Struggles in the past and looking for a top-10 finish

  I F THERE were trophies for patience Hawke's Bay karter Carly Tollenaar wouldn't have any room in her shed for her kart.
The Yamaha Lights driver who will be among 30 Hawke's Bay Karting Club members in the field of 120 in action at this weekend's 42nd annual Blossom Meeting at Roy's Hill near Hastings has patience big time.
Most other drivers would have walked away from the sport years ago if they had experienced the amount of bad luck Tollenaar did during the first eight years of her nine-year racing career.
"This is the first year things have started to fall into place," Tollenaar, 20, told SportToday before rattling off her list of successes.
They include a second placing in the Te Puke point series, a top-10 finish at the Te Puke Citrus Meeting and a class win in the Hawke's Bay club's summer series.
Before this year, Tollenaar and her dad, Steve, pushing her kart off the track or collecting bits of her kart off the track were common sights at ZM Raceway.
"We had a lot of set-up problems in the past and struggled for a long time. For us, it was a case of learn as you go but, this year, we've had a lot of help," said Tollenaar.
"Racing a kart is something I've always wanted to do since Dad took me out to the track to watch when I was quite young. I had never driven a kart but I wanted to give it a go."
It's obvious to SportToday Tollenaar will never walk away from the sport. Despite her family moving to Mount Maunganui earlier this year because of her father's work as a pilot they still return to Hawke's Bay for club meetings and she has also joined the Te Puke club.
"More time in the seat the better," said Tollenaar, who works as a service department receptionist for Bay of Plenty Honda. She is eyeing a top-10 finish in her 28-strong class at the Zabeels Sports Bar and TAB-sponsored meeting that will see her start in three races today and four tomorrow.
Other Bay drivers in her class are Nick Heywood, Jacob Ross, Shaun Hibbs and Mel Oughton.
Ross and Heywood are both capable of top-five finishes.
All three Hawke's Bay starters in the cadet class, Jacob Flynn, Karl McNicol and Trey Nairn, have the potential to finish on the podium. In the junior restricted class, national cadet class champion Mitchell Turner, former national cadet-class champion Maddison Wise and the Warner brothers Branden and Samuel are the host club's hopes.
After a disappointing New Zealand Secondary Schools champs campaign, Hawke's Bay's 3NZ Hayden Pedersen will be out to redeem himself in the Junior Yamaha class, which has attracted a maximum 32 starters.
Other Bay starters in his section are Rikki Dolan, Brayden Edwards, Liam Lewis, Alex Merz, Connor Toki, Jake Wheatley and Hamish Williams.
Three-time Blossom champion Darryl Paramore is three meetings back into his comeback after retiring seven years ago and is one of four Bay starters in the Yamaha Heavy class. Donna Lee, Shaun Reay and Zach Zaloum, a former 2NZ Rotax Max driver, are the others.
In the open class, the host club will be represented by Tom Curran, Johnathan Pearson, Stuart Sowersby, Kurt Sowersby, John Wallace and Zaloum.
Visitors with big reputations include multiple national champion Arie Hutton of Auckland in the Junior Yamaha class, Manawatu's former national champion Ryan Bailey in the Yamaha Lights class, Wellington's two-time national champion Will Thomason and former national champ Karl Wilson in the Yamaha Heavy class and former national champions Ryan Urban of Hamilton and Niklaus Kiser of Taranaki are in the open class.