Jun 30, 2023

GROVE JUNIOR TEAM: RECENT SUCCESS

Updated: Jul 3, 2023

It has been an exciting past few months for Grove Junior Team as our team members hit the ground running in their respective series. Mika LeMasurier, Sebastian Tander and Oscar Targett currently make up the Grove Junior Team which has fostered talent such as Matt Payne who has gone on to race for Penrite Racing in the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.

Mika LeMasurier completed the third round of the Australian Kart Championships earlier this month at Newcastle Kart Club. Last year, the Brisbane based Junior qualified 6th and finished 11th, so this round was an improvement for him. Mika qualified 6th, with a solid set up however a small mistake in qualifying left only one flying lap.

He had a successful Heat one, finishing lap 1 in P8 and he was able to push forward to finish in P4. Heat two saw him lose a couple of positions on lap one before recovering to finish P3. He posted the fastest lap of the race which set himself up well for the for the final three races. Heat three saw him start P4 and come home in P6. In his final heat he raced cleanly to finish P2. In the final Mika started from P3, after some spirited racing he crossed the line in P3 which saw him gather valuable championship points.

His next round will be at his home track, Ipswich Kart Club, QLD.

Grove Junior Team's youngest driver Sebastian Tander has been taking part in the Australian Kart Championship with the most recent event at Wanneroo Kart club in WA.

Solid practice sessions saw gradual improvement through the Thursday and Friday sessions. Practice 1 saw Seb place 21st in the remaining sessions he placed consistently in and around the top 10.

Qualifying saw Seb struggle to find a clear lap which resulted in him starting mid pack and finishing 23rd. In race 2 Seb started from 35th however he raced strongly to finish P15. Race 3 again saw Seb race contact free to finish P18, however in the following race he was caught up in a multi kart accident which resulted in a DNF.

Overall, a tremendous effort and great experience heading into his next round in Newcastle.

Oscar Targett has made a positive start in both his championships in the TGRA 86 Series and Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge.

Most recently he took to Sydney Motorsport Park for the third round of the TGRA 86 Scholarship Series.

He Qualified in an impressive P6 despite lacking power throughout the session. in Race 1 he placed P5 which was pleasing connsidering he had some braking and ABS issues.

Having made changes to the car, he retained aP5 finish in the next race and in race 3 he came home in P4 which resulted in a P3 overall in points for the round.

Oscar now shifts his attention to the TGRA 86 National Series commencing in Townsville next week which will see the series run at five upcoming Supercar rounds.