Hutton Experiences the Highs and Lows of Karting in Macau

Thirteen-year-old King’s College Auckland student Arie Hutton made his international karting debut at the 2008 CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific Championships for Juniors (KF3) in Macau on 28-30 November.

Driving with the works Tony Kart Team was an experience the young Auckland driver will never forget. He shared engineers and resources with KF1 CIK-FIA World Champion Marco Ardigo plus Gary Catt and Oliver Rowland.

"We were expecting to be working with the Tony Kart Junior Team so it was a bit of a surprise on Wednesday morning to find that we were sharing the tent with Marco, Gary and Oliver. My Italian mechanic, Marco was a great help all weekend and spoke good English. After setting up the two Tony Kart EVXX chassis on Wednesday we hit the track on Thursday. The first session was a bit tough getting used the European method of running in an engine but by the time the transponders were fitted on Thursday afternoon we recorded 3rd quickest time. Making pit stops and swapping chassis during the long practice sessions were new experiences as were the various hand signals from the pit wall. The Vortex engines used by most of the field were all very even as demonstrated by the three split times published for each session.

More testing on Friday with times ranging from 2nd to 6th and still competitive with the top Europeans. Data was down loaded by the Pi technician and analysed by the engineers overnight.

Saturday included qualifying and two heat races. In the warm up on old tyres I was 3rd behind Sainz and Kvyat, however I did not have the balance on new tyres in qualifying and slipped to 7th. This was my grid for each heat. In heat one I made two passes to finish to 5th which became 4th when Kvyat received a 10 second penalty for a starting infringement. I moved forward to 5th again in Heat 2. The kart felt better the more laps put on the tyres. The heat results gave an Intermediate Classification of 4th which would be my grid position for Sunday’s Pre final.

Sunday, another warm day in Macau. The kart was magic on yesterday’s tyres in the warm up. Second quickest with my best lap just 0.181 second behind Sainz who was fastest. We all fitted new tyres for the pre final. My start was good and I held position to turn two where I received a tap from behind which turned me around. Most of the pack was involved in the crash although my Tony Kart Junior Team mates Gustavo Menezes (from grid 12) and Sergei Sirotkin (grid 7) managed to miss the incident and finish strongly in 2nd and 3rd respectively. I restarted my engine and drove from last back up to 11^th however the kart did not feel right and my carb tune was off a bit.

Marco could not find anything obviously bent on the chassis so it was grid 11 for the 21 lap Final. Once again there was a crash at turn 2 which I managed to avoid to be in sixth during lap 1 however I did not have the confidence to push hard in the corners and lost the carb tune a bit. After a few more battles I drifted back to 15th with lap times well down on what we had recorded earlier in the day. I guess we will never know if the chassis received a tweak in the pre final crash but it was certainly not the same as it had been in the warm up session.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Mr Robazzi and the whole Tony Kart Team for the time and effort they put into getting me up to speed and for their hospitality. It was an amazing experience. Macau is now unfinished business and I would love to use my experience from this year to have another crack next year. I would also like to acknowledge the support at the event of Gustavo, Sergei and Paul Spencer (Manager, Tony Kart Junior Team) and from everyone at home, especially Darren Biggs, (Tony Kart NZ) and my new primary sponsor partner, UTi."

2008 CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific KF3 Championships Results

Qualifying

1st Carlos Sainz 48.816

2nd Danil Kvyat 48.874

3rd Bryan Mehta 48.954

7^th Arie Hutton 49.131

Heat 1

1^st Carlos Sainz

2^nd Bryan Mehta

3^rd Lucas Wolf

4^th Arie Hutton

Heat 2

1^st Bryan Mehta

2^nd Danil Kvyat

3^rd Mans Grenhagen

5^th Arie Hutton

Intermediate Classification

1^st Bryan Mehta 2 points

2^nd Carlos Sainz 4

3^rd Mans Grenhagen 8

4^th Arie Hutton 9

Pre Final

1^st Carlos Sainz

2^nd Gustavo Menezes

3^rd Sergei Sirotkin

11^th Arie Hutton

Final

1^st Carlos Sainz FA Kart/Vortex/Dunlop 21 laps

2^nd Danil Kyvat FA Kart/Vortex/Dunlop +5.824

3^rd Vittorio Ghirelli Tony Kart/XTR/Dunlop +7.439

15^th Arie Hutton Tony Kart/Vortex/Dunlop +16.441

Arie’s primary sponsorship partner is UTi, a global company specializing in the provision of world class international forwarding, customs brokerage and logistic services. UTi has offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Arie is also supported by Spark Services, engine preparation and Scutum paint protection film.

For further information regarding Arie Hutton’s kart racing programme please contact:

Arie Hutton Racing
Phone 027 555 66 00
Email: chutton@xtra.co.nz

To contact UTi please call:

Rod Leversedge
Director
09-255-1115 or 021-901-862
Email: rleversedge@go2uti.com

www.go2uti.com