Corey Green and Jonathan Buxeda were rarely more than a kart length or two apart as they battled for the top spot in the 100cc Yamaha Light class at the first round of the 2013 CRC Speedshow Top Half kart series at the KartSport Mt Wellington club’s track in Auckland on Sunday.

It was Green, from the Bay of Plenty, who left the round with the class points lead, however, after winning four of the five heats and finishing second to Buxeda in the other.

That gave Green a total of 159 points for the day with Buxeda second on 150 and Jason Butterworth – whose best result was a second to Green in the third heat – third with 144.

Buxeda, from Tuakau, also contested the 125cc Rotax Max class where he finished third for the day behind class winner CJ Sinclair and Mitchell Osborne (both Auckland). Sinclair also won four of the five heats to top score in that class with 159 points. Osborne – who finished second to Sinclair three times – ended up second, Buxeda third and heat three race winner Samuel Carpenter fourth.

In the other senior classes Scott Hancett was the top scorer in 125cc Rotax Max Heavy and Whangarei driver Richard Macey managed to keep KartSport Eastern Bay of Plenty club pair Graham Knight and Stephen Muggeridge behind him to come away with the Clubsport 120 class points lead.

In the junior categories Auckland’s  Aaran Crighton established an early points lead in Formula Junior, winning three of the five heats to top score with 152 points, eight more than the consistent James Blair with heat four winner Connor Adam just one point back in third.

A single point also separated the winner – Reece Hendl-Cox from Hamilton – and runner-up, Liam Lawson from Auckland, in Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha, with Lee Zeltwanger, also from Auckland, third only four points further back.

Hendl-Cox and Lawson both won two heat races apiece with the fifth going to Zeltwanger.

Winning two of the five heats was also the secret to Ben Morrison’s Cadet class points victory, the young KartSport Mt Wellington club member the other driver to claim a class win by just one point with first heat winner Sam Wright second and  heat five winner Thomas Boniface third.

This year’s CRC Speedshow-backed Top Half series consists of four rounds with the second to be hosted by the KartSport Bay of Plenty club at its Fagan’s Valley Raceway near Te Puke on Sunday May 12.