During the heats Kaleb was also shunted from behind and crashed into a fence. With the kart not handling right, major alterations were needed.
"I've always taught him to tell me how the kart was handling and what needed to be done. In the end, after getting clearance from the officials, we changed the entire chassis and Kaleb was forced to race in what was essentially a completely new kart."
The youngster was a quick learner and qualified fifth for the final.
"In the final he hit the lead on lap three and stayed there throughout to win by two and a half seconds and win the New Zealand title. It was a busy weekend for me and his mother Tracey [Toulmin]. We both do all the mechanical work to help reduce costs," Robbie Ngatoa said.
Kaleb is keen to make racing his career, ultimately stepping up to larger, more powerful machines and would love to follow the path of one of his early mentors, Earl Bamber.
Bamber went from karting to driving for the Porsche factory team helping to win the Le Mans 24-hour race last year.
"Earl and his brother Will helped us out way back when Kaleb was younger. It was Will who taught us about wheel alignment," Ngatoa said.
"Kaleb's really dedicated and keeps fit and eats right. He has already been offered a drive in an open wheeler and has also been offered test drives in Australia. We don't race in Australia much these days because it's just too expensive. We are lucky to have great support here in New Zealand, though. In fact, Kaleb's major sponsor, Jason Anderson from Praga Karts NZ, gave us the new chassis."
Kaleb will not be resting on his laurels with the second round of the Rotax Challenge series in Rotorua in four weeks and then the Secondary Schools Nationals in July.
"The Challenge series has a trip to race in Italy as the main prize and that would be neat, but Kaleb hasn't made a great start. It's a four-round series, so I guess there's still time to build up points with three rounds to go."
