Fast Company5:29pm 20 March 2014
Round one victor Daniel Bray continued on his winning way in the premier KZ2 class at the rain-soaked second round of the 2014 Pro Kart Series at Rotorua’s The Rock FM Raceway over the March 15-16 weekend.
Bar an unexpected 11th place in the first heat race on Saturday afternoon – the result of a brake issue – Auckland-based international Bray was again the pace-setter in the KZ2 class, qualifying quickest and winning the other two heats, and both the Pre-Final and Final very much as he liked.
It was also a good weekend for the fellow members of Bray’s GP Karts team, with Jaxon Evans and Michael Kurlov second and third respectively in the KZ2 Final, and Garry Cullum claiming his second class win in as many rounds in the new KZ2 Restricted class.
Like Bray, 17-year-old Gold Coast-based expat Evans and Auckland-based Ukranian Kurlov had brake issues in the first heat, but once these were addressed Evans, the son of former New Zealand Formula Vee champion Debbie Evans (nee Lester), was never out of the top three, while Kurlov, a former Rotax Max Grand Challenge finalist who last year spannered for Bray in Europe and the United States, got better as the weekend went on, finishing fourth in the Pre-Final and third in the Final.
Class returnee, Graeme Smyth, was the other race winner, leading home young guns Mitchell Osborne, Mitchell Brown, Kent Wheeler and Rollo Brown in the first heat while Matt Butchart from Nelson also made his presence felt with a second and a third in the heats and a third in the Pre-Final.
In the new KZ2 Restricted class Aucklander Garry Cullum was again the overall winner, though he did not have it all his own way, sharing heat wins with Steve Brown and Gerhard Benadie before going on to win the Pre-Final and Final, the latter from Cameron Dance and Gerhard Benadie.
With Daniel Bray finishing back in the field in the first KZ2 class heat the only clean sweep (pole, first in each heat as well as the Pre-Final and Final) went to Hastings driver Tom Curran in KZ2 Masters.
The streaming wet track conditions also seemed to suit Auckland driver Mark Lane – who set the third quickest time in qualifying then finished second to Curran in the heats, Pre-Final and Final – and former Stockcar ace Graeme Lambert from Mangakino who finished third in both the Pre-Final and Final.
Nelson veteran Grant Kugener also impressed in the wet and windy conditions, being the only other driver under the 1.02.00 minute mark in qualifying before claiming a pair of thirds and a fifth in the heats, then fifth in the Pre-Final and fourth in the Final.
The weekend’s Pro Kart Series round was the second of six with KartSport Hamilton hosting the third over the May 17-18 weekend.
7:51pm 28 January 2015
Fast Company | 0 |
Two new classes bring a fresh look and feel to this year’s new zealand rotax max challenge kart racing… More >
1:51pm 27 January 2015
Fast Company | 0 |
Auckland karter graeme smyth got the perfect build-up for a big fortnight of racing coming up with an eight-win… More >
2:43pm 26 January 2015
Fast Company | 0 |
Young auckland karter matthew payne led the kiwi charge at the opening round of australia’s rotax pro tour kart… More >
11:09am 22 January 2015
Autosport | 0 |
Kiwi karters are again crossing the tasman this year to contest australia’s rotax pro tour with three set to… More >
1:26pm 10 January 2015
NZ Herald | 0 |
Tiffany chittenden has an enviable motorsport record as the only woman to have won the british national karting championship,… More >
4:13pm 17 December 2014
Fast Company | 3 |
Christmas has come early for the auckland kartsport community with word from the otara-papatoetoe board that they have been… More >