Blossom Meeting Heralds Start Of Summer Kart Seaso

KARTSPORT NEW ZEALAND
Media Release
For immediate release

* 41st annual Blossom Sprint meeting
In association with The Thirsty Whale
Hawke's Bay Karting Club Inc
ZM Raceway
Roy's Hill
Hastings
Sat/Sun
Sept 6-7
2008

PREVIEW

28-08-08

Blossom Meeting Heralds Start Of Summer Kart Season

With a winter of wet and often wild weather to contend with karters from around the country are hoping the annual Blossom meeting in Hawke's Bay over the September 6-7 weekend heralds a change.

The annual meeting, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, is the first of the major 'summer' meetings on the local karting calendar and as its name suggests there is usually a strong hint of spring in the air.

This year's meeting at the ZM Raceway at Roy's Hill near Hastings has certainly proved popular, having attracted over 120 entries from as far afield as Dunedin in the south and Whangarei in the North.

Members of the organising club, the Hawke's Bay Karting Club Inc, are particularly pleased with the strength in the Junior ranks.

The Junior 100cc Yamaha field is now full at 32 entries and both Cadet with 17 and Junior Restricted 100cc Yamaha on 18 are as healthy as they have ever been in the long history of the event.

At 24 entries in the most popular senior class - 100cc Yamaha Light - are also high.

The event will see a number of nationally-ranked drivers competing including local hero, reigning New Zealand and North Island Cadet class champion Maddison Wise, and reigning New Zealand and North Island 100cc Yamaha Light champion Karl Wilson from Wellington.

Another local driver expected to do well is Zach Zaloum, one of three NZ #2 ranked karters entered.

One of the most anticipated match-ups of the meeting in fact is in 125cc Rotax Max Heavy where young gun Zaloum will line up alongside the driver who pipped him for the NZ#1 title at the nationals in Blenheim over the Easter weekend, experienced kart and car racer Hamish Cross from Christchurch.

Zaloum and fellow NZ#2 Mitchell Hill from the Manawatu are also expected to feature in 100cc Yamaha Light where they will come up against Karl Wilson, Hamilton's Tyler Richardson and Tokoroa's David Meszaros.

Testing at the club's ZM Raceway at Roy's Hill on the outskirts of Hastings begins on Thursday September 4 with racing on Saturday September 6 and Sunday September 7.

A feature of the annual Blossom meeting is that competition is run in a clockwise direction on Saturday then anti-clockwise on Sunday, providing two completely different challenges for the drivers.

This year's meeting will also again see a demonstration of vintage karts by long-time club members like Mark Jenkinson and Dr Rhod Murray who have also been buying up and restoring some of the karts which were raced here in the early 1960s and 1970s.

Ends

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