Karters foot it with country's best in Hamilton

Three Kartsport Marlborough racers showed their considerable driving talents at the National Sprint Championships in Hamilton over Easter.

Nine-year-old Taylor Costello competed in the 13-strong cadet rok class, finishing a highly-creditable fourth in New Zealand.

Will Finch, 12, raced in the VMR Class and finished eighth, among 39 drivers, while 21-year-old William Exton, racing in the Rotax Max Light Class alongside 40 drivers, came in fifth across the country.

With 218 entries covering nine different race classes this was one of the biggest turn outs for the National Sprint events in history and one of the most competitive.

The three Marlborough competitors did what was described as “an amazing job” on an unfamiliar track.

Hamilton is classed as one of NZ’s most difficult tracks to learn and master so the local trio punched well above their weight in their classes, with the added pressures of the National Sprint Championships.

Taylor, who finished eighth at last year’s nationals, had a top five goal this year. He started in the final in fifth position and raced 20 laps right on the tail of the driver in fourth position. On the last corner of the last lap he threw a pass in and had a drag race to the finish line, having to settle for fourth by 0.008 of a second.

Will, raced in one of the toughest fields of 10-13-year-olds in the VMR class. He began the final in 29^th position and during a race marred by multiple incidents and accidents, kept his head down and worked his way through the field to eighth place. He didn’t have the easiest of weekends but proved never giving up pays off.

After switching from his NZ GT4 and Australian Porsche series racing and back into the go karts, William raced in one of the most competitive fields. He worked hard to secure a place in the final and showed he has lost none of his karting prowess.