There were five drivers along with a large Kiwi contingent at the 2010 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals meeting at La Conca - Southern Italy from 14-21 November.

Andy Schofeild, Josh Hart, Matthew Hamilton, Hamish Cross and Niki Urwin all represented NZ at the finals. Pre Finals and Finals were all run on Sunday 21 November.

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 at Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 2004 and third last year in Egypt for Matthew Hamilton.

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

 

Day 1 and 2 - 16 and 17/11/10   Handing out of karts and free practice   Tuesday was spent collecting the Sodi Junior Max, CRG Senior Max and DD2 and also Haase DD2 Masters karts in the random draw. After receiving the karts, taking them away to fit seats, lead, data loggers and personalising the karts.   For Andy, Josh, Matthew and Hamish this was pretty text book. For Niki though there were a few small extras that needed to be done.........The fitting of the special CRG hand control steering wheel along with his own throttle and new style Rotax shift pedals.   The work involved is this required many hands from most manufactures and team members but the end result is outstanding and Niki is more than comfortable in the kart.   Wednesday each driver had 2 un-timed practice sessions of 20 and 15 minutes. All 5 lads attacked these in different ways.   Andy (Kart 68) in his own "little nervous" way, as his mechanic Brad Tyrrell put it, did a solid job and looks to be a front runner early. Josh (Kart 137) took his time and came out late in the first session to save his tyres and used the 2nd as more of a hard run. Matthew (Kart 231) had brake problems in the first but got on top of these in the 2nd and like Andy is one to watch.   Hamish (Kart 316) went out there and was fast straight off the bat, while rubbing a few up on the wrong way as well, showing that 'don't mess with this Kiwi' attitude!.   Niki (Kart 339) took his time in the first run to bed in brakes and make sure everything was working alright and safe. After a brake bleed his 2nd run was a totally different thing and Niki was in amongst the action and building confidence with every pump of the hand brake.   A great first day by all drivers and a close team dinner was had afterwards........252 drivers from 61 country's and the Kiwis had already made their mark.
Day 3 – 18/11/10   Qualifying Day   Today was the first real day of on track competition for the New Zealand team. With 2 warm-up sessions then one 15 min Qualifying session in the afternoon. This would determine were they would start there heats tomorrow and Saturday.   All the lads warm-ups went with-out hassle and gave them a chance to try a major changes before qualification runs, if these didn't work they knew they could go back to what worked the previous day.   Andy in his Sodi kart supplied junior max had a qualifying run that has left the team scratching our heads......49th place overall. With no changes over night, bar the weather and new tyres, Andy had lost 6 tenths in lap and over 6 kph straight speed on the data......A mystery to say the least. The track has got better and the tune has changed since yesterday. Fingers crossed that Andy can tick away and stay out of trouble tomorrow to avoid having to go into the 2nd chance race. Pole was set by Martin Rump from Estonia with a 50.985 lap time (Andy 51.707).   Josh on the other hand had the complete opposite. After his 15 min qualifying was up Josh ended up 4th overall with a 50.084, pole time was 49.838 set by Edward Brand from the UK. Josh had little complaints afterwards and all that was left for him and his Belgium mechanic to do was clean and strip the kart to keep the wandering eyes away. A good start to the competition of Josh, a start that Ray would have been more than happy and very proud of.   Matthew had come off a very good morning warm-up and had a good package going into qualifying. After both groups had completed there 15 mins each Matthew was 7th overall with lap time of 49.247. Pole was set by ex Canadian A1 GP driver Daniel Morad with a 49.089. 2 tenths off pole was a great effort by Matt considering the engine had developed an electrical misfire while under load on the straight. A new coil and sparkplug were supplied by Rotax and Matt is all set for his heats.   Hamish must have had the same for breakfast as Josh as he also had a barn-stormer of qualifying session. He ended the run with a 2nd position time of a 49.468........0.001 of the pole time of 7 time world final attendee Scott Campbell of Canada with a 49.467. A great effort by Hamish and his team, the big gain for Hamish was as simple as bolting new rubber on and adding some more camber in the front end.   Niki's gains were also coming thick and fast with every lap he turned he became more confident in the MOJO D3 tyre and the over efficient brakes on the HAASE supplied DD2 chassis. He floated around the 10th/11th place for a long time but 5 mins from the end Nik got shuffled back to 17th place. The number may not make good reading for most but all involved here know how good this is for Niki. a gain of 7 tenths on new tyres and a Nik has clicked with the kart and says he can now read it like his max kart back home. 2 tenths quicker and he would have been 10th!.   Once again keep an eye on the live timing and keep the texts and emails coming, the team really appreciate the support from home.
