Australian Kart Championship fires up

The 2025 Australian Kart Championship fired up at Port Melbourne last weekend with youngsters shining and even a Supercars star in attendance.

The new season started in style with many drivers making names for themselves and starting their campaigns well.

Young Queenslander Cooper Folley stunned the field to take his first KA2 Junior triumph in style.

Cooper Folley enjoyed the spoils of KA2 victory. Image: Pace Images

Folley made the step up from Cadet racing brilliantly by sweeping the round as his nearest challengers, Liam Carr and Hamish Campbell collided.

Carr was the worse off with Campbell still able to work his way back up to second ahead of Ayrton Dalmaso.

Italian star Mouritz Ebner overcame James Golding. Image: Pace Images

Supercars star James Golding was on show in KZ2 Gearbox and he was trumped by an Italian star.

Moritz Ebner came and conquered having overcome the PremiAir Racing driver in a fierce contest.

The pair went toe to toe throughout the 18 minute decider with Golding leading the way, only for Ebner to swoop in with a diver at Turn 1 late in the day and become the first Italian to win a round.

Best of the rest was Dylan Guest from Western Australia.

A rivalry has already formed in TaG 125 with Jackson Souslin-Harlow and Harrison Hoey going at it.

The pair shared the heat wins before they drove away from the field in the final.

In the end Souslin-Harlow led the whole way with Hoey on his tail, while a distant third was Amos Orr.

The contest for KA3 Junior honours was hard fought with a number of youngsters showing their worth in a competitive 77-driver field.

Jai George smiles on the podium. Image: Tim Francis

Jai George showed tremendous speed, winning both of his heat races before controlling the majority of the final.

George led all the way until the second to last corner when a final lap manoeuvre worked wonders for Braxton Regan as he snuck ahead of Lucas Costanzo by just three tenths.

Despite missing out on the win, George was still thrilled with third place as Regan celebrated a stunning victory.

Meanwhile, Christian Estasy also left it late to secure his success.

He saved his best race of the weekend until the very end and emerged from a number of battles to take a 1.1s win over Will Thompson.

This left Jett Adamson to settle for third despite being the dominant driver for most of the weekend.

There was controversy in the X30 Final as the driver who took the chequered flag was stripped of the win due to a penalty.

Brodie Whitmore led a one-lap dash to the end, but was hit with a 5s penalty due to changing lanes ahead of a last-lap restart following a racing incident sending Jace Matthews into the tyres.

Jude Ammoun gets soaked after a special victory. Image: Pace Images

The drama saw Jaiden Pope inherit the win with Pip Casebene and Max Walton joining him on the podium.

Cadet 12 was one of the best races of the day as no less than eight drivers fought for glory.

In the end Jude Ammoun kept his cool to take the win by just a single tenth ahead of Jensen Damachino.

A similarly spectacular battle for the Cadet 9 Final took place with Milan Samo overcoming a wide range of opponents.

He held off Ari Djemil and Felix Sim, who led the majority of the race.

The next round of the Australian Karting Championship is at Monarto Complex in Murray Bridge on May 2-4.

Main image: Tim Francis

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