Reigning New Zealand title holders Scott Manson from Christchurch and Arie Hutton from Auckland have added 2012 Island titles to their CVs on the first day of competition at the 2012 North and South Island Sprint Kart Championship meetings being held this weekend.

At the Evolution Motorsport-sponsored South Island meeting at KartSport Dunedin’s Silverstream Raceway near Mosgiel, 2012 New Zealand Junior 100cc Yamaha champion Manson from Christchurch made easy work of the South Island Junior 100cc class title, while at the Pace Engineering-sponsored North Island title meet at KartSport Taranaki’s Todd Energy Raceway at Waitara New Zealand KF2 champion Arie Hutton beat top Auckland-based international Daniel Bray to the North Island KF2 class title.

In all ten class titles were decided today over the two meetings.

In Mosgiel Scott Manson made a clean sweep of Junior 100cc Yamaha, qualifying quickest and beating highly favoured up-and-comer Marcus Armstrong to the flag in the heats, pre-final and final, an achievement only matched by Chris Cox from Rangiora in KZ2 and  James Penrose from nearby North Loburn in 125cc Rotax Max Light.

Penrose is also a reigning New Zealand title holder but that title is in the 100cc Yamaha Light class which will be contested at the South Island championship meeting.

The other two class titles contested at the South Island meeting today were Cadet – in which young Christchurch driver Jacob Mitchell successfully defended his 2011 win – and 100cc Yamaha Heavy which ended up in the hands of local Chris Dixon after heat and pre-final winner Daniel Harvey was disqualified from the final.

In the other classes contested today at the North Island meeting Aucklander Mathew Kinsman and Hamiltonian Campbell Joyes were the only two drivers to clean sweep their classes, Kinsman in 125cc Rotax Max Light where he claimed the 2012 North Island class title from last year’s Junior class champion Josh Drysdale from Palmerston North, and Joyes in Junior 100cc Yamaha where the runner-up was top local driver Matthew Podjursky and third place-getter was Campbell’s brother Thomas.

In the other classes contested, Shaun Reay from the Hawke’s Bay beat Tokoroa’s Bradley Tyrrell to the North Island title in 100cc Yamaha Heavy and Callum Hedge from the Bay of Plenty won the 2012 North Island Cadet crown from pole-setter Tom Greig from the Manawatu.

Both Island meetings were held in cool albeit fine weather though rain is expected to play a part as the balance of the class titles are contested tomorrow (Sunday).

At the North Island meeting that means Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha, KF3, 125cc Rotax Max Heavy and 100cc Yamaha Light while at the South Island one it means Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha, Open, 125cc Rotax Max Heavy and Senior 100cc Yamaha Light.

KartSport is a safe, affordable motorsport which caters for all ages, with categories for Cadets (6-12yrs), Junior Restricted (10-14 yrs), Juniors (12-17 yrs) and Seniors (15 yrs and over). To find out more about it go to www.kartsport.org.nz