The annual Sunbelt championships held at Nelson and Marlborough over Queens birthday weekend 2009 attracted 95 drivers from all over New Zealand and top class racing throughout the classes.
Cadet winner Seth Rasmussen
Consistency was the key over the weekend with 8 of the 9 races being counted.
With 2 different tracks and varying weather conditions to battle with it made for an exciting weekend of racing. The sun was out in Saturday but it was freezing temperatures that greeted drivers on day 2 and racing came to a halt on the Sunday just as the finals where about to start as the snow started falling, but it wasn’t long till the snow turned to rain, drivers put on their wets and racing resumed.
In the cadet class their was a good battle between Ryan Yardley from CHCH and Seth Rasmussen from Nelson, Ryan was slightly ahead after day one of racing but Seth fought back hard in Blenheim having two 1st and two 2nds to place first overall 3rd the South Island Champ Kieran Woods.
The Junior Restricted class saw some very close racing throughout the weekend, as expected Marlborough local and 2NZ Brook Reeve again proved to be the man to beat with 5 wins over the 9 races, he was exceptional in traffic and drove consistently throughout the weekend, he had strong competition from CHCH driver Jordan McDonnell who had 3 1st. After the final they where tied on points with the win going to Brook on the count back. Olivia Yardley also from CHCH drove consistently all weekend for a well deserved 3rd place.
The Junior class had a large field of 17 drivers and it was great to see good close, and mostly clean racing. Nelson local Matthew Butchart was leading the chase after day one, closely followed by the CHCH contingent, Day 2 saw Scott Mansen and Tom Alexander take the battle for the lead with consistent driving from Tom see him take the win closely followed by Scott and Alex Webb who had two 1st over the weekend.
The Max Light class had a large field and was an exciting class to watch with national champion Ryan Urban making the trip from Auckland. With 6 different drivers having 1st places the points where very close throughout the weekend. With 7 points separating 3rd – 8th places. Last years sunbelts champ Glenn Hartley was again on the pace and consistent through out the weekend beating out Ryan by 1 point overall. 3rd place was CHCH Jeremy Burgess. Local Nelson drivers Josh Ingils, Taryn Kugener and Grant Kugener where also strong through out the weekend along with Jamie Duff and Andrew Errington from CHCH.
The close racing continued into the Max Heavy class with Duncan Barrett and CHCH Jonathan Hauge and Mike Pulley all in the running after day one, but it was Jonathon that took out 1st 3 points clear of Duncan in 2nd.
The Open/KZ2 class was a whitewash with Andy Knight taking starting the meeting as he meant to go on winning heat 1 – 8 convincingly. Brett Sullivan looked in the running for 2nd before mechanical faults saw him retire at in heat 5 and never really get going again.
The Senior Light class was again action packed with Andy Knight and Cody McMasters joining Hamish Cross in the 18 strong line up. Hamish was very consistent through out the weekend finishing 7 of the 9 races in the top 3, but he had strong competition from Ben Webb and Kane Adcock both of who drove exceptionally well, Ben winning the final in terrible conditions.
The Organising Teams from both Clubs would like to thank all those Competitors who came and enjoyed the weekend, The Officials who ran the meeting and ALL the Volunteers who worked tirelessly in the background to make it all happen.
The result for each of the Classes is as follows: -
Cadet Seth Rasmussen Nsn
Junior Restricted Brooke Reeve Marl
Junior Yamaha Tom Alexander ChCh
S/L Yamaha Hamish Cross ChCh
Rotax Max Heavy Jonathon Hague ChCh
Rotax Max Light Glen Hartley ChCh
Open / KZ2 Andy Knight ChCh
For full race results see www.mylaps.com – Sunbelts
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