Future Stars Use Top Half Series To Step Up

With their successes last weekend in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race in France, Kiwi racing drivers Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber have put motorsport in New Zealand back on the global map.

Before the pair started racing cars, though, they – like fellow Kiwi drivers Scott Dixon (a four-time US Indycar series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner), Shane Van Gisbergen (the current Virgin Australia Supercar series champion) and Scott McLaughlin (winner of the Darwin round of this year’s Australian Supercar series last weekend) – learned then honed their driving skills in karts at home.

New Zealand has a thriving kart scene, with clubs around the country running regular meetings for members and getting together for inter-club series like the long-running WPKA (lower North Island), Top Half (upper North Island) and Mainland (South Island) ones.

Drivers to watch out for in the Vortex Mini ROK class include Mason Potter (#47), Ayrton Williams (#46) and Zeal Jones (#4) (pic – Fast Company/Alice Addy)

This weekend sees the KartSport Bay of Plenty club host the opening round of this year’s now Hampton Downs-backed 2017 Top Half Series at the Te Puke Auto Electrical Raceway tucked into the coastal foothills north-west of the Bay of Plenty town.

Series like the Hampton Downs Top Half one provide an key link between club and national level competition, offering drivers young and old the opportunity to learn new tracks and test their skills against their peers from other clubs.

Set up over 24 years ago by the KartSport Auckland, Mt Wellington, and Hamilton clubs the Top Half Series and is run each year in conjunction with five others in the northern half of the North Island; KartSport Whangarei, KartSport Bay of Plenty, KartSport Tokoroa, KartSport Rotorua and KartSport Eastern Bay of Plenty.

A sign of the regard in which the series is held is the fact that this weekend’s opening round hosts the third round of this year’s ROK Cup New Zealand series.

Making a welcome return to his karting roots in the Rotax Max Light class this weekend is Hamilton driver Campbell Joyes (#4) (pic – Fast Company/Graham Hughes)

Trips to the ROK Cup International Final in Italy in October this year for the series’ winner and runner-up in the Vortex Mini ROK class, and a new Vortex Mini ROK engine for the winner of the Cadet ROK series are the key prizes.

So it is no surprise that, with over 30 nine-to-13-year-olds entered in Vortex Mini ROK and 16 six-to-11-year-olds signed up for Cadet ROK, the two Vortex classes are amongst the best supported of the eight which will be contested on Sunday.

After two of the four round of the ROK Cup NZ series it is still anyone’s race in either class. Logan Manson from Levin has a two point lead on Auckland’s Mason Potter with Asten Addy from Hamilton and Kaden Probst from Auckland tied for third a further two points back in Vortex Mini ROK.



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Current NZ#1 Louis Sharp is looking good to take over the points lead in the Cadet ROK class, meanwhile, thanks to current leader Emerson Vincent’s mid-series move ‘up the ladder’ to the Vortex Mini ROK class.

The Junior Rotax and Rotax Max Light (Senior) classes are also very well supported this year with over 30 entries in the Junior class and 26 in Lights.

A bumper prize pool has been a feature of the series in recent years and this year is no different. Prizes to the value of over $36,000 will be up for grabs this year, including over $10,000 in prize money, $5000 in Hampton Downs Go Kart prizes, $6,000 in CRC product giveaways, $1200 worth of Dunlop tyres from Lascom Motorsport and a custom-painted Arai SK-6 helmet complete with helmet bag courtesy Arai NZ, Headcase Designs plus Lightning Racegear valued at a further $2000.

Not surprisingly this weekend’s opening round has attracted a 130+ entry across seven classes from all over New Zealand.

Moving up to Mini ROK class for this round is Emerson Vincent (#10) seen here leading Tom Bewley (#4) and Louis Sharp (#SI) in a Cadet ROK class race at the first 2017 series round (pic – Fast Company/Alice Addy)

As well as individual glory for the drivers, clubs compete against each other for the prestigious Roundabout Kart Shop Trophy. There will also be a Dash for Cash GP race at each round with a reverse grid starting format based on results from the five class heats and $500 cash for the winner.

More information on this year’s Top Half series can be found on KartSport New Zealand’s website HERE and Facebook page HERE.

Class sponsors this year are KartZone (Cadet ROK),  Supreme Kart Supplies (Vortex Mini ROK),  Spartan 4Toyota (Rotax Max Junior),  WestSpeed Motorsport (125cc Rotax Max Light), TCB Motorsport (125cc Rotax Max Heavy), Vehicle Grooming Services (ClubSport 120), and Right Karts (Rotax DD2). Other sponsors include RJ’s Licorice and the NZ Rotax Max Challenge.

2017 Hampton Downs Top Half Series

Calendar
Rnd 1: Sun June 25 Te Puke Auto Electrical Raceway Te Puke
Rnd 2: Sun Sept 09 Rotorua International Raceway Rotorua
Rnd 3: Sun  October 01 AgriSea Raceway Hamilton
Rnd 4: Sun Nov 05 KartZone Raceway Edgecumbe

ROK Cup NZ
points after Rnd 2 of 4

Vortex Mini ROK
1. Logan Manson 92 points
2. Mason Potter 90
3=. Asten Addy & Kaden Probst 88
5. Zeal Jones 87
6. Liam Pink 86
7. Luke Thompson 83
8. Bo Hill 82
9. Dylan Grant 47

Cadet ROK
1, Emerson Vincent 97 points
2. Louis Sharp 94
3. Ashton Phipps 90
4. Jaxon Harvey 87
5=. Ollie Workman & Jay Urwin 84
7. James Black 83
8. Tom Bewley 45



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