Podiums For Wright & Vincent at Pro Tour


press release 6 June 2016

Young guns Sam Wright and Emerson Vincent spearheaded the Kiwi kart challenge at a rain-lashed fourth Australian Rotax Pro Tour series round in Queensland over the weekend.

Wright, 15, from Auckland, qualified quickest and ended up a close second in the Junior Max Trophy class, while Vincent, 7, from Pukekohe, qualified sixth and finished second in Micro Max.

rotax
Above: Sam Wright #33
pic - Fast Company/Emilee Wright

The pair were part of an eight-strong Kiwi squad to cross the Tasman for the meeting which was abbreviated thanks to torrential rain playing havoc with the schedule.

Qualifying was brought forward to Friday because of gale-force wind and rain forecast, and Saturday's planned programme was abandoned when the skies opened.

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Above: Emerson Vincent #10
pic - Fast Company/Emilee Wright

That left a compressed schedule on Sunday with just the one heat race per class before the Pre-Finals and Finals.

Matthew Payne from Pukekohe and Ashleigh Stewart from Wellington were the next best of the Kiwi finishers.

Payne qualified ninth and finishing sixth in the Junior Max class Final, while Ashleigh, at 17 the older of two Stewart sisters competing, came back from mechanical problems on Friday which saw her qualify 25th to finish a series-best seventh in the Rotax Max Light class Final.

Connor Davison from Hamilton was next best, finishing the Mini Max class Final in a weekend-best eighth place after qualifying 21st and finishing 20th in the Pre-Final.

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Above: Connor Davison #32
pic - Fast Company/Emilee Wright

Unfortunately both Madeline Stewart and Palmerston North driver Brendon Hart failed to finish their respective Finals, 15-year-old Madeline credited with 23rd place in Rotax Max Light and Hart 19th in Rotax Max Heavy.

It was a frustrating end to a weekend for both drivers, especially Madeline Stewart who had set the 10th quickest Rotax Max Light lap time in qualifying on Friday and finished both the heat race and Pre-Final in eighth position.

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Above: Ashleigh Stewart #22
pic - Fast Company/Emilee Wright

The weekend's round of the 2016 Rotax Pro Tour in Queensland was the fourth of seven with the fifth at Bolivar in South Australia in July, the sixth at Puckapunyal in Victoria in August and the Grand Final meeting is at Dubbo in New South Wales over the September 30/October 01-02 weekend.

 

2016 Australian Rotax Pro Tour
Calendar
Rnd 1: Todd Road Melb, VIC 22-24 Jan
Rnd 2: Warwick QLD 26-28 Feb
Rnd 3: Eastern Creek NSW 15-17 April
Rnd 4: Ipswich QLD 03-05 June
Rnd 5: Bolivar SA 15-17 July
Rnd 6: VIC 26-28 August
Grand Final: Dubbo NSW 30 Sept 02 October

 

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