Wood & Kirwan podium Melbourne Titles kart meeting

With third place finishes in their respective classes, Ryan Wood from Wellington and Maxim Kirwan from Auckland ended up the best of what turned out to be a seven-strong squad of young Kiwi karters who contested the 35th annual City of Melbourne Titles meeting last weekend.

Wood, 15, the reigning New Zealand Rotax DD2 class champion, qualified ninth quickest in the Iame X30 field and after a 10/9/6 run through the heats saved his best until last, setting the fastest race lap in the Final on his way to a weekend best third place.

Kirwan, 8, also improved as the meeting went on, qualifying 12th (out of a 32-strong field) in the Cadet 9 class and finishing 13th in the first heat, 8th in the second and 4th in the third then got as high as P2 in the Final before crossing the finish line in 3rd place.

Invercargill’s Alex Crosbie was the ‘best-of-the-rest’ with 11th in the KA4 Jnr Light final.

Next came reigning NZ Vortex Mini ROK class champion Louis Sharp from Christchurch, who – with fellow Cantabrian Izaak Fletcher – was competing with the Tony Kart Australia team as part of prize packs put together by New Zealand Tony Kart and ROK engine importer Maurice Frost’s Supreme Kart Supplies & Engines business, and WPKA Goldstar series sponsor Manawatu & TRC Toyota.

Sharp qualified 10th quickest in the Cadet 12 class and finished 3rd in the first heat and 5th in the second. He ended up back in 14th place in the third heat and 13th – after going back as far as P20 early on then working his way back forward – in the Final.

On his Australasian debut in the Senior ranks, meanwhile, Aucklander Josh Richmond finished 15th in the Iame X30 class.

Rounding out the results of the Kiwi squad, Alex Patrick qualified 12th but ended up back in 21st place in the KA3 Junior Final, Izaak Fletcher qualified 25th , had a best heat race finish of 12th but crossed the line 26th in Cadet 12, and a dnf in his second heat meant that Zavier Harvey missed the cut in the oversubscribed field and did not qualify to start the Cadet 12 class Final.

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