12.00pm
Auckland teenager Wade Cunningham won the world karting championship at Sarno, Italy, yesterday.
Cunningham, 19, who has been driving for Italy's CRG team for the past two years, went into the weekend's two-day world championship meeting with an outside chance of a podium placing.
He had to recover from a
shunt at the start of the pre-final on Saturday but managed to take sixth spot on the grid for the final.
In the final, Cunningham quickly worked his way into second place then inherited a lead for good when pole-sitter and early leader Manual Renaudie's engine seized
On his way to this historic victory, Cunningham not only beat recently crowned European champion Bas Lammers, two-time world champion Davide Fore, but also defending champion Vitantonio Liuzzi, who this year has been racing for the Red Bull team in Formula 3000, the support category for Formula One.
"Two years ago, I wouldn't have even dreamed of being at the world championships," Cunningham said.
"Even a year ago, winning it would have been outside the realms of possibility.
"But here I am, its happened and, well, all I can say is that it is still sinking in."
Earlier this month, New Zealander Scott Dixon won the Indy Racing League in the United States, and Greg Murphy won Australia's prestigious Bathurst 1000km race for the third time.
Cunningham first came to international notice when he won the Asia-Pacific Intercontinental A title at Suzuka, Japan, in 2001 which earned him the offer of a works drive with the CRG team.
Yesterday's win is unprecedented in the history of New Zealand motorsport.
Virtually all the current crop of Formula One drivers raced karts but very few even qualified for the world championship, let alone won it.
Not even Brazil's late three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna -- who returned to the kart championships twice after graduating to cars, could win the world karting title, despite trying for a number of years, KartSport New Zealand spokesman Ross McKay said in a statement.
Cunningham, who got his start in karts at the Mount Wellington kart club track in Auckland, is a two-time winner of New Zealand's top international meeting, the CIK Trophy.
Final: Wade Cunningham (NZ) 1; Arnaud Kozlinski (France) 2, Ben Hanley (Britain) 3, Ronnie Quintarelli (Italy) 4, Markus Niemala (Finland) 5.
- NZPA
12.00pm
Auckland teenager Wade Cunningham won the world karting championship at Sarno, Italy, yesterday.
Cunningham, 19, who has been driving for Italy's CRG team for the past two years, went into the weekend's two-day world championship meeting with an outside chance of a podium placing.
He had to recover from a
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