The “Trans-Tasman Challenge” was the prize on offer for winning the New Zealand SuperKart Championship. It included a kart set up ready to race for the weekend at round one of the Australian National SuperKart Championships. We heard about the Trans-Tasman Challenge and thought, let's give it a red hot go, AND WE WON!!! I would like to say a massive thanks to the SuperKart Drivers Club of New Zealand and Australian SuperKart Events for giving me the opportunity to go across the ditch and race at this prestigious event in 2024.

The Australian SuperKart Champs consisted of two rounds, the first was held in March at the Shell V-Power Motorsport Park at The Bend in Adelaide, Australia.

After jumping into a new kart on a new track I picked things up quickly during the practice day and felt pretty good going into the weekend's racing. After qualifying in P5 and a P3 finish in race one we were off to a good start. I had Ryan Urban chipping away at the kart to see where we could pick up some time and add a bit of speed out of the corners. The kart got better and better as the racing continued resulting in P2 in race two, P2 in race three and finally a dominant P1 in the final race to end the weekend.

After doing so well at round one and sitting in second place only eight points behind the leader the decision was made to go back and compete at round two, the final round of the Championship.

Round two was contested at Winton Motor Raceway at the beginning of October. A practice weekend at the track before the race meeting meant I wasn’t going onto a new track with a new kart as I did at the first round. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to use the same kart that I used at round one thanks to Scott Williams.

I qualified in P3 and the racing was hard-fought and a real battle. My results from the 4 races were P2, P1, P1 and P2. This placed me second for the weekend and with the points added up over the two rounds was enough to give me the Australian SuperKarts Championship win!

The Trans-Tasman prize gave me a great opportunity to race with new people and discover new tracks. Without it I probably wouldn't have achieved the two Championships in one season. We have met some great people along this journey and made many new friends.

I fully recommend competing for the Trans-Tasman Challenge when it is offered in the future. Consistency and commitment paid off in spadefuls for me and can do so for you too. It costs nothing more to enter and its part of the same meetings we compete at anyway so really, why wouldn't you??

I would like to thank the SuperKart Drivers Club of New Zealand, Australian SuperKart Events, Tony Bowden, Ryan Urban, Scott Williams, Dale Williams, Jordie Ford, Justin Ford, Shannon Noble and my personal sponsors who all helped get me to each round.

Tyler Edney.

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Article added: Monday 21 October 2024