McIlveen and Pegoraro Quick in Dave Potter Honda ASC PracticePosted by Mark Jones, 1 November 2008, 11:13 AM |
The first day of the Dave Potter Honda Australian Superkart Championship saw the majority of competitors out for testing with many of the drivers having their first race at Mallala Motor Sport Park for several years.
Mallala, hosting the ninth round of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships, lasted hosted a major Superkart event in 2003, so many drivers are having their first run, or their first run in their current cars.
Gary Pegoraro (RMR Superkarts/Marron Excavations Anderson-FPE) had raced at the South Australian championship in August and was comfortably down to pace recording 1:07.3 and recording comfortable mid-7s on old tyres.
Fastest of the day was Warren McIlveen (Mac's Marine Stockman-Honda) who was a tenth quicker, 1:07.2614.
"We're making progress now, I think we've found a piston that will hang in there," said McIlveen. A change in Honda piston design has seen some RS250 powered competitors struggle in recenth months.
"We've had to re-machine the Honda heads to suit the flat topped Yamaha cylinder."
Series leader Darren Hossack struggled in the morning in the Safe Evolutions Anderson with minor mechanical breakages sidelining the Superkart in the early session.
"I'm still running the motor in," said Hossack who still managed to jump into a 1:07.4 in the afternoon session. The Scott Ellis designed Safe Evolutions engine in Hossack's Superkart has the potential to be the first locally developed powerplant to win the series.
Second of the five title protagonists, Sam Zavaglia (Stockman Superkarts Stockman-Yamaha) too had problems to overcome.
"It's good, but not better that time. We know what went wrong we just have to fix it. The smallest electrical plug in the Yamaha engine."
Queenslander Carlo Chermaz in the Buildersmile Construction PVP just concentrated of learning the track, putting laps into the Superkart.
In the classes, Jeff Reed (Telgrit P/L Stockman-Honda) recorded the fastest lap time ahead of series leader Brad Stebbing (Suburban Accounting Stockman-Honda) with John Pellicano (Giova Design Avoig-Honda) third fastest.
David Yuill was the fastest in the 250 National division in the Aadvark Polishing Anderson-Yamaha ahead of series leader Martin Latta (Stockman-Yamaha).
The Dave Potter Honda Australian Superkart Championship will have two qualifying session on Saturday ahead of an afternoon race, followed by three race on Sunday to decide the 20th Australian Superkart Champions.
