There was a large Kiwi contingent at this year's Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals meeting at La Conca in Italy from 25-30 November.

The track officially opened for Grand Final business on Tuesday with practice on Wednesday and Thursday before qualifying Friday, race heats on Saturday and the Pre-Finals and Finals on Sunday.

New Zealand was directly represented by four drivers, the winner of the Senior 125 cc Rotax Light class at this year's Gen-i Rotax Max Challenge of New Zealand, Ryan Urban who competed in the DD2 class, runner-up Ethan de Jong who competed in 125 cc Rotax Max Senior and Formula Junior winner Nick Cassidy and runner-up Scott McLaughlin who competed in the Junior class.

Also competing at the meeting was former three-time New Zealand representative, Josh Hart. Hart earned a drive in Europe this year on the strength of his showing at last year's Grand Finals and more than justified the faith his team had in him by finishing third in the 2009 European Rotax Max Challenge, thus earning a place on the grid at this year's Grand Finals.

New Zealand has a strong and consistent record of achievement at Rotax Max Grand Final meetings having fielded a team since the very first one in Puerto Rico in 2000 with a best finish of third in the Junior class for Earl Bamber (now one of the brightest young prospects on the world single-seater motor racing scene) at Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 2004.

This year's Grand Finals meeting attracted over 216 drivers representing a total of 55 countries.

Tony Chambers from Right Karts, the NZ Rotax Max agent, was in Italy with the team and providing daily updates and pictures. Follow the progress of the Kiwis at the Grand Finals below.
 

