30th January 2014

Slim pickings for Kiwi karters at second Pro Tour round

Madeline Stewart

There were slim pickings for the five-strong Kiwi contingent at the second round of Australia’s Rotax Max Challenge Pro Tour in Melbourne last weekend.

Reigning New Zealand 125cc Rotax Max Light class champion Daniel Kinsman, 20, went into the meeting fourth in the Rotax Light class points standings but didn’t make it past the first corner at Melbourne’s Todd Road track in the Rotax Light Final.

Nor did Christchurch youngster Caleb Cross in the Junior Max Final, leaving Wellington’s Stewart sisters Madeline and Ashleigh (6th & 10th respectively in the Junior Trophy class) sharing best result status with Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong (10th in Junior Rotax).

“If you didn’t qualify well, that was it pretty much,” said Kinsman on his return to Auckland this week. “You only had two short practice sessions on Friday before you had to qualify and it wasn’t enough. I’ve been to Todd Rd before but since then they have completely re-sealed the whole track and with rain on Friday morning there wasn’t as much grip as I thought there would be.”

Despite that Kinsman set the 13th quickest Rotax Light time (out of 36) and worked his way forward in each heat race, to sixth in the first, tenth in the second and ninth in the third.

He also made up two places – from 14th to 12th – in a frantic Pre-Final. But that was as good as it got.

There were two multi-kart pile ups at the start of the Final with Kinsman lucky to be able to get back to the start after the first but sustaining too much damage to his kart in the second to go any further.

Ashleigh Stewart

Multi-kart crashes also marred the Rotax Junior Pre-Final and Final with Caleb Cross out with kart damage in both and Marcus Armstrong lucky to finish 12th in the Pre-Final and get as high as sixth in the Final before being shuffled back to 10th at the flag.

The two Stewart sisters fared better in the Junior Trophy class, qualifying eighth (Ashleigh) and ninth (Madeline) and enjoying a 6-8-10 (Ashleigh) and a 7-7-14 (Madeline) run through the heats.

Madeline was then involved in a first-turn pileup in the Pre-Final (which her sister finished eighth in) but she put an impressive fight-back drive to get from the back of the grid to sixth (with Ashleigh finishing 10th) in the Final.

Daniel Kinsman and the Stewart sisters will be back in action across the Tasman at the third round of this season’s Australian Rotax Pro Tour at Dubbo in New South Wales over the March 01-02 weekend