Champion Kiwi Karter to Race In Australia This Weekend

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For Immediate Release

26-06-13

PRESS RELEASE

Champion Kiwi Karter to Race In Australia This Weekend

New Zealand's top Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha class karter, Caleb Cross from Rangiora, will make his Australian debut this coming weekend at the annual Queensland state titles meeting in Bundaberg in northern Queensland.

Since winning the South Island class title last year and the New Zealand title this year the 12-year-old has won his class at the KartSport Canterbury's annual club championship meeting and at the big Sunbelts meeting at Queen's Birthday, prompting his father Hamish, a champion kart and car racer in his own right, to seek a fresh challenge for his talented son.

"When I was Caleb's age the big thing was going to the North Island," he said on Monday. "Now it's Australia.

State title meetings like the Queensland Open Sprint Kart Championship one are second only to the annual Sprint Nationals across the Tasman and as such attract entries  - over 280 at last count - from all over Australia and now New Zealand.

Because there is no direct equivalent to New Zealand's Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha class, Caleb will run in one of the most popular Australian Junior classes, Junior National Light.

He will do so in a works-supplied Arrow X3 kart organised by South Island Arrow dealer WKS Karting Supplies using ex Macaulay Jones engines leased - thanks to an introduction from one of Hamish's former karting sparring partners, Tom Williamson - from V8 Supercar team owner Brad Jones.

The Junior National Light class uses a Yamaha KT 100 engine and - for want of comparison - is like a half-way house between the two Yamaha-based New Zealand Junior classes, Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha, and Junior Yamaha.

"Our plan was always to move up to the Junior Max class sometime this year anyway," says Hamish, " so this will give Caleb a good feel for running with a little bit more power in fields three times the size of the JR ones he's used to here."

There's quality as well as quantity in the the 34-strong class field as well, with reigning Australian title holder Bryce Fullwood making the trip down from Darwin to head the Junior National Light entry list.

Both Hamish and long-time family friend Graham Wehner who works with the pair are realistic about Caleb's chances this weekend, though both are adamant that they are not crossing the Tasman to make up the numbers.

"On the one hand it's a toe-in-the-water exercise, but on the other," says Hamish, " Caleb is the reigning New Zealand champion so we're treating this the same way we would treat a trip to the Nationals or Islands here."

And Caleb?

"Dad says we're going there to learn but I told him I'm a quick learner so the other boys better watch out!"

Caleb Cross in action, and with father Hamish in the pits, at the the recent Sunbelts meeting. Photo credit: Fast Company/Blair Hall

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