Who Sent the Dirt Flying at the 2008 NZ Dirt Championships?

After the dust settled at Paradise Valley Speedway on Saturday 22nd November only one driver had successfully defended their national title and 6 new national champions were crowned. Here’s a review of the Industrial Traders Ltd 2008 NZ Dirt Championships.

Seven classes were contested – Cadet, Junior Restricted, Junior, Senior Yamaha Light, Senior Yamaha Heavy, Rotax Heavy, and Open.

Weather conditions in Rotorua remained dry in spite of the weather reports, and as predicted the track surface changed during the day. The times dropped as the racing progressed and by finals time there was a hard dry racing line. For the finals some competitors were on slicks while others didn’t change from their wets.

The chassis setups included the old, relatively new and substantially modified (usually to fit twin engines). Lastly there was no substitute for track experience and it showed especially in the early races of the meeting.

Here’s an overview of how the results played out for the various classes.

Cadets

In Cadet class all the local eyes were on Ethan Anderson. The youngster, only just a year into karting, lined up on pole for the final. He had made steady forward progress in the heats and was consistently at the pointy end according to lap times. The other drivers that were quick and finished at the pointy end of the heats were last year’s winner Samuel Warner who lined up on outside pole and Thomas McLean on 3rd. Samuel Warner had a bad race so a bigger drop than Anderson, so Anderson needed to win the final to claim honours. Warner was quicker going into the final corner and went around the outside of Anderson. He proceeded to pull away on the first few laps but Anderson pulled him back in again as the race progressed. However unable to get past a consistent Warner, Anderson had to settle for second in the race and ultimately second for the meeting. Thomas McLean managed to hang on for a solid third place and between the three of them they pretty much dominated the timesheets and races. 4th place went to Josh Adlam, 5th to Taylor Harte and 6th to Bradley Souness.

Junior Restricted

Well “eat my dust” would be something you could expect the front runner to say at The NZ Dirts. But that wouldn’t tell the story for the JR class. The rest of the competitors just couldn’t get close enough to winner, Stephen Appleton. His performance was absolutely dominant. He was consistently about a half to one second per lap faster than his nearest competitor – a feat virtually unheard of (and remember we are only talking 17-18 seconds a lap). In fact he could have competed with his restricted motor in Junior class and still have been competitive. Michael Scott and Stephen Kelly had a battle royal and tied on points at the end of the meeting. Michael Scott scored 2nd on a count-back leaving Stephen Kelly to take third place. Brandon Warner took out 4th place Emilee Wright 5th and Nik Pervan 6th.

Junior

By contrast to the JR class, the Junior class was not decided until after the final. The drivers were relatively evenly matched with the faster drivers not that much faster to allow them to dominate.

Each of the top 3 – Levi Madsen-Prinn, James Hadley and Fulton Penny had had one poor race finish in the heats. They could not afford another in the final. In the end they finished the final and the meeting in that order. Each could claim they were unlucky in the heat that they faired poorly (particularly, Fulton Penny who found himself going slower as the meeting progressed until the problem was isolated in heat 3 when the bottom end locked solid.) Bradley Tremain had a good outing to claim 4th, Stephen Taylor 5th and Patrick Davy 6th.

Senior Yamaha Light

The competition in Yamaha Lights was, as always, intense and close. In several of the heats the top 4 were within a mere tenth of a second in lap times. However Rotorua’s Daniel Dufty still showed his class by being the most consistent and tactical progression through the field in the heats. His lowest placing was 4th in heat 2. In the other heats he carded a 1st and 3 2nds. Defending champion, Justin Herbert couldn’t quite match Dufty’s speed and consistency, but hung on well to take 2nd by one point from Jason Butterworth, who took 3rd from David Meszaros also by just one point. John Van Bommel took out 5th and Ross Tregonning 6th. But Rotorua’s Tregonning  staged the most spectacular piece of skill of the meeting by not only hitting and driving completely up the concrete wall but back down again onto all four wheels. I’ve seen that done in a stockcar but never before in a kart – just incredible.

Senior Yamaha Heavy

Clinton Fell, looked good for the title – fastest on track most heats and taking out the win in heats 2 and 3, to start on pole for the final. However he didn’t manage to start the final handing Leyton Kendall first place honours in the Senior Yamaha Heavy class. Fell still took out second place. Local dirt track racing stalwart Paul Mabey was a standout in navigating the changeable conditions in the early races. But he couldn’t keep that relative pace as the hard dry racing line appeared making the track closer to a rough tarmac surface and had to settle for 3rd. 4th place went to Deon Symes, 5th to Bruce James and 6th to James Robbie. Unfortunately Mike Grimshaw and Dion Kendall had an on-track collision (shades of déjà vu from 2007) which escalated to where they were excluded from the results of this class.

