Christchurch karter Matthew Hamilton has booked himself a second trip to race in Japan after winning the Senior 100cc Yamaha Light title on the second day of competition at the Quality Inn Napier 2010 KartSport New Zealand National Sprint Championship meeting in the Hawke's Bay today (Saturday).
The 26-year-old earned his first trip to the annual Toyota All Japan Challenge kart meeting - which has been the prize for winning the New Zealand Senior 100cc Yamaha Light title for the past five years - in 2006.
And he earned his second by beating arch-rival and fastest qualifier Josh Hart to the line in the 2010 Senior 100cc Yamaha Light Final today.
Hart, the Palmerston North driver who has been competing professionally in Europe for the past two years, won both heats and the Pre-Final (the race which determines the grid for the winner-takes-all Final), and led early on and through the middle of the Final.
After getting the better of Hamilton on the 16th lap (of 22) it looked like the title, and therefore the trip, was going to his too, only for Hamilton to - somehow - find a way past and claim the lead for the final time with just three laps to go.
It wasn't just the battle for the lead which had spectators lining the fences and cheering either. Defending New Zealand title holder Alex Geary from New Plymouth, and South Island class champion Jamie Conroy from Invercargill, both got as high as second place, with Conroy twice getting close enough to latch onto Hamilton's tail.
In the end though it was experience which showed.
"We knew, " explained Hamilton, " it was going to be tough because there are a lot of fast guys in this class and and initially (Hamilton found himself an uncharacteristic fifth overall after qualifying this morning) we weren't quite there. But we worked away at it until we were then in the Final as I was driving I was working the various scenarios out in my head.
"When Josh was in front I knew I had to work out where I could get him, where - if you like - he wouldn't expect it - then when I was in front, I had to work out how to stay there till I saw the flag!"
Ironically with a second trip to Japan to represent New Zealand at the Toyota All Japan Challenge meeting Hamilton has made his year even busier.
Over the summer he contested - and won - the 2009/10 New Zealand MINI Challenge, and last month he not only won his second Gen-i Rotax Max Challenge of New Zealand series round in Tokoroa, he also made his Fujitsu Australia V8 Supercar series debut for Team Kiwi Racing at Adelaide's Clipsal 500.
In the other classes contested on the second day of competition at this year's Sprint Kart Nationals in the Hawke's Bay, 100cc Yamaha Heavy went to Taranaki driver Michael Kiser, Junior 100cc Yamaha to North Loburn (near Rangiora) driver James Penrose.
Kiser, a 25-year-old dairy farmer, could hardly have had a better day, qualifying quickest and winning three of his four races, including the Final by almost two seconds from Wellington's William Thomason and Tokoroa's Bradley Tyrrell .
Having finished runner-up four times in the past, finally winning the New Zealand title was real dream-come-true stuff for the Taranaki man who reckons a recent 10 month trip to Europe was just what the doctor ordered.
"I didn't race, just went to a few meetings, looked at what people were doing and brought a few ideas back with me. That helped, as I think did being out of the seat for so long. Ten months is a long time for a petrol head like me and I'll tell you what, I was hanging out to get back behind the wheel when I got home!"
Second quickest in qualifying and the winner of the first heat was Wellington driver Karl Wilson. But Wilson, who started the Final third behind Kiser and Tyrrell felt his engine tighten late in the race and pulled off the track.
Like fellow South Islander Matthew Hamilton, Junior 100cc Yamaha winner James Penrose was not the quickest driver in the class in qualifying. But after he and his father dialed in their kart to the hot, grippy track conditions, the 14-year-old, who won the New Zealand Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha title at the Nationals in Blenheim two years ago, was away.
In the first heat he crossed the finish line in fourth place behind Arie Hutton, Bradley Hicks and Aaron Marr but he won the second heat from Hutton, Marr and Josh Drysdale, the Pre-Final from Marr, Drysdale and Christchurch driver Tom Alexander, then the Final from Marr, Hayden Pedersen, Jaden Hardy and Hutton.
Hutton claimed a new class track record in what was one of the drives of the day to get from the rear of the grid to fifth after losing a plug cap and failing to complete the Pre-Final.
Usual sparring partner Bradley Hicks was also in the wars, crashing heavily in the Pre-Final and failing to complete the Final.
Day 1 (Easter Friday)
Meanwhile on the first day of competition on Friday local hero Maddison Wise was one of the three title winners. Wise won the New Zealand Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha class title with a display which included setting the fastest lap time in qualifying and winning both heats and the Final.
The New Zealand title is Wise's second, the young Hawke's Bay driver having won the New Zealand Cadet class when the Nationals were contested in Blenheim in 2008.
The other two title winners were Ryan Grant (KZ2) and Thomas Ingram (Cadet).
Grant claimed the day's only clean sweep, earning the 2010 New Zealand KZ2 class title by qualifying quickest then winning the two heats, Pre-Final and Final, the latter from teammate and 2009 champion Graeme Smyth and reigning North Island champion Daniel Bray.
It wasn't quite as clear-cut in the Cadet class, eventual runner-up, Taylor Harte - representing one of the smallest clubs in the country, the Eastern Bay of Plenty Kart Club - qualifying quickest and winning the first heat but Ingram won the second, then the Pre-Final from Harte and Auckland"s Ryan McKinven, and the Final from Harte and local driver Jakob Flynn.
With six class titles decided so far the final four will be contested tomorrow (Sunday) at the Hawke's Bay Karting Club's ZM Raceway at Fernhill.
Senior 100cc Yamaha Light
1. Matthew Hamilton (Christchurch); 2. Josh Hart (Palmerston North); 3. Alex Geary (New Plymouth); 4. Daniel Kinsman (Auckland); 5. Jamie Conroy (Invercargill); 6. Chris Cox (Rangiora).
Senior 100cc Yamaha Heavy
1. Michael Kiser (Taranaki); 2. William Thomason (Wellington); 3. Bradley Tyrrell (Tokoroa); 4. Zach Zaloum (Hawke's Bay); 5. Shaun Reay (Hawke's Bay); 6. Simon Hunter (Christchurch).
Junior 100cc Yamaha
1. James Penrose (North Loburn); 2. Aaron Marr (Taranaki) 3. Hayden Pedersen (Taupo) 4. Jaden Hardy (Manawatu); 5. Arie Hutton (Auckland); 6. Scott Manson (Christchurch)
KZ 2
1. Ryan Grant (Auckland) ; 2. Graeme Smyth (Auckland); 3. Daniel Bray (Auckland); 4. Richard Moore (Auckland); 5. Matthew Grant (Auckland); 6. Johnathan Pearson (Hawke's Bay)
Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha
1. Maddison Wise (Hawke's Bay) ; 2. Jordan McDonnell (Christchurch); 3. Mitchell Turner (Manawatu); 4. James Munro (Christchurch); 5. Thomas Joyes (Hamilton) ; 6. Logan Brown (Auckland).
Cadet
1. Thomas Ingram (Manawatu); 2. Taylor Harte (Eastern Bay of Plenty); 3. Jakob Flynn (Hawke's Bay); 4. Jordan Lum (Wellington); 5. Thomas Batt (Wellington); 6. Ryan McPherson (Christchurch).
