New Zealand karters have found success on the international stage, with young Kiwi Nico Thomasen rising to the top to take his first world championship title in the Rotax Mini Max class at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Portugal.
Thomasen was not the only Kiwi to find success, with Tommy Hart climbing a monumental fourteen places to finish second overall in the Rotax Junior Max class. New Zealand was also represented in the Micro Max, Senior Max, DD2, and DD2 Masters, with Niko Hewson, William Edmonson, Lachlan Tombleson, and Jason Lee flying the flag for New Zealand.
In the Micro Mini Class, Thomasen was expected to be a force to be reckoned with after showing impressive practice pace, where the young Kiwi finished in the top five out of thirty-six drivers in all five practice sessions. He later went on to qualify ninth in a wet weather qualifying, where his overall position was hindered by a wheel coming off.
However, Thomasen did not let his below-expected qualifying result stop him, as he charged to two third places in the heat races. This gave the Kiwi a third place start for the final, which he took with both hands.
Thomasen immediately jumped into second place, and started to hunt down the lead driver for the lead. Thomasen was all over Freddie Baker’s rear bumper by lap three, and was able to take the lead by lap four – and did not look back. Thomasen then romped to a 1.1 second win over Baker, to be crowned the new Rotax Mini Max champion.
Meanwhile, in Junior Max, Tommy Hart had to fight tooth and nail for every spot. A mixed set of practice results left the Kiwi thirty-first overall out of seventy drivers, with Hart’s first aim to make the final. Hart finished fifth and brought home two fourteenths in the three heats, leaving him starting sixteenth overall for the final.
In traditional form, the final was chaotic. Hart managed to climb his way up to seventh at the time of the chequered flag, but with penalties ahead for drivers, the Kiwi was promoted to second place overall.
Jason Lee, the only other New Zealand driver to make a final had a trickier run throughout his weekend. In DD2 Masters, Lee only got one proper practice session after power valve issues, a wet/dry track, and a government imposed cancellation put Lee on the back-foot. To make matters worse, before qualifying, Lee was forced to make rapid and extensive changes as it rained heavily before the session. This left the Kiwi without the right gearing on his kart, and to make matters worse, Lee was found to have a illegal width on his rear bumper, meaning he was disqualified from the session.
This left the Kiwi with work to do. A result of twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth in the heats left Lee twenty-eighth for the final. The Kiwi was able to work his way through the field to finish sixteenth, up twelve positions.
For Niko Hewson in Mini Max, it was a tricky weekend. A result of thirtieth and twenty-eighth in the heats left him fifty-second overall, and outside the top thirty-six for the final. This meant Hewson did not participate in the final race, but showed plenty of grit to be able to compete at the highest level of the sport.
William Edmonson in Senior Max was also unable to make the final. Edmonson qualified twenty-third overall, and took a result of twenty-eighth, ninth, and twenty-sixth in his three qualifying heats. This left him in thirty-ninth overall, and four points off the top thirty-six.
Lachlan Tombleson, in DD2, finished fifty-fifth overall. After a result of sixteenth in class and thirty-second overall in qualifying, Tombleson climbed to ninth in his first qualifying heat, before a result of twenty-ninth in the second. The Kiwi was unable to start the third heat, which ruled him out of contention for the final.
After a monumental week for all the Kiwi drivers, families, and supporters, the New Zealand Karting season now simmers down over summer before resuming with the City of Sails at Karting Auckland, with racing kicking off on the 29th of January.
