Hyperdrive Grand Finale Season 3

 

Source: Hyperdrive Kart Racing Facebook

On Thursday night it was time for our third Champion League season finale. With several returning league finalists and a couple racers making their finale debut it was poised to be of the most entertaining and competitive league races to date. The competitors were the top 6 points scorers from all eight weeks of the league season. These were first timers Jacob and Aiden, returning finalists Mick and Duncan as well as Violet and Ben, the champions form season 1 and 2 respectively. The structure of the night included two 20-lap qualifying sessions. One in the regular Sodi karts and another in Shifter Karts. Each racer best times were then added together for an overall time each that would determine the starting grid. This would then be followed by a 40-Lap Shifter Kart race.

 The drama started early in the first qualifying session. Ben hit trouble as he quickly realised that the boost on his Kart wasn’t working. This issue was quickly resolved by our speedy track and pit crew that managed to get him into a new kart in a calm and efficient manner. He re-joined the track and qualifying was back on. 

A very tight qualifying session followed. Ben seemed unable to recover from this early hiccup and was last in the Sodi session by over half a second, Duncan was 5th, Mick 4th, Jacob 3^rd which left Violet and Aiden as the top two with Aiden beating out the season 1 champ Violet by only .011 of a second with a, 18.322 lap time. 

Next up was the Shifter qualifying session, no issues for any of the drivers this time but Ben once again struggled placing 6^th overall, Duncan was once again 5^th, Jacob 4^th, Aiden 3^rd and Mick 2^nd. However, it was season 1 champ Violet that showed her skill and experience in the shifter karts as she led from the start of the session and never lost it eventually ending up with an extremely impressive 17.079s lap time. Showing off both her skill and the speed of the shifter karts. After this it was time to work out the starting grid through the drivers combined qualifying lap times. This then left Ben in 6^th place, Duncan 5^th, Mick 4^th, Jacob 2^nd and Violet in pole position with a combined time of 35.410s, 3 tenths above the rest of the field.

 After an entertaining show form our resident Stig and his new challenger Captain Hyperdrive saw the Stig beaten and leave the centre… maybe forever, it was time to go racing. The drivers exited the pits in their shifter karts and lined up on the grid for a 40-lap race. 5 lights went red… then green and we were racing for the Grand finale of season 3. Violet had an amazing getaway that break away from the pack early. 

It was a tight race behind going into the first hairpin as Jacob managed to pass Aiden for 2^nd, Duncan moved into 4^th and Mick was overtaken by Ben for 5^th place. By the end of the first lap Violet had already managed to gain a lead of roughly a second over the tight pack behind. This would then turn out to be the story of the race as Violet extended her lead and 2^nd down to 6^th would stay locked in some intense bumper to bumper racing. 10 laps down and Violet lead had now grown to over 5 seconds. Contrastingly, the rest of the drivers were still very bunched up and racing hard behind. A great overtake on the 13^th lap through the inside of the hairpin saw Mick take 5^th back from Ben. These two would provide even more entertainment 5 laps later as Ben attempted to regain 5^th place through the hairpin. Mick wouldn’t go without a fight though as he pulled of one of the best overtakes, we’ve seen at Hyperdrive through the tight snaky chicane on lap 19. The rest of the race would remain tense but much the same with Violet still growing her lead and even catching the closely duelling pack behind. This proved to be the calm before the storm however as a momentarily loss of power in Jacobs kart on lap 35 helped Aiden take back 2^nd place. 

This chaos had also cause Mick to make his way up the field and bump between Jacob and Aiden on the next lap would help him move up into 2^nd! Sadly this meant that Aiden dropped back into 5^th, very disappointing considering a podium was well insight in his first Grand Finale. Watching all this from was Season 1 Champion Violet. 

She had started in pole position and led every lap of the race. Utter domination and a fantastic drive saw her crowned the Season 3 champion and the first 2-time Champion league winner. An equally impressive drive saw Mick take second after being in last by lap 2. Grand Finale debutant Jacob claimed 3^rd on the podium with Ben 4^th Aiden 5^th and Duncan 6^th. Violet was the champion she had done it yet again and had won the prize of 3 months of free races at Hyperdrive. Graciously though, she gave this up to 3^rd places Jacob who in return gave Violet his prize… a party pie from our very own Hyperdrive Cafe

 Another Champion league done and dusted. Time for a break for us as far us league races go, but don’t fret, the Champion league will be returning in February along with the inaugural Junior League powering up too. As the league takes a short break why not come in and give it a go yourself at Hyperdrive Kart Racing, located at 22-24 Mertonvale circuit Kingston, you can book ahead of time online @hyperdrive.racing or give  us a call at (03) 6229 1895. A huge thanks to all of our league racers across the 9 weeks of competition and our Season 3 Champion, Violet.