Top Mainland Series Prospects Impress in South

by

Top McLaren Racing Mainland Series prospects William Exton, Andrew Broughton, Louis Sharp and Zach Tucker were the dominant figures in their respective classes at the KartSport Southland/KartSport Dunedin clubs’ annual two-day/two venue Southern Series meeting at Invercargill and Dunedin over the weekend.

William Exton won Rotax Max Light (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

This year’s Mainland series is being contested over three two-day meetings, the Sunbelts double-header meeting at Blenheim and Nelson which was run over Queen’s Birthday weekend, the Invercargill/Dunedin Southern Series run in the Deep South last weekend (August 17 & 18), and Christchurch’s annual Garden City Championships meeting in late September.

The first day of racing over what turned out to be a cool but mainly dry Southern Series weekend was hosted by the KartSport Southland club at its Invercargill Oil Shop Kart Raceway at Sandy Point Domain on Saturday, the second at KartSport Dunedin’s Silverstream Raceway near Mosgiel on Sunday.

Louis Sharp, 1st Vortex Mini ROK (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

Exton, Broughton, Sharp and Tucker were four of seven class winners over the two day/two venue meeting, with other Southern Series title winners being;

  • James Watson – Briggs LO206 Light
  • Scott Watson – Briggs LO206 Heavy
  • Jacob Douglas – Rotax Max Junior

By claiming Southern Series’ titles for 2019 William Exton, Andrew Broughton, Louis Sharp and Zach Tucker further extended their class leads in the Mainland Series standings.

Young Nelson driver Bo Hill (Rotax Max Junior) and KartSport Marlborough club members Blake Greenfield (ClubSport Briggs LO206 Light) and Mike Kendrick (ClubSport Briggs LO206 Heavy) also retained their points leads in the Mainland Series standings despite each being beaten to the #1 spot in their class in the Southern Series points standings.

James Watson won ClubSport Briggs LO206 Light (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

Christchurch-based international Jacob Douglas was back to his best in the Rotax Max Junior class with five heats wins. Hill never gave up, however, and won the last heat and the Final in Dunedin to claim second place in class and take a 35 point buffer over Douglas to the final Mainland Series double-header in Christchurch next month.

Because not all drivers competing at the two Southern Series meetings were also competing for Mainland Series points there was a surprise, meanwhile, in the two ClubSport Briggs LO206 classes. Though Blake Greenfield (LO206 Light) and Mike Kendrick (LO206 Heavy) maintained their leads in the Mainland Series points standings they were beaten to Southern Series class wins by Invercargill father and son pair Scott and James Watson.

Junior MAX went the way of Jacob Douglas (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

The latter, in fact, enjoyed the best run of any driver across the seven classes contested, winning eight of the nine ClubSport Briggs LO206 Light class races and finishing 4th in the other.

His father Scott had a similar run in the Heavy category run concurrently, topping the class leader board six times, and finishing 2nd in two of the others and 5th in the third.

Andrew Broughton took out Rotax Max Heavy (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

All eyes in karting circles in the south will now be on the final double-header round of the 2019 McLaren Racing Mainland Series at the annual Garden City Championships meeting in Christchurch over the September 28-19 weekend.

2019 Southern Series

Rotax Max Light

  1. William Exton; 2. Cameron Hay; 3. Kohen Muir-Thomson; 4. Jack Noble-Adams; 5. Luca Burns; 6. Ethan Tuffley.

Rotax Max Heavy


advertisement

  1. Andrew Broughton; 2. Kevin Barker; 3. Arron Black; 4. Mark Ahlfeld; 5. Kyle Rankin; 6. Cameron Edgar.

ClubSport LO206 Light

  1. James Watson; 2. Travis Smith; 3. Blake Greenfield; 4. Adam Geary; 5. Paul Bugler.

ClubSport LO206 Heavy

  1. Scott Watson; 2. Taylor Gray; 3. Damien Hill; 4. Anton Rasmussen; 5. Micheal Kendrick.

Rotax Max Junior

  1. Jacob Douglas; 2. Bo Hill; 3. Alex Patrick; 4. William Neale; 5. Liam Pink; 6. Marissa Ahlfeld.

Vortex Mini ROK

  1. Louis Sharp; 2. Chris White; 3. Jaxon Harvey; 4. Alex Crosbie; 5. Ollie Workman; 6. James Black.

Cadet ROK

  1. Zach Tucker; 2. Izaak Fletcher; 3. Kohen Thompson; 4. Zavier Harvey; 5. Nickolas Cayford; 6. Oakley Muir.
Cadet ROK winner Zach Tucker (pic – Fast Company/Lloyd Palmer)

McLaren Racing Mainland Series – Points after Rnd 4 of 6.

Open

  1. Jack Noble-Adams 294 points; 2. Tony Dyer 272; 3. Marco Schelp 262.

Rotax Max Light

  1. William Exton 634 points; 2. Jack Noble-Adams 515; 3. Ethan Tuffley 486; 4. Jack McLaren 480; 5. Oscar Noble-Adams 477; 6. Thomas Flynn 434.

Rotax Max Heavy

  1. Andrew Broughton 584 points; 2. Arron Black 560; 3, Kevin Barker 539. 4. Kyle Rankin 515; 5. Kohu Whalon 470; 6. Mark Ahlfeld 468.

Briggs LO206 Light

  1. Blake Greenfield 540 points; 2. Adam Geary 515.

Briggs LO206 Heavy

  1. Mike Kendrick 535 pts; 2. Damian Hill 527; 3. Anton Rasmussen 521.

Rotax Max Junior

  1. Bo Hill 595 points; 2. Jacob Douglas 560; 3. Alex Patrick 548; 4. Liam Pink 521; 5. Marrissa Ahlfeld 485; 6. Louise Gridley 446.

Vortex Mini ROK

  1. Louis Sharp 590 points; 2. Chris White 521; 3. Ollie Workman 477; 4. James Black 473; 5. Alex Crosbie 472; 6. Jacob Earley 449.

Cadet ROK

  1. Zach Tucker 616 points; 2. Izaak Fletcher 573; 3. Kohen Thompson 495; 4. Zavier Harvey 464; 5. Jackson Culver 459; 6. Laykn Thompson 441.

2019 Mainland Series

Rnds 1 & 2: Sunbelts Sprint Championships June 02-03 Blenheim & Nelson
Rnds 3 & 4: Southern Series August 17-18 Invercargill & Dunedin
Rnds 5 & 6: Garden City Championships Sept 28-29 Christchurch


advertisement