Defending champion Urban bags more titles at NZ superkart championships

Defending 250cc international and 125cc rotax max heavy national superkart champion Ryan Urban completed the double at the New Zealand superkart championships, winning both classes.

The wins at Manfeild in Feilding last weekend, gave the experienced driver a whopping 20 titles shared between national sprint and national superkart racing.

It was a clean sweep of wins in the international class for Urban, who won all four races.

Kim Stevens grabbed a trio of thirds plus a second-place finish to take the runner-up spot, one point clear of Andrew Hall.

Hall started strong with two second-place finishes, but finished the day with two fifths.

Urban was also the first masters driver in the 40-plus age bracket, while Hall led home the 60-plus Legends age group.

After dropping his worst heat result, Urban again finished in top position in the rotax max heavy class, ahead of former champion Aaron Tahu.

Tahu and the New Zealand No 2 Shannon Noble were tied for second place overall, with countback sorting the result. Urban also won masters honours.

The pair swapped positions in heat one and two, taking a win each, before O’Meara-Hunt finished the job with a win in the final race.

Jason Butterworth rounded out the podium and was also awarded the masters title.

Consistency was the key in the Rotax DD2 class. Lee Sefton powered his way to four podium finishes en route to wrapping up the title.

Chris Coleman snatched one win and finished runner-up ahead of Clinton Fell in third.

Results for the gearbox KZ2 class were on hold pending an appeal and would be released once finalised.

Rounding out racing for the weekend were the Grand Prix races for each class.

It was much of the same at the top, with Urban winning international and rotax heavy, and O'Meara-Hunt winning rotax light.

Fell won the rotax DD2, while Mark Barnhill led home the KZ2 field.

Both the event and the Grand Prix also doubled as the final rounds of the trans-Tasman prize draw for the rotax light and rotax heavy classes.

With points collected from six events, it was Tyler Edney and Shannon Noble who took home wins, with each of them earning a spot on the grid at the 2024 Australian Superkart Championships.