A couple of Australians competed in karting events overseas last weekend. James Wharton had a strong finish inside the top ten of the OK final at the European Championship opener in Belgium, while Victorian KZ2 driver Blaine Densley contested the third round of the ProKart Series in New Zealand.
James Wharton – Genk, Belgium
James contested the opening round of the European Championship in the OK class aboard Parolin/TM with the factory team.
He qualified 26th in the 73-kart field. Strong heat results of 6th, 4th and 7th moved him up the ranking, but a 21st in his last qualification race saw James 14th outright.
Wharton crossed the line an excellent 7th in the Final after a solid drive, however a nose-cone penalty dropped him to p14 in the classification.
“We had a good weekend here in Genk for round 1 of the European Championship” he posted on social media. “Many positives to take away and definitely a good improvement with our performance.”
Blaine Densley – Te Puke, New Zealand
With the travel bubble open, Blaine Densley contested third round of the ProKart Series at the Bay of Plenty club’s circuit in New Zealand with Daniel Bray’s N-Zed Motorsport.
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Densley said he had a tough couple of days getting a handle on the track and sorting out gremlins after a last-minute switch to another chassis.
He qualified 11th in the 15-strong KZ2 field but then had a challenging series of results in the heats – DNF, 14th, 13th and another DNF, followed by 11th in the pre-final.
Things were looking much better in the final, up to seventh before forced to DNF once more.
“(We) made progress, found some speed, and drove forward” Blaine posted on social media.
“I started the final in p11 and found myself up to p7 by lap 5 but a mechanical drama took me out of the race. This track was so hard on equipment, and a $2 part failure cost us a result in the final.”
Densley’s next event is the AKC round at Puckapunyal.
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