The Kiwis Are Coming They're HERE!

There's a distinct international flavour to Horsepower Heaven this weekend.

Industry figures from Italy (Filippo Fagnani, CEO of IAME, and Gianpietro Mascialino, manufacturer of BRM chassis) and Scottich KZ125 champion Daniel Borton will be joined by a bunch of Kiwis who have headed West to kick some Aussie butt.

The Kiwi team consists of current New Zealand KZ2 champion Graeme Smyth, current New Zealand Open class champion Richard Moore, multi-time former New Zealand champion and recently (re)crowned Steward Motors Shifter Series KZ2 class champion Ryan Grant, and top Masters category racer Steve Brown.


Above: The team from New Zealand will be tough to beat in KZ2. L-R: Smyth, Grant, Brown, Moore, Moore, Olla, Smyth.
pic - Fast Company/Championship Digital

 

press release from NZ

They're a cunning bunch those Australians, particularly when it comes to sporting endeavours. So it should come as no surprise that this weekend the KZ2 field at the big Horsepower Heaven 2009 meeting at Melbourne's Todd Rd circuit features some familiar names from this side of the Tasman.

The meeting is the brainchild of top Australian karter and Melbourne kart dealer Dominic Albanese, his idea, to celebrate - and showcase - the quickest karts in Australia.

With their purpose-built 6-speed gearbox-equipped 125cc engines you don't get any quicker karts round a track than the KZ2 class machines which have proved such a hit here in New Zealand.

Across the Tasman, however, the uptake has been slower, hence the efforts the organisers are making to help the Kiwis - a group which includes four of the top drivers in the category - cross the Tasman for the event.

Assisted by Graeme Moore, a KartSport New Zealand executive member and KartSport New Zealand Driver Development Academy Director, and with trans-Tasman transport organised by keen gearbox karter Tim Stewart from freight firm Express Logistics, the Kiwi team consists of current New Zealand KZ2 champion Graeme Smyth, current New Zealand Open class champion Richard Moore, multi-time former New Zealand champion and recently (re)crowned Steward Motors Shifter Series KZ2 class champion Ryan Grant, and top Masters category racer Steve Brown.

Another top New Zealand driver, Morrinsville's Tyler Richardson will also compete at the meeting, in the ICC-100 (non-gearbox) support class.

Having seen how successful the KZ2 - and related KF3 support class - is in New Zealand, the Australians are keen to see the categories grow on their side of the Tasman too. There is also talk of a group of Australian drivers returning the favour and heading our way next year to take on the Kiwis at next year's CIK Trophy of New Zealand meeting in Wellington in February.

As a result of all this goodwill from both sides the KZ2 class will be one of the best supported at the Horsepower Heaven meeting with a field of 27 when entries closed 10 days ago.

Included in that field are the four Kiwis, plus Scottish class champion Daniel Borton and the cream of the locally-based KZ2 talent including Jordie and Jace Lindstrom, Troy Woolston, Jason Pringle, Bart Price and Steven Pettaras.

So who's going to be able to claim trans-Tasman bragging rights after the weekend?

Let's just say that like their counterparts in single-seaters and touring cars, New Zealand karters have a reputation second to none across the Tasman, with the Australians - surprisingly considering the keen rivalry which exists between the two countries - happy to acknowledge the success of the likes of 2003 World Karting Champion Wade Cunningham (who competed in Australia in the late 1990s and early years of the new millennium) and his brother Mitch (who this year has been contesting Australia's re-born CIK series).

Supporting the KZ2 class at the Horsepower Heaven 2009 meeting are a number of Senior (16 years and over) classes in 100, 125 and 200cc capacities.

 

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