At 22 the youngest of three racing Cunningham brothers, Mitch followed in older brother, and 2003 World Karting Champion, Wade’s footsteps, racing karts here, across the Tasman and in Europe before graduating to single-seater racing cars, first in the United States then back here in New Zealand where over the summer he won New Zealand’s premier category, the Toyota Racing Series.

Last year both Cunningham brothers lived and competed in the United States, Mitch contesting road course rounds of the Firestone Indy Lights championship series, Wade selected oval and road course rounds.

This year Wade has returned to the Firestone Indy Lights series full-time but with a shake-out of the various single-seaters around the world courtesy the world-wide recession Mitch decided to stay in Auckland and evaluate options closer to home.

That, obviously, included Australia, and it is a mark of just how competitive karting is in this part of the world that a return to the premier CIK series was a serious option, one up there with the Australian Formula 3 championship and the various V8 touring car categories.

“Seriously,” Cunningham said before heading to Newcastle yesterday.” I love the CIK style of racing and I’m really looking forward to getting back in a kart and using the Australian championship to keep my eye in for my 2009/10 (car) campaign back here.”

Australia’s CIK championship has been the springboard for any number of international driving careers, including those of the Cunningham brothers and fellow Kiwis Colin Corkery and Brad Tyrrell as well as top Australian drivers Ryan Briscoe, Jamie Whincup and Michael Caruso.

Cunningham will remain loyal to the Italian CRG chassis he and Wade did most of their racing on when they first contested the Australian series and in a nod towards keeping budgets in check all drivers this year will use a spec IAME Parilla KF2 engine and spec Dunlop tyre.

Ends

2009 Australian CIK Karting Championship

Calendar

Rnd 1: May 30-31 Newcastle NSW

Rnd 2: June 26-27 Melbourne VIC

Rnd 3: August 6-9 Raleigh NSW

Rnd 4: Oct 24/25 Ipswich QLD

Prepared by FAST COMPANY on behalf of Mitchell Cunningham Motorsport. To find out more about Mitch contact Ross MacKay on 021 677 919 or via e-mail at ross@fastcompany.co.nz

EDITOR’S NOTE: Hi-res jpgs of Mitch Cunningham are available by e-mailing Ross MacKay at ross@fastcompany.co.nz

Prepared by JETCOM for and behalf of Alastair Wootten/ Radio Hauraki Racing/ DART International Ltd. For more information on Alastair Wootten he can be contacted by email at: info@dartnz.com   or by phone on  021 253 8394.

Tauranga student Ritchie Stanaway has won on his Toyota Racing Series debut in a dominant flag to flag performance that left the field stretched out behind him.Tauranga student Ritchie Stanaway has won on his Toyota Racing Series debut in a dominant flag to flag performance that left the field stretched out behind him.

In his first ever Toyota Racing Series drive, 2009 Formula Ford champion Richie Stanaway made sure of his first race start and was only challenged at turn one on the first lap when 2009 Toyota Racing Series Champion Mitch Cunningham sledged into the rear of his car.

The opening stage of the race saw much of the on-track action. Andrew Waite, another Formula Ford graduate who had raced some of the 2008-2009 series, stopped on the warm-up lap for the race and was towed off the circuit.

At the race start Stefan Webling stopped on the grid and the race was red flagged as the cars emerged from turn 3.

Jamie MacNee had spun in that corner in one of the Toyota Lites cars.

At the restart, Michael Burdett stepped out of the single-file line as the cars headed toward turn 1, Cunningham locked in behind Stanaway, and at the turn Cunningham locked his brakes and hit Stanaway.

Behind them Alastair Wootten hit Sam MacNeill in similar circumstances, both drivers spinning into the run-off area as the field flew past into the second straight. MacNeill headed for the pits with a broken front wing.

Tauranga driver Stanaway emerged the leader at the end of the first lap with Michael Burdett close behind but losing touch., Daynom templeman third.

Veteran driver Ken Smith was fifth in the Exide car, with Australian Nathan Antunes challenging for the place.

A tyre lockup from Burdett at turn 7 gave Stanaway some space and he began to pull away. Antunes got past Smith and a lap later cleanly overtook Templeman, moving into third place.

John Whelan and Daniel Jilesen went side by side through turn 7 and both overtook Smith.

Meanwhile Stanaway had set his mark on the race, extending his lead from 1.5 seconds to 2.7 seconds by lap 7.

Two laps later the lead was out to four seconds, with the gap between Stanaway in first place and Templeman in fourth stretching out toward nine seconds.

Stefan Webling drove to sixth place overall making a solid debut and setting the 5th fastest time of the race.