Rotax Heavy

The Rotax Heavy drivers were usually relatively close during racing. Track position was all important and because the speeds were close it was hard for competitors to recover lost ground if they got a bad start. On track Leyton Kendall recorded the most consistent results through the heats and was first across the line in the final. Although he took line honours unfortunately he didn’t make it past teching. Mike Grimshaw who consistently posted fastest lap times took the title. It was a close fought thing though taking it on a count-back from Anthony Murch. Paul Mabey came home second in the final to claim 3rd. Hamish Scott was 4th and Adrian Browne 5th.

Open

Bruce James brought the quick twin-engined kart that he drove in 2007. Whereas James had his share of problems in 2007 it was his fellow competitors that had their problems in 2008.

James and his kart held it together this year to take the title in dominant fashion taking out a clean sweep of all 4 heats and the final. Hamish Scott earned his second place by being consistently quick and trying to hang onto the back of James. Daniel Samelson had his share of problems in Open but still managed to hang onto 3rd place (Samelson  had a bad day of it in that respect, having packed his unreliable Yamaha back in the trailer earlier in the day). Robin Wooldridge took out 4th place honours, Brian Tyrrell 5th and Anthony Murch 6th. 

The team at Rotorua Karters would like to thank all their helpers who were far too many to name individually. Also a big thanks to our stewards for a well run and enjoyable meeting. To our competitors, we hope you enjoyed the meeting. Congratulations to the NZ title winners. Keep that chassis for next year’s meeting and look forward to seeing you at the 2009 NZ Dirt Nationals.  

The confirmed results were :-

Cadet:    

1st Samuel Warner - Hawkes Bay
2nd Ethan Anderson - Rotorua
3rd Thomas McLean – Whangarei
4th Josh Adlam – BOP
5th Taylor Harte – EBOP
6th Bradley Souness – BOP
7th Josh Leopard –
8th Blake Harris - Bop

Junior Restricted: 

1st Stephen Appleton - BOP (Bay Of Plenty) & Rotorua
2nd Michael Scott - BOP (Bay Of Plenty)
3rd Stephen Kelly - Mt Wellington
4th Brandon Warner – Hawkes Bay
5th Emilee Wright – Mt Wellington
6th Nik Pervan - Tokoroa

Junior:   

1st Levi Madsen-Prinn - Auckland
2nd James Hadley - Wellington
3rd Fulton Penny - EBOP (Eastern Bay of Plenty)
4th Bradley Tremain – Tokoroa
5th Stephen Taylor – Wellington
6th Patrick Davy – Wellington
7th Adam Davis – Auckland
8th Jason Carter – BOP
9th Caleb Hartley - Tokoroa

Senior Light 100cc Yamaha: 

1st Daniel Dufty - Rotorua
2nd Justin Herbert - Rotorua
3rd Jason Butterworth - Mt Wellington
4th David Meszaros – Tokoroa
5th John Van Brommel – Rotorua
6th Ross Tregonning – Rotorua
7th Nathan Hancock - Tokoroa
8th Leon Burgess – Auckland
9th David Lamberton – Tokoroa
10th David Picard - Wellington

Senior Heavy 100cc Yamaha: 

1st Leyton Kendall - Auckland
2nd Clinton Fell - Hamilton
3rd Paul Mabey – Rotorua
4th Deon Symes – BOP
5th Bruce James –Whangarei
6th James Robbie – Whangarei
7th Daniel Samuelson – Formula S

Rotax Heavy:   

1st Mike Grimshaw - Hamilton
2nd Anthony Murch - Auckland
3rd Paul Mabey – Rotorua
4th Hamish Scott Taranaki
5th Adrian Browne - Wellington

Open: 

1st Bruce James - Whangarei
2nd Hamish Scott - Taranaki
3rd Daniel Samelson - Formula S
4th Robin Woodridge – Whangarei
5th Brian Tyrrell – Tokoroa
6th Anthony Murch-Auckland
7th Dion Kendall-Auckland
8th Brian Briton -  NSW Speedway Club (Australia)

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