Wellington’s Karl Wilson will be gunning for his third New Zealand SuperKart title in as many years when he lines up at the Manfeild circuit on Saturday January 05 for the Racetech-backed 2013 New Zealand SuperKart and Grand Prix championship meeting.

Wilson, 29, has been the man to beat in the premier International class for the past two New Zealand SuperKart Champion meetings at the Manfeild circuit, and proved his standing on the US SuperKart scene in September this year by winning the big Superstars of Superkarts race at the Laguna Seca circuit.

In 2013 he also plans to contest the Australian SuperKart Championship which has rounds at Sydney MotorSport Park (nee Eastern Creek) and Phillip Island.

SuperKarts differ from Sprint karts in that they are designed and built to run on all-purpose motor racing circuits rather than dedicated kart ones.

The 6-speed gearbox-equipped 250cc Superkarts are also equipped with fairings, sidepods and rear wings and four wheel disc brakes, resulting in speeds of up to 260km/h and lap times at Manfeild significantly quicker than those of 1.6 litre engined Formula Ford racing cars.

There are two main classes, International (for purpose-built Superkarts) and National (for modified 125 and 250cc-engined sprint karts) with Wilson, 2007 New Zealand champion Paul Dunlop from Clydevale near Balclutha and former National class champion Robin Wooldridge from Whangarei part of an eight-strong field in International and defending class title holder Steve Wilton from Wellington and Daryl Currie from Palmerston North spearheading a five-kart field in National.

These two classes are supported by two 125cc Rotax classes with defending class title holder Teddy Bassick the favourite in the Heavy class and Rotorua’s Clayton Merz expected to one of the front runners in the Light division.

Last week KartSport Wellington and KartSport New Zealand confirmed Racetech New Zealand as the main sponsor of the event with additional support from MG Tyres, Wynns New Zealand and GoPro Cameras.

“We are delighted to welcome Racetech as our premier sponsor for this Superkart event in 2013,” said KartSport Wellington president Gary Wilson. “We also appreciate the support of MG Tires, GoPro Camera and Wynns NZ. Having all these sponsors on board means this will be the biggest and best SuperKart event so far and we encourage the KartSport community to support sponsors that support our sport.”