As Stanaway took the chequered flag his winning margin over Burdett was 5.2 seconds. He set a new TRS and outright lap record for the Hamilton track of 1:23.0229 on lap 10 of 12.

Posting lap average speeds of 146 km/h in qualifying and 147 km/h in today’s race, the biofuel-powered Toyota cars are the fastest category at the Hamilton 400.

Race 1 results:

On his first ever Toyota Racing Series drive, 2009 Formula Ford champion Richie Stanaway has taken pole position for the first and second Toyota Racing Series race at the Hamilton 400.

 Tauranga driver Stanaway was the only driver to dip under 1:24 sec on the fast and bumpy street circuit in his first street race outing.

 Stanaway, 2009 TRS Champion Mitch Cunningham and Hamilton driver Michael Burdett swapped times in the opening laps of the session until Cunningham crashed on lap six, bringing the session to an early end under a red flag.

 Cunningham turned his car around and hit the wall exiting turn one, tearing the left front corner off his car.  His lap time on the previous lap was enough to secure him a place alongside pole man Stanaway on the front of the grid.

 Alastair Wootten overshot the same corner at the same time but rejoined without damage. 

When the second session began moments later, both Cunningham and Stefan Webling were missing, and Andrew Waite’s car posted one of the first fastest laps of the session with a broken rear wing. 

Stanaway posted fastest lap of 1:23.3028 on lap five as Webling made his first appearance on the track.   

Australian Nathan Antunes, making a return to the series, was the other driver to break into the 1:23 bracket.  Antunes stepped up to second with a 1:23.6923, and was locked in a duel with Michael Burdett who promptly set a 1:23.6609 to take second then capped that with a 1:23.4676, with Alastair Wootten deposed to fourth on 1:23.8527.  

Stanaway then pared his pole time to 1:23.0007 as the session ended.  He lines up on pole for Sunday’s race with Burdett alongside him.

Daniel Jilesen hit the wall with the chequered flag on display, limping back to the pits with the rear of the car damaged. 

Posting lap average speeds of 146 km/h, the biofuel-powered Toyota cars are the fastest category at the Hamilton 400.

“I’m really pleased to be going to Hamilton” Wootten commented from his Whangaparaoa home today. “The chance to race in front of a big audience like the Supercars bring out is a real buzz, as well as the fact that I’ve never raced on a street circuit before will make it a big challenge. Running close to the walls, and over the bumps that you get on a public road will make it really interesting. Its always cool to get out there and really show what a modern single seater racing car can do and just like me I know that the other guy’s in the series will want to put on a really good show for the fans”.

Since the finish of the Toyota Racing Series Championship at Pukekohe in March, Wootten has been kept busy and having just been appointed to the team of personal trainers at The Leisure Centre at Stanmore Bay he made an appearance with his ‘Radio Hauraki Racing’ Toyota Championship car at the Rodney Soap Box Derby event held at Stanmore Bay.

“The Rodney Soap Box Derby was an awesome event and it was great to bring my car out and support the Leisure Centre. We had a prime position right by the finish so there always seemed to be heaps of kids, Mums, Dads and helpers around. The big talking point seemed to be about my age and competing at this level as I think a lot of the kids found my racing to be very inspiring especially as it wasn’t that long ago that I was building trolleys with my mates in the garage at home. “I signed a ton of posters for all sorts of people as well as getting the opportunity to meet our Mayor, Penny Webster and our local MP, Lockwood Smith,” said Alastair.

Prepared by JETCOM for and behalf of Alastair Wootten/ Radio Hauraki Racing/ DART International Ltd. For more information on Alastair Wootten he can be contacted by email at: info@dartnz.com or by phone on 021 253 8394.

The seven senior class winners and three wild cards from the event will win a test drive in a TRS Lites single-seater racing car at a test day to be held at the Manfeild motor racing circuit in May.

The Toyota Fast Track Award winner will be the best driver assessed at the test day and will receive a drive in a TRS Lites single-seater at a round of the 2009/10 TRS Series.

TRS Lites is a new ‘class-within-a-class’ created to ease the transition from karts or other racing categories to the TRS which is the country’s premier single-seater motor racing class.

The cars use the same carbon-fibre chassis and 1.8 litre Toyota engine but have less power – 111kw (150bhp) compared to the 166 kW (220bhp) of the cars that compete in the main series – and are run on an ‘arrive-and-drive’ basis by experienced TRS technicians.

As such, says, KartSport New Zealand Development Manager Robert Hutton, the annual National Sprint Championship meeting is the perfect place to launch the Toyota Fast Track Award initiative.

