WITH the chance adding the title of a state champion to their racing resume, four Mount Gambier kart racers made the journey to Melbourne over the weekend to compete in the second and final round of the Victorian State Championships Todd Road Raceway, with entries exceeding 250 drivers.
And it was KA3 Junior driver Kai Allen who set the field alight, claiming his ninth state title to complement his 2016 Australian national series win.
Two Limestone Coast drivers were represented in what is known as the premier junior class in the country.
Allen was joined by Jobe Stewart, with both contenders for a series podium finish.
Stewart drove well recovering from kart contact in Heat 1 to bounce back and finish as high as second during the heat rounds. He finished his weekend with a top five showing.
Allen secured his starting position for the heat races putting in the third fastest lap time, while Stewart also earning himself a spot inside the top 10.
The talented young gun went on to secure race wins in heats one and two, with a close final decided by less than two tenths of a second.
After both rounds and multiple heat wins, Allen was the clear points leader to claim the series honours.
Allen was also among the starters in the KA4 class, with a large field of 19 drivers, where he qualified an impressive fifth.
Solid results in the opening heats were followed by heavy contact on the opening lap of Heat 4, which caused a bit of a setback as Allen was relegated to 16th place before a remarkable drive back through the field to finish sixth.
Again good consistent heat races, including a second place set Allen up for a good starting position in the final and despite spending most of the race inside the top three, he greeted the chequered flag in fifth.
In other classes, Cadet 9 hopeful Charlie Evans had a good Round 1, despite a mechanical failure and was hopeful for some better luck in Round 2.
Qualifying went well for Evans, with a starting position from sixth place from the 17-strong field.
A rough start to the race saw Evan drop back two places before finding good rhythm and climbing back into the top three by the end.
With solid results in heats two, three and four, Evans again showed pace in the final to set the fastest lap of the race.
Crossing the line as the flagged dropped in fourth place also secured him fourth for the championship series and capped off a good weekend.
The final local driver to make the trip east was Tag125 Light driver Morgan Feast.
In the largest field for the weekend, Feast was amongst 18 other hopefuls and qualifying showed the competitive nature of the class, with half a second separating the top 10 drivers.
After a bit more fine tuning of the chassis Feast found some more speed to climb up the field as the heat races unfolded, with a fifth placing on Saturday and additional top 10 results.
The final on Sunday saw Feast ninth at the end of the opening lap, but as the race unfolded he quickly found himself again inside the top five runners.
Despite having to deal with heavy traffic, Feast finished a mere three seconds from the lead, with fifth place overall for the event.
