24-10-16
Island Titles Meetings Produce New Crop of Class Winners
KartSport New Zealand's annual North and South Island Sprint Kart Championships title meetings at Hastings and
Christchurch over the weekend produced a fresh new crop of class winners.
Leading the charge at the Tremains North Island meeting at the KartSport Hawke's Bay's Chemz Raceway at Roys Hill near
Hastings were Callum Hedge from Auckland, Connor Davison from Hamilton, Ryan Wood from Wellington and Jacob Cranston and
Kiaihn Burt from Palmerston North.
Stepping up at the South Island meeting, run by KartSport Canterbury at its Carrs Rd Raceway kart track, were Zac
Christensen, Jacob Mitchell and Adam Godwin.
Hedge was the only driver at the North Island meeting to complete a class clean sweep (pole, and wins in both heats as
well as the Pre Final and Final) in Junior Rotax, and finished third in Junior Yamaha behind Ryan Wood and Jaden
Ransley.
Wood in turn added the North Island Junior Yamaha title to the National Schools' one he earned earlier in the year, and
finished second to Hedge in Junior Rotax.
Connor Davison has his work cut out in one of the most competitive classes at the North Island meeting, Vortex Mini ROK.
Win the class title he did though, after sharing heat wins with fastest qualifier Blake Austin, winning the Pre-Final
then leading for all but one lap of the Final while eventual runner-up Liam Sceats from Auckland and Clay Osborne from
Hamilton disputed the other two podium spots until the chequered flag came out.
At the South Island title meeting in Christchurch, Jacob Mitchell and Zac Christensen were two of the standout Junior
drivers. Mitchell won the Junior Yamaha title from Dunedin's Joshua Bethune and Adam Godwin from Christchurch, and
finished second to fellow title winner Godwin in Junior Rotax. Christensen, meanwhile, claimed a hard-fought Vortex Mini
ROK title after a day-long battle with fellow heat winner Jacob Douglas, fellow Christchurch driver Liam Pink and Bo
Hill from Nelson.
In other confirmed results from the North Island meeting Mark Elder was the dominant figure and won the Open class this
year, Jacob Cranston won the Rotax Max Light title from Rhys Tinney from Hamilton, and Kiaihn Burt claimed his first
major title in Cadet ROK.
In other confirmed results from the South Island title meeting, both Matthew Butchart from Nelson and Louis Sharp from
Christchurch successfully defended their 2015 South Island titles.
Butchart won Rotax Max Heavy from Blenheim driver Daniel Bugler and Ben Carter from Dunedin, while Sharp won Cadet ROK
from Dunedin drivers Jaxon Harvey and Samuel Cayford.
Early on in the day Rotax Max Light looked like it was going to be a Scott Manson benefit, the Christchurch ace
qualifying quickest and winning both class heats as well as the Pre-Final. It was fellow Christchurch driver Thomas
Emmerson who ended up winning the Final, and with it the 2016 South Island title however, after Manson lost the lead
when he ran wide on a slippery section of track early in the race.
Emmerson took the lead at that point and held it to the flag from a fast-finishing Caleb Cross, with Manson third and
Ayden Polaschek fourth.
Ends