Day 1 - 25/11/08   Handing out of equipment for assembly   The day started out wet again like the previous 3 days had been. The team settled into their pit site alongside team Australia as in previous years. The language barrier with the locals has proved to be a bit of a battle for some of the team so being around another English speaking team was a good start. All 4 drivers received their karts in the drivers raffle. Scott and Nick in Juniors drew karts #3 and #14, Ethan drew #53 in Senior max and Ryan drew #26 in DD2.   The reminder of the day was spent fitting seat, data loggers and personalizing their karts. A fairly stress free day for all and a relaxing start to what is busy race week. Rotax BRP held the welcome party for all drivers and crew at the track that evening giving all the drivers from every team a chance to mix and get to know each other.   For the first time at the drivers welcome party Rotax BRP along with the Canadian Rotax dealer, SRA, held a Rotax World Finals tyre changing competition. 36 entrants from most country’s competed with NZ sending Tony Chambers in as there representative. Only the quickest 5 moving through to the finals to be held at the closing party.........Results to come. Check out www.kart-data.com for all live timing of the event.	Some of the Kiwi Team The Kiwi Pit
Day 2 – 26/11/08   Practice Day One   Once again the team woke to a saturated southern Italy with heavy rain over night. On the programme today were 2 x unofficial and untimed practice sessions of 15 mins for each class.   Each class was split into 2 groups (odd and even numbered karts) to give each driver the best simulation of a race size field. By practice time the damp track had dried and it was business time.   Both Scott and Nick did an outstanding job in both sessions and with only stopwatches and visual speed differences to go by both boys were in good company chasing down and trading places with some of the top young drivers from Estonia, England and many others running at Euro challenge level. A few small front end and gearing changes for both lads overnight puts them in good stead for the next day.   Ethan had a very similar day in Senior Max running around some names that have competed at previous world finals and only 2 tenths off some of the quicker drivers in both sessions. Ethan and mechanic Brad Tyrrell made some big seat changes between the 2 sessions and made a good gain.   Ryan in DD2 made an outstanding start to his campaign. Starting his first session off slow and easing in to the 1250 meter long La Conca circuit. By the end he had passed current champion Peir-luc Oulette from Canada and pulled a sizeable gap. After a seat change similar to Ethan’s, Ryan run in the last session of the day at a freezing cold 4:30pm/10 degrees Celsius. Another fast session which by the timing done by a few members of the Australia and Kiwi team members would place Ryan around the top 3.	Ryan in action     Discussing chassis setup
Day 3 – 27/11/08   Official Qualifying   The team woke to the coldest day so far since we have been in La Conca, a freezing 7 degrees Celsius.   On the teams agenda today the four boys had 2 x official practice sessions and 1 x official timed qualifying run. For the 2 morning’s practice runs they would have to run on their original set of tyres which the kart had been supplied with and that they had done the 2 previous runs on yesterday. For qualifying everyone would be issued new tyres that would take them through to the end of their heats.   Both Scott and Nick had solid practice sessions trying things that they had changed overnight, both lads were un-happy with what they had changed (sprocket and front end geometry). This turned out to be a good thing as now they had tried it and did not need to revert back down that road. After their tyres were changed, fuel tanks re-filled and left in parc-ferme ready for their first qualifying run later in the day. Both Scott and Nick were in the same group for qualifying (odd numbers). There 15min run started very well for both on fresh tyres with them both inside the top ten. By the end of the session they had clocked best times of 51.375 for Nick in lap 11 and a 51.388 for Scott in lap 6, now both were left waiting for the even numbered group to complete their session to see where they fell into place overall. After the even numbers had run it left the boys in 43rd for Nick (0.678 off pole) and 45th for Scott (0.691 off pole). Pole was taken by Dylan Lahaye from Belgium with a 50.697 in lap 13.   Ethan had big hopes for the day and had a strong plan to go forward. Him and tuner Brad Tyrrell had made some big changes after the first 2 practice runs in the morning. After what looked like a strong qualifying session in his even group turned out to be disappointing for Ethan, 30th place with the second group of odd numbers to run. True to form the second group went quicker as the track has always improved later in the day. Ethan being bumped back to 55th place overall (1.117 off pole). Pole was set by Martin Pierce for Ireland with a 49.133.   Ryan had another good start in the two morning warm-ups. A few small front end changes before qualifying and cross the fingers. Ryan took to the track late in the day and his odd numbered group were the first of the DD2 to hit the track. After the running of both groups he ended up 6th overall with a 48.387 (0.172 off pole). Current champion Pier-Luc Ouellette from Canada with a 48.222.	The NZ Pit     Work in the pits     Josh Hart in action
Day 4 and 5 – 28-29/11/08   Heat races   After all the waiting with days of assembly and practice the action finally started. It was heat racing time......   Scott and Nick had solid performances in there heats moving well forward from their frustrating qualifying positions. They had a mixed bag of weather with same damp and dry conditions. Scots first heat was a standout with him and only two others being the only drivers to go out on slicks on a damp track. This call paid off with Scott coming through to 7th place. Nick also had a similar heat in his 2nd race, although a dry track it was pretty much a one lane race track, Nick drove forward to 3rd at one stage but tangled and ended up 11th, setting 2nd fastest lap in the process. Top times were coming from both lads with Scott setting the fastest time in his 2nd heat, a well deserved effort for him and tuner Robbie Morton who had worked well together to get to that point. Heat results as follows.   