Day 4 – 19/11/10   Qualifying Heats   The first day of racing for the kiwi team dawned wet with a damp track under foot for the drivers short warm up in the morning. All 5 of the kiwi contingent had fairly un-eventful warm ups and all showed good pace. Andy and mechanic Brad Tyrrell made it through parc ferme just in time for the short practice after carb assembly problems but they made it out and Andy showed good speed for the heats ahead. Hamish had a small brake problem so pulled in early, after a bleed of the system all was fine and he was ready for his heats.   Andy could only go forward after a very average day yesterday qualifying 49th overall. This gave him a grid 25 start for his 3 heats (2 today and 1 tomorrow). His first heat started very well, Andy had the elbows up and made his way through avoiding any dramas on the way. He made his way as high as 13th place and came across a bunch of karts that were battling hard, so hard the all slowed badly out of the hairpin at turn 3. Andy having nowhere to go took avoiding action to the kerb and half spun, this left him stuck till the entire field would pass. All his hard work undone and a 31st place finish, gutted yes but this made him more determined for his heat later in the day. The heat was won by Nick Nerri from the USA.   Heat two and once again the big little man pressed on and made his way all the way up to 8th, a stonker of a drive that left the team fist pumping over the fence. As a reward for his hard work he was brought up to 6th position because of two drivers ahead being time panelised for driving infringements. This heat was won by Jack Aitken from the UK.   Josh was to start both his heats from grid 2...not the best place to be at La Conca with two very fast right hander's after the start straight, like Josh said he would rather have been grid 3, 5 or even 7. His first heat start proved this with him dropping as far back as 8th in the opening lap. A full course yellow because of an accident bunched the field up for 7 of the 12 laps while the accident was cleared. Once the race resumed Josh made his slow move forward and got back up to 5th at race end. The heat was won by Hugo Ouelette from Canada.   Heat two for the Palmy lad was much better with him only dropping as far as 4th. He plugged away and made his way up to 2nd by race end, the difference between him and race winner Daniel Formal from the USA was nothing and any inroads made under brakes were lost coming off the turn. Two solid heats for Josh and only one more outside grid 2 to contend with tomorrow.   Matthew had grid 3 starts for his heats and after seeing the battle Josh had at his heat starts, was more than happy with his grid. Heat one he got shuffled back a little as the more experienced European DD2 drivers used there front brake and D3 Mojo tyre experience to full advantage. This wasn't to last long for the Euros as Matt settled in to his work and picked them off one by one making his way back up to 4th at race end.   Heat two was a similar start for Matt, he knew more what was to come as a heavy crash involving leader Daniel Morad from Canada and one of our Australian friends Jason Pringle. This elevated Matt up two places and the rest he picked off himself coming in another solid 4th. A good points haul leading into tomorrows final heat.   Our DD2 masters drivers Hamish and Niki made the rest of the kiwi teams support job easy, with only 36 karts in their field this meant no split heats and they were both in the same race......it was Kiwis (and one Aussie/Kiwi, Dale Verrall) to the fence.
Hamish provided us with plenty to watch and at times cross our fingers. He would start grid 2 in all his heats and this didn't seem to phase him. Heat one he muscled his way down to the inside and got on with job at hand. You would swear that this was the race for the world championship as the positions 2nd back to 6 went at it hammer and tong while the leader and race winner, Canada's Scott Campbell raced off into the distance. Hamish finished the race in 3rd spot. Niki was to start the heats from grid 17, a hard task as the men around him were very much unknowns' for Niki and it was a case of "who can I trust". Niki had a strong run forward, then back, then forward.....then back again. His competition around him were a tad "unpredictable" as Niki put it. He finished the heat in 17th place were he started and the kart came back without a mark on it, what more could you ask for. Heat two was even more entertaining up the front. Hamish got a great start and started a race long battle for the top 3 places. I don't think any one person lead a full two laps, it was action packed and the kiwi team were either going to have a wrecked kart to fix or a race winner to clean. And to the teams delight it was the later, Hamish winning the heat in style from Dennis Kroes from the Netherlands. Niki had a much stronger heat and got the back of the "unpredictable's" early on. He made his way into the lions den when one of them got out of shape while Nik was well in, past and on way to the next kart.....this took Niki off the track and dropped him to 19th were he would finish. Plenty of work for the team tonight with some seats to be moved, front ends to change, carbs to re-set and have a Peroni over (the Italians own Steinlager).
Day 5 - 20/11/10   3rd Heats and last chance qualifier races   A dry warm start meet the 5 likely kiwi drives at La Conca international circuit today. On the agenda was the 3rd and final qualifying heats for all drivers and for those not lucky enough to make it straight through to the pre-final from their heat results the last chance qualifying race waited. Not a road that any of our drivers wanted to go down.   Andy would start his last heat from grid 25 like the two previous. He had a great start and made his way up as far as 13th place with only 3 laps to run. Andy stuck half a nose underneath one of the Netherlands drivers on the final two turns leading onto the front straight. His nose got cut off, this slowed Andy and he got rail-roaded from both sides and had the front end of his kart driven over causing him to spin.....By the time he got going again Andy was in 32nd place were he would go onto finish with only 2 laps left to salvage anything. The last chance race was Andy's (last chance). This heat was won by Martin Rump from Estonia.   