KEY POINTS:
Kartsport will field one of its strongest teams ever at this year's Rotax Max Grand Final in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the end of November.
Two-time representative Josh Hart will join Aucklanders Paul Cameron and Mitchell Evans and Wanganui's William Bamber on the 2007 team.
Hart, from Palmerston North, won the New Zealand Challenge outright in 2005 and 2006 and will join 2007 Gen-1 Rotax Max Challenge of New Zealand senior winner Cameron, junior winner Evans and junior runner-up Bamber after winning a shoot-out for the final place on the team in Auckland.
New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to embrace Austrian company BRP-Rotax's vision of a true "world" karting formula and has been represented at every Olympic-style grand final since the inaugural one in Puerto Rico in 2000.
So far the best finish by a New Zealand representative is third in the junior category by Wanganui's Earl Bamber in 2004 and fifth by senior rep Hart in 2005.
Hart was beaten by Cameron to what would have been his third straight New Zealand Challenge Series win this year, but he claimed the right to be the team's "fourth man" by beating several other top New Zealand Rotax drivers in the DD2 class shoot-out.
New Zealand does not yet run a dedicated DD2 class (the DD2 is a new two-speed gearbox-equipped Rotax Max-engined kart) but Rotax importer and New Zealand Challenge promoter Right Karts put together the shoot-out in association with Hamilton kart shop owner Geoff Short, who has bought several for corporate use.
Joining Hart at KartSport Auckland's The Pallet Company Raceway to face off for the final place on the team were Daniel Kent, Jake Pascoe, Kane Taylor, Simon Evans and Richard Oxton from Auckland, and Martin Short from Hamilton.
Kent was the quickest in qualifying but Pascoe won the first heat from Kent, Hart, Oxton and Taylor.
But it was Hart who mastered difficult track conditions to win both the prefinal (the race to decide grid positions for the final) and winner-takes-all final, the latter from Evans, Kent and Pascoe.
This year's five-round Gen-1 Rotax Max Challenge of New Zealand, presented by Elf Oils, was the most competitive to date, with Cameron and Wellington's Karl Wilson involved in a five-way battle for senior honours with Hart, Oxton and Simon Evans.
Evans' younger brother, Mitchell, was the class of the Formula junior field, though competition was always close. Eventual runner-up Bamber - younger brother of 2004 New Zealand junior rep Earl - spent the season fighting a pitched battle with Auckland's Mathew Kinsman and Christchurch's Chris Cox.
Mitchell Evans will also be making a little bit of history when he travels to this year's final. Having only recently turned 13 he will be by far the youngest driver competing.
It was also close in the Speedy IT 125cc Rotax Max Heavy class, with eventual winner Phillip Saunders from Hamilton under constant pressure from Wellington's Nick Rodgers and Aucklanders Aarron Cunningham, Brent Humphreys and masters winner Brent Gilchrist.
TEAM TALENT
* At just 13, Auckland's Mitchell Evans is the youngest-ever winner of the junior class in New Zealand and is also believed to be the youngest driver to travel to the UAE for the Rotax Max grand final.
* By finishing second to Evans in the juniors, Wanganui's William Bamber will be the second member of his family to represent New Zealand at a Rotax Max grand final. In 2004, his older brother, Earl, finished third in the junior class at the grand final in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.
* This year's NZ Challenge Series winner, Paul Cameron of Auckland, and double-winner Josh Hart, of Palmerston North, will complete the NZ team.