“History has demonstrated that karting is the first rung on the ladder to a successful motorsport career. And over the years we have seen many of our brightest and best, the likes of Scott Dixon, Wade Cunningham, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber make a successful transition to single-seaters.

“Increasingly however we are noting that top senior karters overseas are moving directly to wings and slicks formulae. There are more similarities between modern karts, or perhaps more specifically the amount of grip they produce, and the more sophisticated ‘wings-and-slicks’ single-seaters like those contesting the TRS.

“Other classes of single-seaters and saloon cars often require karters to relearn a lot of their driving approach due to their lower grip levels.

“The arrival of TRS Lites means our stars of the future can now move directly from ‘slick-tyre-kart’ to ‘wings-and-slicks car.’ And those who have already driven the TRS Lites car have commented on how smooth the transition from karts to TRS Lites was.

“We are delighted that Toyota has launched the Toyota Fast Track Award in conjunction with this year’s event at which we are also celebrating 50 years of KartSport in New Zealand.”

Toyota New Zealand Motorsport Manager Steve Boyce said that; “Toyota New Zealand is looking forward to reinforcing our already strong relationship with Kartsport New Zealand through this award.

“Kartsport New Zealand has been instrumental in the development of many drivers who have progressed on to strong international careers and we believe the launch of TRS Lites will assist this process.

“We are looking forward to seeing some exciting racing between the emerging young talent at the 50th anniversary meeting and observing those who will be provided with the opportunity to experience ‘wings-and-slicks’ racing at our Manfeild test day.”

This year’s KartSport New Zealand National Sprint Championships presented by Toyota Racing Series has attracted a record entry of over 250 across 11 classes.

Competition at the Hamilton Kart Club track, opposite Hamilton Airport, starts on Easter Friday and continues through Saturday and Sunday.

Ends

Michael Burdett took his second race win of the weekend at the final round of the 2008-2009 Toyota Racing Championship, but it was Mitch Cunningham’s title despite a last lap fright that almost kept Sam MacNeill in the hunt.

Auckland driver Mitch Cunningham chose a spectacular way to win the 2008-2009 Toyota Racing Series at the final round, held at Pukekohe during the weekend.

He took the title despite a high speed spin in one race, then capped his weekend with victory in the 20-lap New Zealand Motor Cup.  The result also delivered a teams category victory to his team, Giles Motorsport.

Cunningham’s memorable weekend began with pole position in qualifying for all three races and a second place in Saturday’s 14-lap sprint race behind a charging Michael Burdett.  Championship rival Sam MacNeill was third, Cunningham also taking fastest lap of the race, a 55.029.   

Pukekohe is the fastest circuit the TRS cars race on, and they are the fastest category in the tier one summer series.

Second place on Saturday stretched Cunningham’s points lead out to an almost invincible 141 points.  Sam MacNeill, second in the championship, would need Cunningham to dnf both Sunday races to have a shot at the title.

Sunday morning’s sprint race brought high drama for Cunningham as Burdett once more made a perfect start and raced into the lead. 

Tempted to chase the Hamilton driver down, Cunningham first made sure enough race distance had elapsed to guarantee he had the championship points he needed to secure the title. 

With three quarters of the distance completed, Cunningham threw caution to the wind and attacked – clawing his way closer and closer to the car of Burdett on the fast and bumpy Pukekohe circuit.  A duel between the two saw them pull away from MacNeill in third.

On the last lap of the race, Cunningham and Burdett were nose to tail at 220 km/h on the front straight and when they entered the blind right hand corner at the end of the straight, Burdett’s car had more grip than Cunningham’s, whose car slid off the racing line.

The championship leader spun broadside and left the track on the infield in a cloud of tyre smoke and dust, sliding across the grass but managing to get the car stopped before he hit the fencing around the horse track.

The rest of the field streamed past, Cunningham regaining the track and finishing in eighth place.

Though the result was not what he had been expecting, Cunningham said afterward he was happy enough with the 39 points it brought, which put the title out of reach of his key rival, Sam MacNeill.

“I did go out to chase Michael down once I knew I’d done 75 per cent of the laps, because that meant whatever happened I would be classified a finisher – so I just had to have a go!  We had a great battle for the later half of the race.”

Cunningham’s charge included fastest lap of the race, a 54.926 at a race average speed of 183.319.  He was the only driver to break through to a 54 second lap.

Burdett said he was pleased with the two wins, secured with two perfectly judged starts.

“It’s taken a while to get back the speed we had at the start of the Championship but the car feels good and Mitch and I had a good battle going out there.”

With the championship wrapped up, Cunningham was determined not to hand Michael Burdett three wins.