Scots heat results Heat 1 – 7th (Winner Joshua Demaio, Australia) Heat 2 – 6th (Winner Jo Riley, Great Britain) Heat 3 – 9th (Winner Aavo Talvar, Estonia) Pre Final starting grid – 5th (Pole Aavo Talvar, Estonia)   Nicks heat results Heat 1 – 11th (Winner Facundo Chapur, Argentina) Heat 2 – 11th (Winner Jo Riley, Great Britain) Heat 3 – 6th (Winner Kevin Korjus, Estonia) Pre Final starting grid – 10th   Ethan’s heat races started off the worst way possible with a first corner crash which resulted in Ethan’s kart being bent beyond repair and a new bare chassis having to be purchased, $1300 Euro later and the team were back on track. Ethan’s next heat was in wet conditions, this was where Ethan had performed very well in practice. He got a high as 8th from his 28th grid but slipped to 13th after contact. His final heat was similar of the first were he was involved in contact on a few occasions and finished 32nd. Ethan had to run in the 2nd chance race because of his high points from the heats, he failed to make the top 6 cut-off for the finals.   Ethan’s heat results Heat 1 – 34th DNF (Winner Morgan Riche, France) Heat 2 – 13th (Winner Jesper Rossler, Sweden) Heat 3 – 32nd (Winner Hannes V.Asseldonk, Netherlands)   Ryan’s heats were an outstanding effort and along with Dale Verrall, Mathew Hamilton and Josh Hart at previous world finals were the teams best to date. He won his first heat beating home current world DD2 champion Peir Luc Ouellette. His 2nd heat was late on Friday night under lights and on a saturated track. Lack of tyre pressure caused Ryan to drop to 9th. His 3rd heat was a solid performance with a 2nd quickest race time and a 3rd place finish.   Ryan’s heat results Heat 1 – 1st Heat 2 – 9th (Winner Damien Vuillaume, France) Heat 3 – 3rd (Winner Maik Barten, Netherlands) Pre Final starting grid – 4th (Pole Peir Luc Ouellette)	The Pits at night       A wet track at night       Ethan scores a DNF
Day 6 – 30/11/08   Pre-Final & Finals.   Although the team did get all their drivers through to the finals they were still in good spirits. Our two Juniors, along with William Bamber/Mitchell Evans in Dubai last year, were one of the strongest pairings we had had to date. With both boys showing race winning pace in there heats things were looking good for their Pre-finals/Finals.   The Pre-final started out good for Scott and not so good for Nick. Scott climbing to the lead in the first ¼ of the race while battling with some of Euro’s top young juniors while Nicks starting position of grid 10 meant he was caught up in some race long scraps which in the end he managed to shake. Scott raced backwards and forwards with the leaders finding it hard against some of the younger drivers that while being quick did not have the race sense to settle into a position and pull a gap. They continued to swap places and put heavy passes on each other, thus letting Nicks pursuing group catch up and make it an 8-10 kart battle for the lead. Nick eventually going forward to finish 4th and Scott getting shuffled back to 6th.   In Parc-Ferme post race clutch tests were done and other tech inspections took place. Both kiwis along with 3 others all passed the test but upon inspection of the removed clutch drum the officials deemed there to be excessive oil inside, clamming that this had been oiled to gain an advantage, these clutch drums had not been removed since hand over of the karts on Tuesday so you can imagine the teams anger at this. Nicks kart was eventually released with no penalty but Scott’s turned into a major. A hearing ensued and Scott was handed a notice of disqualification from the event that would not let him run the final!!!!, there was much drama and running around with ourselves getting the right people involved from Rotax BRP to prove that this was a great misjustice. The notice was thrown out and Scott was allowed to compete in the final. Many thanks must go to Darryl Smith and Elvis Kozizca from Rotax BRP for their help at short notice.   So the boys took to the track for the final with Nick off grid 4 and Scott from grid 6. Scott’s day went from bad to good to bad again with him being freight trained into the 3rd corner and get half spun by one of the karts inside him. Nick started very well running up with the leaders and settling into a good pace, the heavy passing and blocking was starting already and a scrappy race looked to be unfolding. Scott had dropped to last but was working his way back through turning laps as quick as Nick and the rest of the leaders. Nick meanwhile was having a repeat of his pre-final race getting bounced backwards and forwards like a yoyo. Scott made it back inside the top 15 with a barn stormer of a drive but he again got shuffled back buy an over eager Swedish driver. This bumped him back to 20th with laps fast running out. Nick was having a hard time of it eventually finishing in 12th. A great effort by both boys to finish inside the top 20 at such an event. The top three are as follows....   1st – Facundo Chapur / Argentina 2nd – Kevin Korjus / Estonia 3rd – Paul Fourquemin / France 12th – Nick Cassidy 20th – Scott McLaughlin   Ryan’s run up through the heats to the finals day had been un-eventful and you could say almost to plan. His Pre-final starting grid of 4 was a comfortable place to start. At the start he slotted into 3rd and within 4 laps had made his way to the front and pulled a 1.5-2 second gap. The Kiwi team were hanging of the fence egging Ryan on. The gap slowly closed by race end but Ryan stood his ground and held 1st. He was bumped back to 2nd at one stage then got back to the lead but eventually crossing the line in 3rd, an awesome result and one that made the team proud. Ryan’s Final had the makings of maybe the first Kiwi victory in a Rotax World Finals feature race.......If Brad Tyrell’s Yelling and arm waving was anything to go buy we were defiantly all feeling it. Ryan slotted into 3rd straight away and got into his work. This was all undone 3 corners later by the eventual winner Leeroy Poulter from South Africa who ran straight into Ryan in the first hairpin after the start, smashing his rear bumper and putting Ryan to last.......to say the team was gutted was an understatement. To Ryan’s credit he fought hard back to 14th place setting the fastest race lap. A sad end to what was a promising campaign.   1st – Leeroy Poulter / South Africa 2nd – Peir Luc Oullette / Canada 3rd – Stuart Marsell / America 14th – Ryan Urban   The team would like to thank all their supporters and crew who travelled the long distance to support and help. All the drivers individual sponsors’, without you these lads would not have been there. Right Karts and Ryan from Xzuit for the fantastic suits. Ian Black and all of Team Australia for their help and humour and being a great team to pit with. Darryl Smith, our little Australian friend at Rotax BRP for going out of his way to make sure we were all happy. Kartsport NZ and John Lennox for posting our reports and last but not least everyone that was back in NZ for their emails, texts and staying up late to watch the live timing.

Special thanks to Tony Chambers who supplied these daily reports and photos directly from the Rotax Grands Finals in Italy.

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