KartSport's spectacular and entertaining 125 Shifter Series roars back into action this weekend at the Taranaki Kart Club's Todd Energy Raceway near Waitara.
The series caters for drivers of the country's fastest sprint karts, those in the KZ2 class running purpose-built gearbox-equipped 125cc kart engines, those in F125S gearbox-equipped 125cc motorcycle engines.
Favourite in the KZ2 class is once again Auckland's Ryan Grant, the driver who has set both the pace and standard since the series was set up. With .last year's KZ2 class runner-up Daniel Bray off to compete in the United States this year however, the way is now open for others to step up to the plate.
Of those others there is an interesting mix of youth and experience with last year's F125S champion Daniel Eggleton, joined in the youth side of the equation by Auckland's Graham Smyth and Shifter Series newcomer Ethan de Jong from Hamilton. The addition of a Masters category to the KZ2 class has prompted other moves from F125S, including that of Auckland's Steve Brown
With Eggleton's departure the way is now open for someone else to take over the mantle of man to beat in F125S with the smart money on Aucklanders Kevin Storey and long-time class supporter Snow Mooney, and Hamilton's Mark Sweetman.
This year's series will be contested over five rounds with action televised at later rounds.
There will also be a new Junior ICA/KF3 support class which will chime in at the second round in the Bay of Plenty in April.
There will be action on the Todd Energy track on both days this weekend with testing, qualifying and at least one heat on Saturday and the remaining heat plus Pre-Final and Final on Sunday.
2009 125 Shifter Series
Rnd 1 March 7-8 Taranaki
Rnd 2 April 25-26 Bay of Plenty
Rnd 3 May 23-24 Auckland
Rnd 4 August 29-30 Hamilton
Rnd 5 Sept 26-27 Rotorua
