Jake Celebrates with a win

On Sunday, 18 September,  the Baines Motorsport Team ventured out to the Nepean Motorsport Complex to race the annual Celebration Day hosted by the New South Wales Speedway Kart Club.  This is a wonderful day in their calendar where the Club recognises the voluntary efforts put in by past members as well as members who continue to help support it.

Jake raced in honour of a past member, Gary Bourke, who the Junior class acknowledged this year and had a great meeting following up his success at the Australian Titles. This was the first time Jake raced as Australian Champion and he was rewarded with a round win.

Heat 1 saw Jake start from position 4 and he was able to go on and win.

In the reverse grid order Heat 2, Jake came from position 6 and was again able to take victory with some great driving using the high side of the circuit to gain the advantage.

Heat 3 saw him gridded in position 7 but he was caught in an early race incident which dropped him to the tail of the field, however he put his head down and was able to drive back to fifth place by race end.

Jake lined up in the feature as the highest points scorer and had to start at the rear.

After a grueling 35 laps in high heat, he drove his way to a third place finish. The day’s results saw Jake finish 1st in the class and he was on the top step of the podium with two of his mates, Daniel Sayre and Ayden Elliott, who finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

Dad, Wayne, stepped into the Clubman class for a change, a class in which he has previously been champion but hasn’t raced for three years. His expectations were high, however this season he has had a Heat 1 DNF curse and again, at this meeting, it struck again. After leading Heat 1 a mid-race caution bunched up the field and Wayne missed the start dropping back to 4^th after  being passed by three karts, then with one lap to go he pushed too hard, spun out and recorded another DNF.

In Heat 2 he had a great race with lady racer, Alana Onley, and finished 2^nd to her.

Heat 3 saw Wayne and regular Clubman driver, Richard Elliott, in a race-long battle and, after attempting a last corner challenge, he again had to settle for 2^nd.

Come feature time, Wayne was fourth on points and needed a win to gain maximum points for the day.  Fortunately he did win the final but it wasn’t enough with Alana Onley and Richard Elliott following in 3^rd and 2^nd respectively and holding on to knock Wayne off the podium on overall points .

The next meeting for the Team is on 16 October when Jake will race on his own due to Wayne being rostered to do Club volunteer duties.