The 2026 karting season is well underway, with Kartsport Marlborough hosting the first round of the Hampton Downs NZ Racing Academy KartStars Series, with drivers overcoming a range of weather conditions to kick off the new year.
The Hampton Downs NZ Racing Academy KartStars Series runs in a traditional CIK format: qualifying sets the grids for the heats, points from the heats set the pre-final grid, and the weekend’s results are based on finishing positions in the final.
This creates a unique, high-pressure situation for drivers, as it is a ‘winner takes all race to the chequered flag.
Qualifying:
A wet Saturday was kicked off by the new SIXT Rent-a-car top qualifier series, with each driver on pole position awarded a $200 SIXT rental voucher for their achievement.
North Island Vortex Mini Rok Champion Nico Thomasen was the first driver to win the $200 award, topping a wet 21 kart grid by over three tenths to start the weekend over Freddy Waller with Van Merrett.
In his first-ever weekend racing in Marlborough, Tom van Kan put three-tenths over Aaron Tahu to claim pole, with Tahu beating Thomas Emmerson by mere hundredths to form the top three for the Highrev Rotax Max Heavy class.
Coming off his second-place finish in the arrive-and-drive World Cup in Malaysia in November, Tommy Hart started how he planned to continue with a huge 0.581 margin to start on pole for the heat races in the Agrivit Rotax Max Junior class.
In another dominant showing, Max Gosling put in an astounding lap to start on pole by over eight tenths in the Marlborough Motorcycles Cadet Rok field. This follows a phenomenal weekend for Max in the Parolin Junior Top Guns series in Oakleigh, Australia, where he dominated the weekend by winning all the races in the Cadet 9 class.
In a class that always provides action, the Highrev Rotax Max Light provided a great qualifying session. With only two tenths covering the top six, Ollie Workman managed to put nearly a tenth over Levi McMillan, followed closely behind by Chris Benton, Zach Tucker, and Amelia Phillips.
Vortex Mini Rok
It was Nico Thomasen’s weekend in the Deluxe RV Group Vortex Mini Rok class, where, after starting on pole, he ran away with victory in all three heat races on Saturday.
In dominant fashion, he crossed the line over seven seconds ahead of second-place Iver Spence in the pre-final, but received a ten-second penalty for vision compliance, which demoted him to sixth.
Throughout the 21-kart field, there was thrilling racing to be seen. In the final few laps of Heat 1, spectators were gifted with some great racing by Murphy Dobson, Freddy Waller, and Charlie Clarke, who were battling it out for the final podium spot.
Ultimately, it would be Dobson who would cross the line 0.063 ahead of Waller, with Clarke 0.312 behind.
In a dry final, Thomasen would make it 5 from 5 on track and cross the line over four seconds ahead of Spence, with Jett O’Malley wrapping up the podium.
Rotax Max Heavy
In a closely fought Highrev Rotax Max Heavy class, it was Tom van Kan who took a close victory over Tahu in Heat 1 after he grabbed the lead into turn one.
The top four of Tahu, van Kan, Holmes, and Emmerson pulled away from the field to leave it a four-way fight for P1 in the closing laps. Ultimately, van Kan made the move stick on the final lap, with Emmerson also moving on Holmes to secure third.
Van Kan kept it clean to secure a tight victory over Emmerson in heat 2, but fell to third in the third heat as Emmerson and Tahu made early moves and never looked back.
Van Kan was back on the top step for the pre-final but only by a mere 0.087 over Emmerson, who would put in a dominant display in the final to win by four and a half seconds over master driver Kevin Baker, with van Kan finishing close in third.
Rotax Max Junior
In the first heat of Rotax Max Junior, it was the left side of the grid that got away well, which allowed North Island Champion William Edmonson and Louis Smith to jump pole sitter Hart on the start. Edmonson was able to pull away to a 2-second victory over Hart, with Charlie Jamieson coming through for third at the chequered flag.
Hart would be back on the top step in heat two and had to fight hard in heat three to beat a charging Jamieson and Basilio Micale, who would all be separated by a second across the line. Dry racing on Sunday didn’t stop Hart from again claiming a two-second victory in the pre-final, and winning the final by five seconds over Fletcher Lowe and fourteen seconds over Smith.
Cadet Rok
Max Gosling clean-swept the Marlborough Motorcycles Cadet Rok Class, winning all three heats, the pre-final, and the final in a collected fashion. Sebastian Grant fought hard and put Gosling under pressure in heat two, finishing a tenth behind across the line.
Gosling dominated the pre-final by seven seconds over Harry Gradwell and Rowan Lieu, and finished the weekend off with a stellar performance to take a four-second victory over Grant, with Gradwell finishing five seconds behind second-place Grant.
Rotax Max Light
In the Highrev Rotax Max Light class, Amelia Phillips was able to take a hard-fought victory in both Heat 1 and 2.
With four drivers in contention on the final lap in Heat 1, a pass for the lead on Workman by Phillips in turn 2 allowed William Exton and Caleb Cross to come through on for Phillips to lead Exton and Cross across the line with Workman being shuffled back to fourth.
Heat 2 was much of the same, with Workman being able to finish second over Cross, with the top three being separated by a second over the line.
Heat 3 went the way of McMillan over Workman and Cross in another closely fought race, with Heat 1 and 2 winner Phillips getting caught in contact fighting with Chris Benton, who was awarded a ten-second penalty for avoidable contact. Benton would subsequently protest the penalty, but the protest was lost.
Come Sunday, Caleb Cross had fine form in the dry to seal a two-second victory in the pre-final over Workman and arrive and drive world cup senior winner Zach Tucker.
Cross also managed to run away at the start of the final, to which the other drivers had no response, as he managed to comfortably take victory by 2.585 seconds over Phillips, with McMillan close behind.
After such closely fought racing, drivers will now turn their attention to the New Zealand Karting Grand Prix in Manawatu on the 6th to 8th of March. With the support of Racer Products, SP Tools NZ, Giltrap Group, and SIXT, the Hampton Downs NZ Racing Academy KartStars Series will be on all drivers’ ‘must win’ list for 2026.
Header Image: Chris Hogan
