Local drivers shine at Albany City Kart Club Southern Sprint

A strong contingent of locals returned impressive results at Albany’s Southern Sprint at Albany City Kart Club at the weekend.

This year’s event did not feature any KZ races with the Southern Sprint featuring as a standalone event in the racing calendar.

The qualifying and heat races took place on Saturday while the finals were raced on Sunday morning.

Albany youngster Cody Colmer enjoyed a flawless weekend at the event, winning all five races in the cadet 12 division.

Colmer recorded the best times in the qualifying round and the three heats on his way to a thrilling victory in the final.

The 12-year-old proved too strong in the 14-lap final, finishing with a time of 12:28.583 to narrowly edge out Charlie Okely by 0.167 seconds.

Albany’s William Panizza rounded out the top three with a time of 12:30.130.

Okely finished strong with the best lap-time (52.683) in the 14th and final lap, but Colmer held on for a nailbiting win in wet conditions.

Albany’s Ben Keen finished third in the cadet 9 category with a time of 13:07.257, narrowly behind Jack Okely (13:07.257) in second and Jay Kostecki in first (13:07.007).

Darryl Henderson finished first in the KA3 senior championship division 4.159sec. ahead of his nearest competitor and Peter Diprose won the KA3 senior heavy category.

Jake Jurgielewicz, also from Albany, emerged victorious in the TaG 125 restricted light final (11:18.937).

Bradley Van Rompaey (11:50.221) took top honours in the restricted medium category.

Sachen Smith Wei (12:50.131) was first in the 14-lap KA3 junior final and Troy Stones-Clarke (11:53.073) finished on top in the TaG restricted masters final.

Connor Radford finished 7.307sec. ahead of runner-up Grady Crofts in the KA4 junior championship.

Kim Smith edged Marc Milsoi by 11.106 to finish in first place in the TaG 125 light division.

Alexander Stefanovich (11:44.272) won the TaG heavy category.

Albany City Kart Club president Howard Heerey said despite the weather, it was a successful weekend.

“It went surprisingly well — we had so many compliments about how good a meeting it was” he said.

“Our guys did quite well in a few of the classes.

“Cody Colmer won cadet 12 and he’s a star.

“He is really just about the best in the State.”