“I watched some of the other race categories start and it does look like there’s more grip alongside pole than there is for pole, but I was getting hassled by the rest of the drivers about those first two so I wanted to make sure of the third start!  Couldn’t let him get away with the whole weekend,” he said.

Off the line, Cunningham and Burdett went into the first corner wheel to wheel, Cunningham’s Placemakers car just a nose-length ahead, but through the “esses” and onto the back straight Cunningham was pulling away.

Then Burdett went wide on lap four as the front-runners came over Pukekohe’s “mountain”, putting two wheels on the grass but recovering.

Then two laps later the Cunningham-Burdett battle ended in spectacular fashion as Burdett spun off at the end of the start-finish straight going into the bumpy Stables corner, almost in the same place as Cunningham in the previous race.

He too was able to gather the car up before it hit the fence, but had flat-spotted his left rear tyre.

The spin handed the 20-lap feature race win to Cunningham, as Sam MacNeill took over second place but was not close enough to challenge the new champion for the lead. 

When Burdett returned to the track he did not complete another lap before crashing more heavily.  He slipped wide over the top of Pukekohe’s “mountain”, that flat spotted left rear losing him vital grip in the fast right hander, and hit the crash barrier, smashing the car’s rear suspension and sliding almost out of control on three wheels down the straight.

Controlling the damaged car as best he could, Burdett kept it away from the armco safety barriers on each side of the start-finish straight and steered the stricken car across the gravel trap, well out of the way of the race.

His crash brought out the pace car for a lap, but at the restart Cunningham simply drove away from the field once more and ran out the winner, adding a third fastest lap – 55.333 – and the historic New Zealand Motor Cup to his weekend trophy haul.  MacNeill was 1.274 seconds behind him.

Australian Scott Pye closed in on MacNeill but was unable to get into range for a pass, while behind them Daniel Jilesen, Alastair Wootten and John Whelan became embroiled in a dramatic battle for the minor placings and a last race top-up of their championship points.

On lap 10 Whelan put a move on Wootten and overtook him, then set about closing in on Jilesen; that challenge came undone on lap 13 when Whelan spun, ending up broadside on the track at Railway corner and forcing Kenny Smith to also spin in order to avoid hitting him.

Wootten, who had been leading the bunch and chasing after Pye until overtaken by Whelan, had found himself held up by the duelling pair and lapping more than a second slower as a result, so was pleased to regain a place when Whelan spun.  Three laps later he overtook Jilesen to move back into fourth place with Pye once more in his sights.

Jilesen and Whelan were then locked in a duel behind Wootten until Jilesen too spun, regaining the track and finishing the race but with no chance to regain the ground lost.

The finishing order was Cunningham-MacNeill-Pye-Wootten-Whelan-then Jilesen; Ken Smith went into the pits on lap 18 but was classified a finished, having completed more than 75 per cent of race distance.

The Motor Cup, usually reserved for the New Zealand Grand Prix when it is held in the Auckland area, carries the names of some of the most famous racers of past generations – Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and more have won the coveted trophy in the past.  Now it will carry the name of the newest TRS champion as well.

With no firm plans for his next step, Mitch Cunningham says he would “love” a chance to come back and add his name to the other big TRS trophies to his cabinet: the Dan Higgins Trophy and Grand Prix Cup, both offered to winners of races at Manfeild, and the Lady Wigram Trophy, last offered in the TRS Championship in the 2007-2008 season.

Starting as he means to continue, Toyota Racing Series leader Mitch Cunningham (Auckland) has taken pole position for all three TRS races at the final round of the championship.

In back to back qualifying sessions today on the high speed Pukekohe circuit, Cunningham engaged in a first-session lap-by-lap duel with Michael Burdett before taking pole with a 55.134 on his last lap.  Burdett had posted a best of 55.275 and will start second in this afternoon’s race.

The  second session  saw the Burdett-Cunningham battle resume  but Burdett’s challenge for pole was cut short on lap 7 when he coasted into the pits with a snapped gearshift cable.

Cunningham had consolidated his position with a 55.077 on his final lap; Burdett had posted a 55.290 on the lap before his gearchange cable broke and held onto second place despite the best efforts of Sam MacNeill to top his time.

MacNeill, the only driver with a realistic chance of snatching the title from Cunningham,  starts the afternoon race from fourth on the grid.  Tomorrow he starts third for the morning’s sprint race and also for the feature race in the afternoon.

John Whelan qualified third for this afternoon’s race but broke a driveshaft in the second session and starts from the rear for the sprint race tomorrow.

Session 1: Grid for Race 1

Session 2: Grid for Race 2

Best time from Session 1 & 2: Grid for Race 3 – The New Zealand Motorcup