With two rounds remaining in the Castrol EDGE CIK Stars of Karting KZ2 Championship, defending Champion, Joey Hanssen has his eyes on becoming a double Australian Champion after an emphatic round three performance at Puckapunyal.

He would become the first driver since Bart Price in 2004/2005 to take back-to-back titles in the premier gearbox CIK class in Australia if he achieved the feat.

Hanssen (CRG) took two final victories today. The first one was a straightforward, workmanlike performance from the Dutch 2011 World Cup Champion. He got to the front early and then was never headed.

The second final was never going to be so easy. With arch rival, David Sera (Deadly) making his way through to second and nemesis from last year, Chris Hays (Energy) charging through to third it was going to be a battle to remember.

With his friends and family watching the Speedcafe.com livestream in a pub in the Netherlands, Hanssen dropped back to third at one point. Sera beat him off the line and Hays snuck past on lap 10.

He then marched forward and stalked the Gold Coast youngster, eventually getting past late in the race to take one of his most memorable victories. Matthew Wall had a season high best fourth placing.

“It was a very tough race, really hard, one of the best I’ve had in Australia,” said Hanssen. “I knew those boys were going to run me hard, it is a difficult track in these karts, you’re doing 24 gear changes per lap – so I was really suffering arm pump at the end of the race, but very happy with the result.”

Bron: Speedcafe.com / Lee Hanacheck