Go kart racing

TALENT and a little bit of luck has provided Leeton with another state champion, this time in go kart racing.

Jarrod Whitty, 16, won the senior national title at the 2014 NSW Closed State Titles, hosted by North Shore Kart Club and held at Eastern Creek International Kart Raceway on July 5 and 6.

It was not an easy weekend and Whitty had to scrap for the win in the open-age competition, from qualifying right through to the final where he came back from 12th to win against some of the best drivers in the state.

Closed titles are restricted to drivers from that specific state so only NSW-based drivers were racing.

However, Whitty was one of the youngest in the field with the senior national class being for drivers 16 years and over, racing with 100cc Yamaha J engines.

It was the Griffith Kart Club member's best result in three years of racing, although he did break V8 Supercar driver and 2013 Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Winterbottom's lap record at Grenfell in junior nationals two years ago.

"I've won a few big things, but nothing this big," Whitty said.

"There was a lot of experience in the field, former state and national champions. I saw the chequered flag and didn't really realise I'd won it until three-quarters of the way around the warm down lap.

"I didn't really have a good weekend until the pre-final, when I looked at the timing sheet and I had some of the fastest times. I didn't think I could win it, maybe a podium finish."

The racing over the weekend was rough and hard-fought.

"You didn't get anything easily, you had to fight for position," Whitty said.

"It was very close. The top eight were all doing fairly identical times."

The weekend started with qualification and then three heats based on that qualifying result. The pre-final had starting position based on the heat results and was run to determine the starting grid for the final.

The track was long and narrow, quite twisty and technical, meaning set-up, gearing and tyre pressure was important.

Of the 22 drivers, Whitty was in the oldest kart on the grid, but qualified 10th, got turned around in heat two and finally came out of position eight in the final, but was on the outside line into the first corner.

"I got pushed off the track and into the gravel and pushed back to 12th," Whitty said of the start to the decider.

"I made my way forward until I got to fifth position and there was a big gap between me and the top four.

"For the next 10 laps they weren't pulling away and they started battling with each other. In two laps I caught up two-and-a-half seconds so I was on them again.

"Two of them came together and I snuck past them into third. I chased down second and chased down first, then held the lead for the last three laps.

"I pulled away and won by four kart lengths, which is two-and-a-half tenths of a second.

"I was really quite nervous overtaking for the lead. I had to do it in the right spot so it didn't hold me up and he didn't come back underneath.

"When I got the lead, I didn't look back because I was too nervous."

Motor racing is in Whitty's blood. His father Garry won a national and 12 state speedway sidecars titles, including the national and four state titles with the late Russell Tucker.

In tribute to his father, Jarrod races with his number (90) and starts and stripes paint scheme.

He got into karts through his older brother Luke, while Garry is his son's "spanner man" and mother Chris is a "nervous spectator".

Although instructed by his mother he could not follow his father into racing bikes, Whitty would one day like to progress to racing full-sized cars.

His next challenge will be the NSW open championship at Grenfell on October 3-5.

Griffith Kart Club will hold a club day at its home track on August 9, which will be run mostly under lights.