CARATTI IS THE BARBAGALLO BULLET
Nathan Caratti was a jubilant victor in the 20-lap final of the seventh round of the 2009 MINI Challenge, delivered by Pizza Capers, at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia this past weekend.
The 24 year old from Swanbourne WA was never really troubled in his #10 Glory Team Construction entry as he cruised home to win ahead of DecoRug stable-mates Paul Stokell and Grant Denyer in second and third respectively.
The race was marred by a spectacular crash on the main straight at the end of the first lap when Aaron Caratti and Leanne Tander came together at high speed and speared on to the centre green before slamming into the tyre wall.
Both cars received significant damage in the crash and Leanne was taken to hospital for observation before being released shortly after.
“I didn’t realise that she (Leanne) was there,” explained Caratti post-race, “when we made contact it was too late to do anything but hang on. I’m glad Leanne’s OK.”
Tander’s co-driver in the Pizza Capers UBER Star MINI (Iron Man) Guy Andrews was disappointed that his race was over before it began, though pleased that Leanne was OK.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get to go the distance,” he frowned, “Leanne was really fast before that crash and I was really looking forward to playing my part in our team’s result. I’m just glad though that Leanne’s not seriously hurt.”
The crash brought the field back to a complete restart and a reduced 20 lap journey ahead but no sooner had the lights gone out there was more contact this time with John Modystach, Paul Fiore and Wayne Miles all extensively involved.
Unfortunately Fiore and Miles had to retire whilst Modystach returned to the track – albeit several laps later – after the assistance from the crew at Melbourne Performance Centre.
Scott Bargwanna suffered ABS issues and was going to have to soldier on despite the complication after his pit stop.
“These things happen,” conceded Alf Bargwanna from the pits, “we’ll continue on and see what result Scott can bring in. Right now anything will do.”
Caratti shot off into the lead again to lead from Reindler whilst Stokell moved into third place with Chris Alajajian in tow ahead of Denyer, Bargwanna, Carter, Brewer and Modystach.
Reindler had done a good job of keeping Caratti’s bright yellow and white bolt of lightning directly in the cross hairs but when Karl came in for the driver change the battle for the lead was over.
Caratti had made his stop and re-joined the lead whilst Reindler was in the pits and handing over to younger brother Chris and not long after Chris Alajajian’s rushed pit stop saw him drop out of a podium contention.
“We botched it,” said Alajajian’s engineer Nigel, “Chris stalled the car as he pulled up, I missed hooking up one of the belts and the whole thing went pear shaped. By the time Chris had left pit lane we had lost a lot of momentum.”
Alajajian wasn’t the only one to take a giant leap backwards unfortunately.
Chris Reindler had only 20 minutes earlier raced his Saloon Car around the Barbagallo circuit but perhaps the unfamiliar nature of the MINI brought him undone in the braking department as he locked up and spun around ‘the bowl’ in the Crimsafe entry.
The youngster recovered and re-joined the race pace but his race was about to end shortly after when under heavy braking the car snapped around and spun into the sand just before the main straight.Caratti sped on to record a convincing win ahead of Stokell, Denyer, Alajajian, Sean Carter (a tremendous effort) Scott Bargwanna, Brendon “BJ” Cook, debutant Vaughn Brewer and Modystach with DNF’s for the Reindler brothers, Leanne Tander/Guy Andrews, Aaron Caratti, Brendan Cook/Paul Fiore and Wayne Miles.
The final round of the 2009 MINI Challenge, delivered by Pizza Capers, is scheduled for December 4-6 at the Sydney Telstra 500 in Homebush.
The battle for points supremacy continues with Paul Stokell looking to wrap up his 6th Australian title…