With a full grid and only the top 6 places being taken through to the back of the pre-final grid Andy had his work cut out over the next 8 laps. He would start from grid 19, the maths from his previous form and speed said he could do it, so did all the kiwi team, maths or no maths. He had a strong start making it up to 10th, then 8th with 2 laps to go it was looking good with a gaggle of karts sitting around the golden 6th. A heavy pass by a kart shuffled Andy back to 10th were he would sadly finish, his world finals run had come to an end. A great effort by Andy and this result was far from reflective of what he was capable of.   Josh off grid 2 had a much better start and filled into line straight away to start the pressure cooker on pole sitter Edward Brand from the UK. Josh shadowed Brand for the whole race making gains and losses every lap. It looked as though Josh had settled for 2nd until the very last turn when Josh jammed a good old Palmy two tree pass at Brand to take the lead and the heat win from the UK lad.
Matthew would start from grid 4 and the two previous heats experience was showing on Matt who had the elbows out straight from the start. As he battled hard with Roy Geerts from the Netherlands and Geore Vann from Estonia, the lanky aussie lad Jason Pringle gapped it and took the race lead by a decent margin. Matt eventually showed them what for and took the race win with pod stickers to prove it!. A great effort by Matt and showed he wasn't going to back down from a fight. Our two masters would start from their same grids as yesterday (Hamish grid 2 & Niki grid 17). Hamish was in amongst the thick of it straight away battling for 2nd/3rd spots while Scott "Canadian" Campbell pulled out a gap. After Hamish and the other masters calmed down they started to catch Campbell and before we knew it Hamish was battling for the lead again. Places went too and fro with the win eventually going to Dennis Kroes from the Netherlands with Hamish a hard fought 2nd. Niki had a pretty average start being off loaded early while executing a pretty black n white pass, this dropped him to 30th and Niki spent the rest of the heat trying to scrape something together and stay on all 4 wheels at the same time. He would eventually finish 27th but like previous heats the kart was straight and gave the team something to build on.
Day 6 – 21/11/10   Finals Day   Once again the day dawned fine with a bit of overnight rain, the track was slightly damp for the tuning runs. First on track for the Kiwis were the DD2 masters, unfortunately the damp track caught out Hamish who slid off on the fast 1st turn sweeper causing extensive damage to the front of his kart, Hamish's bad day was to continue, with him having fuel pump problems when leaving the pit chute for the start of the pre final which he was set to be off grid two, as his kart spluttered to a stop this was the trend for the rest of Hamish's 2010 Grand Final.   Niki also had a bad pre final with an off course excursion and collecting a safety cone, this caught the throttle cable and forced Niki to retire. The final saw Niki off grid 31 and Hamish off grid 36. Both made a very strong start and missed a first corner crash, Niki missed the 2nd corner crash but Hamish was caught up in this which forced a retirement, for Hamish this was a disappointing end to his week, as he had shown he had the pace to be the Masters World Champion. Niki continued on and drove through to 15th place where he was looking for further progress when he caught another bunch of 5 or so karts, it all got a bit hectic and Niki along with a few of this group found themselves shuffled down the order. Niki finished the final in a very credible 21st place, and was very happy with his performance over the weekend. We all watched in awe to see Josh Harts drive to win the Pre Final, this included an early battle with pole sitter Edward Brand of Great Britain and in the last few laps with Canada's Pier Luc Ouellette, Josh making a clean pass on the last corner to take the pre final and with this pole for the Final.   A seat position change and Josh was all set for the Final. At the start Josh was swamped by what looked like an early start from grid two, so he settled into position 3 for the first lap, then took 2nd place, early on he made the pass for 1st which he held for most of the race, the kiwi team were all thinking "Is this the one we will Finally win." A strong challenge was put in by Caleb Williams from South Africa, who took the lead from Josh with 4 laps to go, Josh worked on getting back the lead but this wasn't to be and he finished 0.3 sec's behind Caleb to record NZ's best ever Finals result! This left the NZ hopes of that elusive win on the shoulders of Matt Hamilton. Matt had driven a very controlled Pre Final to finish this in position 4 where he would start the Final. Early on in the final saw Matt battling with the leaders and he was moving from 3rd, back to 7th then back up to 5th, Canada's Daniel Morad and Belgium's Maik Barten had meantime pulled a gap on the next 4 which included Matt in 5th place, an attempted pass was made from position 4 which resulted in a tangle of this group. Matt managed to avoid any major setback and although he lost contact with the two leaders he was able to press on for a well earned 3rd place to compliment his 3rd from last year.   So NZ had two podiums from the meeting, and once again we had shown the World that we are equal to any challenge! The Nations cup went to Spain, 2nd was Estonia with Australia 3rd. The team want to thank all the supporters from back home for all the emails and txts of support. We are now off to the Finals party!!

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

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