Reports |
Christchurch Wins 4 Gold Medals at the 2010 Masters Games ~Dunedin |
Apart from a wet start to Saturday morning’s proceedings the conditions couldn’t have been better for racing at the Silver Stream Raceway in Dunedin for the 2010 Masters Games.
Saturday saw the competitors racing in the clockwise (reverse) direction and in the Open Class it was Lee Crew who early in the proceedings looked to be the man to beat, he finished heat 1 in first position and apart from a 6th place in the second race was never far from the front all day. The Rotax Heavy class was by far the most competitive of the weekend but it was ‘Mr. consistence’ Murray Press who kept his head and had an impressive 2 wins a second and a fifth placing which put him ahead of the field at the close of play on Saturday. In the Rotax Light class as in the Heavy class it was consistency which played a key role in the results with Malcolm Yardley, who has been out of the seat for 4 years putting on an impressive display of skill to finish ahead of the pack.
With the sun shining and a change of direction on Sunday the racing began a little earlier and there was still everything to play for. In the open class Lee beat off stiff competition from Steve Monoghan who won the first two races, Lee came back to win heats 8 and 9 and take out the championship. Murray continued in the same style as the previous day and by heat 8 had the win in the bag so didn’t need to compete in heat 9. This left it all to play for second place with Mike Pulley and Les Campbell so close on points that whoever finished ahead would take out 2nd place for the weekend. In the end a determined drive by Mike saw him hold off Les and take out overall second place on countback. In the Rotax Light class Malcolm was never far from the front when the chequered flag was dropped and earned a well deserved gold medal for his trouble and finished with an impressive 15 point total for the nine races.
Disappointing numbers in the All in Grand Prix meant that it wasn’t the impressive finale the spectators had been looking forward to, however, it was Mike Pulley who lead from the start having pulled the lucky number 1 in the draw to start from pole. It was an all Christchurch podium with Dean Kirk taking the silver medal position and Malcolm Yardley the bronze.
Possibly the most enjoyable part of the weekend was seeing the young karters exchanging roles with their Dad’s and offering to ‘pit crew’ for them, undoubtedly a huge learning experience for old and young alike.
Results
100cc Yamaha 30-39 yrs
Gold Daniel Harvey
Silver Stu Black
Bronze Terry Stephens
100cc Yamaha 40-49 yrs
Gold Kevin MacLeod
Silver Maryanne Renton
Bronze Nigel McAnelly
100cc Yamaha 50 plus
Gold Jeff Alexander
Silver Barrie Lay
Bronze Dave Andrews
100cc Yamaha all in GP
Gold Daniel Harvey
Silver Stu Black
Bronze Kevin MacLeod
125cc Rotax Max Light
Gold Malcom Yardley
Silver Aaron Aitcheson
Bronze Corey Yates
125cc Rotax Max Heavy
Gold Murray Press
Silver Mike Pulley
Bronze Les Cambell
125cc Rotax Max all in GP
Gold Mike Pulley
Silver Dean Kirk
Bronze Malcom Yardley
Open
Silver Steve Monaghan
Bronze Stu Black
Open GP
Gold Daniel Harvey
Silver Steve Monaghan
Bronze Graham Reid.
With an entry of 72 karters representing the best from 48 different countries the World Rotax Max Challenge finals have quite deservedly gained a reputation as being perhaps the toughest and most prestigious championship in the sport of “professional” karting. It was held this year from December 7th to 12th at the Ghilbi Raceway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and New Zealand was represented by Matthew Hamilton in the premier Rotax Max class.
All competitors are supplied new CRG karts complete with new dyne Tested Rotax engines. Tyres (three sets per competitor), fuel and other consumables are all controlled to ensure total equality of equipment and 72 truly competitive starters. From early in unofficial practice Matthew was setting reasonable lap times and his team was quietly confident that he could achieve a reasonable qualifying time and progress safely through to the final stages of the competition.
22nd fastest in qualifying practice meant starting positions of 12, 11 and 11 in Matthews three heat races. In the first of his three heats after a tangle at the first corner Matthew had to work his way from the back of the 36 kart field to finish in 9th. The second heat was more of the same after a Colombian competitor unceremoniously pushed him straight ahead at the first corner. Once again from near the rear Matthew climbed to 11th by race finish. The third heat was better, after a stern talking to by the Clerk of the Course and some harsh penalties handed out, the field was much more behaved. Matt was quickly up to 5th position and finialy finished in 3rd.
Finishes of 9th, 11th and 3rd in the heats secured a 9th starting spot for the finals competition. After a good start in the prefinal Matthew began making slow progression towards the front of the field and apart from a scare when he was hit from behind by an Irish competitor ended the race in a strong 3rd position.
The final race witnessed an extremely diverse range of Nationalities at the front of the field and when the flag dropped it wasn’t long before New Zealand lead from USA, United Kingdom, and Estonia. Unfortunately a world title was not to be and as the race progressed it became clear that the New Zealand teams’ inexperience when it comes to set up for such a long race on such a heavily rubbered track would count against Matthew.
A strong 4th place finish quickly became 3rd when the Austrian who passed Matthew on the penultimate lap was excluded for being under weight.
For the record Luke Varley of the United Kingdom was crowned Rotax Max World Champion, with Mario Vendla of Estonia 2nd. Matthew Hamilton of New Zealand 3rd, and the American Joey Wimsett 4th. A truly remarkable result for New Zealand karting at the end of a truly remarkable event.
The trip would not have been possible without the help of Armstrong Prestige, Mark-it Labels, DJ Hewitt Builders, WKS Karting Supplies, and the New Zealand Rotax Max Challenge.
Kartsport racer Jamie Duff only 18 yrs old was racing the Concut 850hp Sprint car on the very very fast Cromwell speedway on Saturday night,he won all race's & was much faster than any other driver, in fact he looked like a full pro us driver, as he was carrying that much speed into & out of the turns in fact he was not even lifting going in to the very fast sweeper & just a bit at the slower sweeper. It was something to see. When i asked him what it was like he just said unreal. The car set up must have been 100% (thanks to Steve). The NZ sprint car champs are at this track early Feb next year. Jamie raced their a month back at the war of the wings & beat all including Alan Wakeling. So good luck Jamie also at the meeting Kane Lawson only 22 yrs old from Mag & Turbo in ch ch who are one of our track sponsers, is driving the Lovelady race cars 700 hp Mustang speedway Super saloon (as raced by Micheal Pickens) in his rookie season was racing in the Elf Oils south island Super cup 5 round series. He had a mixed 2 nights racing having been in two good crash's (not good really) that were not of his doing, showed very good speed, as he has done at Woodford Glen speedway this season (he got third at the champion of champions right beside 1 NZ as they crossed the line in the final & second at the Canterbury champs 1 point behind the south island current top racer Richie Taylor. Not bad for a rookie when many of the super saloon drivers are 35 to 50 yrs old with a great deal of nz wide racing under there belts. Kane did a wee bit of karting two or three years ago. Report by Dean Kirk |