Motorsport: Cameron back from the brink for Taranaki final

Richard Moore battles it out with another young Auckland gun, Mathew Kinsman.

The stage is set for a cliffhanger in Taranaki early next month after dynamic young Aucklander Paul Cameron came back from the brink at the Hamilton Kart Club's raceway to win the second-to-last round of one of the country's major karting events.

Last year's Ingham Honda Kart Stars Rotax Max Challenge winner and national representative Joshua Hart, Palmerston North, won the two heats and the pre-final. But the final, and therefore the round victory, went to Cameron, with Hart second, then a gap back to a six-kart battle pack of Brock Barrie, Kane Taylor, Michael Wheaton, Charles Hoare, Bradley Tyrrell and Anthony Pedersen.

That result meant Hart retained his overall series points lead heading to the final at Waitara, albeit by just one point over Cameron.

Another young Auckland driver, Kane Taylor, was in third place, just seven points back.

Cameron, 22, last year's North Island and New Zealand Rotax Max Light champion and runner-up at his first attempt at the annual Rotax Max Challenge series in 2003, was one of the drivers to struggle early on the Hamilton track.

But he persevered, picking up speed with each heat to finish an ominous second in the 18-lap pre-final - the race which determines the starting position for the final - before catching and passing Hart to win the 24-lap final.

"It definitely was a hard day early on," Cameron said.

"I was not very quick in qualifying but I managed to pick up eight-tenths over the day up to the final, which obviously helped me towards the round result."

In the Arai Formula Junior, Auckland 14-year-old Richard Moore retained his lead in the overall points standings, although the day belonged to young Wellingtonian Jamie McNee.

Hamilton star Martin Short won the first heat, but from then on in it was McNee's day, the 13-year-old winning both the pre-final and the final as he liked.

Fortunately for Moore, McNee is not in the running for the series win, so second place was good enough for Moore to push his series lead out to eight points over Short - who finished fourth in the final behind McNee, Moore and Mathew Kinsman.

In the Shift Rotax Max Heavy, former Challenge winner and national representative Jared Carlyle - who has moved up a weight break this season from the 160kg kart-and-driver light class to the 180kg heavy - also retained his series lead, even though his number one engine lost power and he was passed by Mark Gilmer and Arryn Hill in the first heat.

Once he bolted on his second engine he was back to his winning best, with Hill, Gilmer, Phillip Saunders and Nick Rogers fighting over second.

In the Masters sections Brent Murgatroyd held on to his 11-point lead over fellow Aucklander Brent Gilchrist (212). Taranaki's Steve Boyde is now third having had a better day at Hamilton than Brendon Hart from Palmerston North.

Each year the overall winners of the multi-round Rotax Max Challenge and the Formula Junior Challenge represent New Zealand at an annual grand final.

The international Grand Challenge, the seventh in the series promoted by Austrian engine-builder Rotax, will be held at the Viana Do Castello circuit in Portugal from November 14 to 18.

This season the organisers of the local challenge, Rotax Max engine importer Right Karts, has also arranged a trip to Australia's annual Rotax Max Nationals meeting for the winner of the Shift Rotax Max Heavy class and a trip to Australia's annual masters games for the best over-35-year-old across the light and heavy classes.