Pat yourselves on the back Auckland club members - our Christmas Meetings just continue to grow & are such a great end to the karting year. The weather Gods certainly were smiling for Sunday; there were a lot of twitchy organisers trying to think up Plans B, C & D on Friday!

The kids Christmas Party kicked off with the Lolly Scramble - out of the helicopter organized by our own magician Rodney. Not sure how we can top that one for next year….. Santa arrived on his amphibious sleigh then all hit the clubrooms for the pressies & party food.

104 drivers over 10 classes made for great racing and in addition we also had the Vintage Karts return for displays, demonstrations and advice for the newer generations.

Again, we thank these guys & gals for affording us the privilege to view and experience a bit of karting from yesteryear.

With many new faces to our last event of the year we hope you enjoyed your day & look forward to seeing you return for some of our more ‘run-of-the-mill’ events in 2010.

An awesome field of Cadets took to the track on Sunday & with Club Points so close leading in to this last event of the year there were several Cadet parents with calculators being hugged tight & prayers being sent heavenward.

Dylan Smith prevailed overall with Ryan MacKinven second & Alex Edwards third with Dylan also setting a new track record in the third race.

The Cadets this year, and now in following years, had an additional race - the Warren Smith Memorial. This is raced as a Grand Prix, over 15 laps with a random start grid. After a “false start” the race was run and the winner of this very special race was Ryan MacKinven.

One of the most noticeable things throughout the day were the number of drivers making the use of this meeting to test the waters, & themselves, in new classes. And there were also those, like Rhys Tinney and Stan Tangaroa-Green who won their respective classes last year, have since moved up & repeated their efforts this year but at the next class up.

A popular winner, Arran Crighton took out Junior Restricted in a close points race from Connor Westbury. Kaitlyn Wonnacott was third & Logan Brown, first race meeting in this class, fourth.

Junior Yamaha class, where there was another great turnout, were dueling for the Jack Pearson Memorial trophy; it was another close points battle here, with Rhys Tinney edging out Reid Harker with Kaleb Currie (just up from JR) in third.

Almost half the field of Formula Junior were drivers who a week or so ago were JR’s; and they all did good!

Current North Island Champ Bradley Hicks played from ROF grids by choice and although not winning the day smashed the track record (reverse direction) several times during the day. The days honours went to Aaron Wilson whose consistency was the key. Bradley was second & CJ Sinclair third.

All the Yamaha classes ran on track together - Club Class going to Andrew Jackson from Luis Cachero & Haylee Wallace.

Yamaha Light saw Stan Tangaroa-Green follow up last years Formula J win and take home the Bob Hone Trophy winning the class from best mate Levi Madsen-Prinn & Nigel - goodbye Yamaha, hello KZ2 - Kurtz.

Brendon Smith had a clean sweep in Yamaha Heavy winning the class from Sharn Connor & Adam Davis.

There were enough Rotax entries to guarantee that each had their own race; really good numbers in Lights especially, due to several juniors moving onwards & upwards to the senior ranks.

And it was the newly initiated that took the honours; Daniel Connor winning from Shaun Morris who pipped Scott Reddish on countback.

As we are accustomed to seeing at Auckland, the largest class of the day was Rotax Heavy - 17 of ‘em! Anthony Murch didn’t have a clean sweep of the 3 heats but his consistent results assured that he had a healthy points gap over Cameron Dennis in second & Garry Claxton third. David Waldmeyer filled the fourth spot but he now has the honor of being the new track record holder in this class.

The Williamson Memorial trophy for Open class went home for the fourth year running with Graeme Smyth; another driver to break the track record multiple times during the day. Jason Farmilo was second & Brett Hollander squeezed out newcomer to the class Daniel Colville for third on countback.

A special thanks goes out to all the people - and you know who you are! - who helped make this Christmas meeting so wonderful.

Thanks, also, to the Vintage Guys & Gals, some who travelled serious miles to be in attendance.

Results –

Cadet -

1. Dylan Smith 2. Ryan MacKinven 3. Alex Edwards 4. Lachlan Smith 5. Brad Wilson 6. Connor Wilson

Junior Restricted –

1. Arran Crighton 2. Connor Westbury 3. Kaitlyn Wonnacott 4. Logan Brown

5. Logan Rogers-Jenkins 6. Finley McLaren

Junior Yamaha –

1. Rhys Tinney 2. Reid Harker 3. Kaleb Currie 4. Arie Hutton 5. Caleb Hartley

6. Jonathan Buxeda

Formula Junior –

1. Aaron Wilson 2. Bradley Hicks 3. CJ Sinclair 4. Luke Dobbs 5. Lee Derrick 6. Joel Herbert

Club Class –

1. Andrew Jackson 2. Luis Cachero 3. Haylee Wallace

Senior Yamaha Light -

1. Stan Tangaroa-Green 2. Levi Madsen-Prinn 3. Nigel Kurtz 4. Scott Sample

5. Scott Burkhart 6. Deon Forrest

Senior Yamaha Heavy -

1. Brendon Smith 2. Sharn Connor 3. Adam Davis 4. Garry Cullum 5. Shaun Curran

Senior Rotax Light -

1. Daniel Connor 2. Shaun Morris 3. Scott Reddish 4. Kane Taylor 5. Andre Elliot 6. Marius Holm

Senior Rotax Heavy -

1. Anthony Murch 2. Cameron Dennis 3. Garry Claxton 4. David Waldmeyer

5. David Langslow 6. Michael Cullum

Senior Open –

1. Graeme Smyth 2. Jason Farmilo 3. Brett Hollander 4. Daniel Colville

5. James Jackson 6. Matt Wallace

Following all the official racing it was time for the Christmas and end of year fun to start.

The Fathers Race went to Gary Murch, the Ladies went to Hayley Currie & the Mechanics to Rob Morgan.

Other 2009 end of year awards presented -

Overall Points -

Cadet - Lachlan Smith

Junior Restricted - Kaitlyn Wonnacott

Formula Junior - Samantha Lewis

Junior Yamaha - Callum McDonald

Club Class - Luis Cachero

Yamaha Light - Nigel Kurtz

Yamaha Heavy - Adam Davis

Rotax Light - Andre Elliot

Rotax Heavy - Anthony Murch

Open - James Jackson

 Most Improved -

Cadet - Brodie Cox

Junior Restricted - Joe Ganley

Junior - Callum McDonald

Senior - Brett Hollander

Best Presented Kart - Jacob Smith

So ends our 2009 karting year.

The track is now closed and reopens January 27 th 2010.

(The late opening due to track repairs being carried out)

Our first meeting for 2010 is our City of Sails 2-Day Challenge.

Entry Forms will be available on both the NZ & Auckland websites in the next few days.

Online entry is available now - so get those entries rolling in!

Also the same weekend is our 50 th Anniversary celebrations.

Keep up to date with what’s happening via the web site - there will be a working bee or three leading up to this first event to get the complex ship-shape.

Have an enjoyable holiday break and travel safe.