Day 2 World Rotax Finals.

Just for a change the weather dawned fine in the desert and us Kiwis
were baked under the scorching Middle Eastern sun. With temperatures
in excess of Reid Harker was the first of the Kiwis out in session one
of Junior Max. Reid performed well, easily lapping with the fastest in
his session. As he was in the first group out, his session of 36 karts
acted as motorised brooms, clearing all the dust off the track. This
translated into much faster lap times in the second junior session -
the track sped up as it got cleaner. Because of the rules relating to
the pooling system allocating grids for the heats, this will not be a
problem for Reid as he only competes against those in his group.

Daniel Kinsman was super fast, his best less than a tenth of a second
off the current North Island Rotax Champ, David Sera who was the
fastest. Leaving his best lap to the last, Daniel spent the first half
of his 20 minute session running in his motor and brakes and taking
care of his gear. The Technical Director of Rotax, Darryl Smith,
advised all drivers to give the motors some slow running to guarantee
a proper ring seal. However it seems very few other competitors apart
from the Kiwis bothered to take this into account, including the
place-getter of the Rotax Euro series Kasper Jensen. It was noticeable
that those who 'went hard out the gate, had trouble getting up to
speed in the last few laps of the session.

The DD2 Masters as well as the DD2s were hampered by a compulsory main
jet 5 or so sizes to big and Steven Currie was amongst almost all of
the drivers to suffer from Rotax 'playing it safe'. The entire field
could be seen pinching the fuel line down the straight to get the
motors to clear. He was also doubly unlucky, his gear selector was
installed around the wrong way in the factory, causing some confusion
to Steve. Steve though stayed out to the end, circulating incident
free putting time on his motor.

Kane Taylor in DD2 was victim to the same issue - however he appeared
to have learnt the track quickly and was fast through the infield,
though suffering down the straight. He too stayed out until the end,
putting miles on his brand new motor. Fastest in his class was
Australian DD2 champion Jason Pringle, who appeared to have got the
carb set up right - lapping nearly a second and a half quicker than
the majority of the field.

Tomorrow will no doubt dawn fine and Reid will be amongst the first to
hit the track for their two quarter of an hour sessions.