualifying. This helped him to qualify in 8th, in what was a tightly contested top ten.

Race 1 provided more drama with Yiani leading in the early stages from Sam Zavaglia until a minor brake problem caused the RedIce Racing driver to leave the circuit at turn 3. He rejoined in 7th place, a few places behind Ilya, and charged back through the field to finish second, whilst nursing a fading brake pedal. Ilya finished a strong 4th, only 3 seconds behind Yiani, who beat reigning champion Darren Hossack across the line by only 5 one hundredths of a second.

Sunday morning saw the first of three heats and another strong showing by Yiani and Ilya. Yiani battled with Sam Zavaglia taking the lead only a few laps from the end to record his first win at a National championship. Ilya also had a strong race, harassing the back of reigning champion Darren Hossack’s kart for much of the race, eventually finishing in 5th, 0.300 seconds behind Hossack.

Heat 3 provided more action with Yiani taking the lead early on, and fending off a late challenge from Gary Pegoraro to record his second win for the weekend. Ilya continued his consistent form with another 5th place finish, beating ex V8 supercar driver Shane Price across the line by half a second.

The final race of the weekend began on a wet, but drying circuit, with Yiani making a poor getaway to be 6th after the first lap, behind Ilya. Yiani managed to charge back to fourth place before disaster struck. Whilst trying to overtake Hossack for third place, Yiani dropped a wheel off the dry-line at the final corner, and went crashing into the barriers. This resulted in a DNF and saw him drop from the championship lead into third place overall, just ahead of Ilya, who finished off a strong weekend with a fourth place finish, just behind Hossack.

The team at RedIce Racing would like to thank its sponsors Internode, Metaplanners, and Davtec for their support, and would also like to acknowledge Dave Hepworth and and BRC for strong engines and Zipkart for excellent chassis.

Yiani leads Darren Hossack and Ilya.