Aucklander Daniel Kinsman ended up the best of the Kiwis with a 13th place finish in the 125cc Rotax Max Light Senior final at the 13th annual Rotax Max Grand Challenge kart race meeting in Portugal on Saturday.

Kinsman, representing New Zealand for the third time at a Rotax Max Grand Challenge event, had a 7-14-6 run through his heats, qualified 11th overall in his group (32nd overall) and finished 21st, 8th and 18th in his heat races to make the Finals in 26th place.

He then finished 19th in the Pre-Final and 13th in the Final, in the latter case after making up most of the positions in an impressive opening lap charge.

Tauranga paraplegic Nike Urwin, driving the only hand-control kart at the event, was the only other Kiwi driver to finish a Final, crossing the line in 22nd spot in the DD2 Masters class race.

He had an 11-29-13 run through his heat races and had to go to the second chance heat – in which he finished fourth – to get to the Finals, where he finished 22nd in both the Pre-Final and Final – albeit after getting as high as 14th place early on in the latter.

Christchurch’s Scott Manson got to the Finals without having to go through the second chance heat but was the victim of contact in the Pre-Final while Daniel Kinsman’s older brother Mathew did not make it past the second chance heat in the DD2 class.

The Finals were won by Charlie Eastwood from Ireland (Senior) Ben Cooper from Canada (DD2), Christian Morgado from South Africa (DD2 Masters) and Harry Webb from the UK (Junior). The UK also won the Nations Cup with New Zealand 18th out of 53.