Auckland-based kart international Daniel Bray is in for a busy fortnight; this weekend he takes on New Zealand’s best KZ2 class drivers at the fourth round of the local Pro Kart series at Te Puke, then the weekend after he will be competing against the world’s best at the opening round of the European KZ2 championship at Genk in Belgium.

“It’s tight for sure, but I didn’t want to miss either meeting,” said the 26-year-old this morning.”I fly out first thing on Monday after Te Puke and the team is going to pick me up at Frankfurt (airport, where Bray heading) on their way from Italy.”

Bray, who finished third at the 2013 KZ2 World Cup meeting in France last year, has won his class at all three 2014 Pro Kart Series rounds held so far this year. But it was a close-run thing at the most recent round in Hamilton, where he only managed to pip fellow Aucklander Graeme Smyth on the line in the Final, and another solid workout at the tight, twisty Fagan’s Valley Raceway track will stand him in good stead for his first European hit-out in Belgium.

“It’s definitely a very physical track, particularly in a KZ2,” says Bray. “There’s really only one straight which in our karts you’re on for maybe two seconds before you’re starting your lap again. You never get a rest.”

After an impressive series return at Hamilton, kart and car racer Smyth will again be the driver to take the battle to Bray. Also expected to show well are top South Island driver Chris Cox who finished second to Bray at Hamilton and who is currently second in the series points standings, and Gold Coast-based Jaxon Evans, the 17-year-son of the women who once battled the men for the New Zealand Formula Vee single-seater title, Debbie Evans (nee Lester), who is third.

In the other classes, numbers continue to grow in the new KZ2 Restricted, with nine entered this weekend. Still leading the way is Garry Cullum but fellow Aucklander Jared McKenzie finished a close second at Hamilton on his return to karting and with Connor Adam and Gerhard Benadie will again keep early season stand-out Cullum honest within the tight confines of the Te Puke track.

Hawke’s Bay driver Tom Curran has again been the man to beat in the KZ2 Masters class this year, but if there is someone to watch in that class this weekend it is former Stock Car ace Graeme Lambert from Mangakino.

Lambert is a late convert to karting, having only taken up the sport after seeing how much fun his son was having in the Junior classes. He has proved a quick learner and after finishing sixth at the most recent Pro Kart Series round at Hamilton is fourth in the class series’ points standings behind Curran, and Aucklanders Mark Lane and Kevin Storr.

The weekend’s Pro Kart Series round is the fourth of six with a break of just over two months after it until the fifth round in Hawke’s Bay in mid-August.