Wednesday, 21 March 2007

Howdy All

Results from The 2007 Australian Blokart Open

As many of you will know the event was held at Rydges Capricorn Resort in Yeppoon Queensland.

Thursday 15th

Practice day, 10.30am saw a good number of karters already on the beach testing their skills on the hard surface, by 11.30 the wind was at 15knots plus and a few had changed from 4.0m sails down to 3.0m’s, the day ended up with some great sailing and a number of karters taking off on a 20km run north to the end of the beach, I heard top speed for the day was 73.km.

For others it was wash down the karts and into the pools for a bit of R & R.

Friday 16^th

With registration and scrutineering out of the way we had a total 64 entries including 5 juniors,  

26 Performance and 38 Production, I thought fantastic

Briefing was at 10.30am finished by 11am, off down the beach to set the course and start racing

Winds were a bit lighter today averaging 10 – 14knots throughout the day, which in some ways was quite fitting for the large numbers of karters that had entered into there first ever blokart race event, allowing them to get the feel of the dial up starting procedures and course directions, all went as smooth as and by the end of the day hot favorites were starting to appear.

The days racing was finished with a 15km endurance race, All production karts left first, followed 2 minutes later by all performance karts. An awesome site to see 60 plus blokarts racing down a beach to a marker and back.

Karts washed on the way back up from the beach and off to the pools for a much needed swim and a cold one.

Saturday 17

Briefing 11am, all happy and yes wind again but a little lighter than yesterday. Today was the day, we saw the sailing skills come out of the bags, averaging 7 – 10knots, over the day, the great thing about it, everyone including the super heavy weights all completed there three heats and the endurance, no rolling of the wheels, just a good light breeze for tactic sailing which was a credit to all sailors. Karts washed and in the pool and yes another cold one.

Tonight saw 87 of us all seated outside by the beach pool for a fantastic buffet dinner, a beautiful 24dgrs and a local musician playing, , we were also privileged to some home grown blokart talent with a couple of songs and Aussie Mark on his digiree doo,” amazing “, I must make mention of 10 year old Kim Giles from Coffs Harbour who sang “ I Call Australia My Home “ absolutely wonderful, well done Kim, Kim also won the juniors class.

Sunday 18^th

9.30am Tech Tips from Phil Smith ( Bugs ) Awesome to watch and hear Bugs handing on his sailing tips for everyone to try, the room was full and I’m sure like myself we all learnt something new, Thanks again Bugs.

11am briefing, the wind was still slight at this stage but predicted to increase, 12.30 on the beach and still light wind, 1pm we saw an increase, by 1.30 we had 15knts plus, we averaged 18knots for the day which was absolutely fantastic for the final days sailing, 3.0m sails were definitely out in force, we saw a few experienced and a few not so experienced tip there karts but in all it made for an awesome final day racing, The endurance race was brilliant to watch in these conditions with all karters beaming at the end.

Performance and Production class each achieved three heats per weight category per day plus an endurance race.

I feel the Open went off extremely well and I hope all concerned enjoyed themselves, I’m sure we will holding another event at this location.

Thanks again to for all the support and help to make the event possible.

Phil & Paulette Coulter.

I have listed the top 3 results for each category below.

Performance Super Heavy Weight                  Production Super Heavyweight

1) Paul Beckett         NZ                                    1) Graham Ramsey        QLD

2) Theo Vondervoot    NZ                                    2) Alan Dunn                 QLD

3) Simon Payton       TAS                                  3) Ken Marslew              NSW

Performance Heavyweight                              Production Heavyweight

1

) John Nicholson       NZ                                   1)Greg Chappell             QLD

2) Richard Harrison     NZ                                   2)

Jero Andrews              WA

3

) Stu Cooney            NZ                                   3) Steve Cullen              QLD

Performance Middleweight                             Production Middleweight

1) Phil Smith              WA                                  1)

Las Sandilands          QLD  

2

) Ben Lazzar             VIC                                  2) John Mackintosh       QLD

3) Tony Fischer           NZ                                   3) Andrew Kelly             QLD

Performance Lightweight                                 Production Lightweight

1) Scott Madden         VIC                                  1) Bryn Wooding            QLD

2) Phil Ready              NZ                                   2) Emily Scott               QLD

3) Debs Davidson        NZ                                   3) Brendon Monteath      QLD

Juniors

1) Kim Giles              NSW

2)

Perry Hall              NSW  

3

) Josh Monteath       QLD