Hosting the first round of this year’s Vortex engine-based ROK Cup New Zealand kart racing series has provided a numbers and profile boost for the KartSport Wellington club as it runs the second round of the 2019/20 WPKA Manawatu & TRC Toyota-backed Goldstar series at its Gazley Motor Group Kart Raceway north-east of the Capital over the weekend.
With the Vortex ROK DVS Senior class this year joining the Vortex ROK DVS Junior one added last year and the core Vortex Mini ROK and Cadet ROK classes on which the popular national series – which has been going now for six years – was based, an extra eight to ten drivers are expected to bolster a 120-strong entry at the Goldstar meeting.
Major travel prizes to compete at the Vortex company’s annual ROK Cup Superfinal event later in the year are again a key incentive for top series’ finishers here this year, with 1st and 2nd placegetters in the Vortex ROK DVS Senior class, and the winners in both the Vortex ROK DVS Junior and Vortex Mini ROK classes earning entry to and the use of a kart, engine and tyres plus accommodation at this year’s Superfinal meeting in October. The winner of the Cadet ROK class receives a new Mini ROK engine.
This weekend it is the Vortex ROK DVS Junior class which sees the biggest influx with internationals Jacob Douglas from Christchurch and Liam Sceats and Sebastian Manson joining fellow Aucklander Hayden Bakkerus, Bo Hill from Nelson and Lily Rose Taylor on a grid which includes Goldstar Rnd1 class winner Ben Stewart, runner-up Tom Bewley from Havelock North and Ayrton Williams and Mason Potter from Auckland.
The Vortex ROK DVS Senior class also sees Goldstar Rnd 1 class winner Arie Hutton from Palmerston North and runner-up Brad Still from New Plymouth joined by top Palmerston North karter Jacob Cranston, the country’s leading female international, Rianna O’Meara-Hunt, Campbell Maclachlan and local ace (he was a member of the winning team at the recent NZ Endurance championship meeting at the Wellington track), Stirling Hughes.
Lochiel McGregor, meanwhile joins the bunch in Vortex Mini ROK and William Edmonson the group of series entrants lining up in Cadet ROK.
In the other classes set to be contested as part of the second round of the 60th WPKA Goldstar series this weekend, all eyes will be on the class and/or GP race ace winners from the first round held in Taranaki in November last year.
Included in that list are Brendon Jury from New Plymouth (Open), brothers Fynn (125cc Rotax Max Light) and Clay (125cc Rotax Max Junior) Osborne from Hamilton, Zach Zaloum from Hastings (125cc Rotax Max Heavy), Shaun Hibbs from Wellington (Briggs LO206 ClubSport) and Palmerston North pair Nelson Hartley (Open GP) and Ashley Higgins (125cc Rotax Max Heavy GP).
The second round of this year’s ROK Cup New Zealand series will be held in conjunction with the KartSport NZ National Sprint Championship meeting in Christchurch over the Easter weekend.
The KartSport Hawke’s Bay club, meanwhile, will host the third round of the 2019/20 WPKA Manawatu & TRC Toyota 60th anniversary Goldstar Series in May.
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