The updated championship standings can be downloaded on the Rotax Challenge Website or directly HERE.

Discuss the race in the forums in this thread.

Intrepid Force Rotax team driver Josh Hart has finished with a well-earned second place on the podium at round 2 of the Rotax Euro Challenge at Kart Planet circuit, Busca, Italy after some extremely close competition this weekend saw the New Zealander secure his best result yet for the 2009 season.

Hart was the fastest qualifier in the Senior Max field of 54 during Friday’s official timed practice, where he snatched pole position after clocking an outstanding lap of 59.170 on his first flyer. With little over six minutes of the qualifying session remaining in the first group, the New Zealander made no mistake in getting it right.

He set the best time in all three of Saturday’s heat races and was victorious in two, resulting in a second row grid for the pre-final. However, the start didn’t go all his way which meant he had to make up several positions as the laps unfolded, eventually ending up back in 3rd. In doing so, Hart actually set the quickest lap of the race by more than 2-tenths.

In the final, the 22-year old had a good start, immediately taking P2 behind race pole-sitter and first round winner Luke Varley, until the leader’s team mate Joseph Reilly, stole second and one lap following proceeded to execute a great move to assume the lead. Hart had no hesitation in overtaking Varley as well and head the chase for the lead, perhaps surprising the former British junior champion in doing so.

With Reilly saving his new tyres for the deciding race, Hart later explained that he was unable to close the 0.6 of a second gap, although he continually traded better times with his younger rival to be one of the pace-setters throughout the 19-lapper. “Towards the end, [Joseph] Reilly just pulled away a bit more. I think my equipment was good enough to win, but I just don’t believe I did a good enough job. My race fitness maybe not up to scratch as it should be, but it is a big improvement on the last round. So, I really need to sharpen up my game now.”

He added, “The whole week went pretty well; we tested a lot of engines to find the best ones for this meeting, therefore not spending a lot of time working with the kart. I was very happy to qualify on pole and then had two good races and one that wasn’t so good, where I finished 6th. In any case it ended up positive, after I was getting pushed around quite a bit and it made me realise how I needed to be if I wanted to do better. I have to say a big thank you to Intrepid and HRS, together with my mechanic Steve Chapman, who always puts in a huge effort and I couldn’t ask for more.”

Only two rounds remain in the European series, the next of which is in the Czech Republic in late July. Having narrowly missed out on the top 3 in the final moments of the Rotax Winter Cup shakedown last February, the first Euro round also didn’t go as well as planned for Hart. His success in Italy has now renewed the IFR driver’s 2009 championship hopes.

More IFR team news and updates can be found at www.intrepidforcerotax.com

Check out the exclusive RTGT merchandise Shop with all the official race team gear at www.racetogetthere.com.

Photo by Jenni Wade.

Many of Australia’s top level kart racers are getting set for the opening round of the rejuvenated Australian CIK Karting Championship, to be raced in conjunction with the Rotax Pro Tour, at Newcastle’s Mt Sugarloaf Raceway this weekend (May 30/31).

The Australian CIK Championship has been the springboard for many of Australia’s modern day motorsport stars including Jamie Whincup, Mark Winterbottom, Ryan Briscoe, Michael Caruso and Tim Slade in the 13 Series’ held between 1993 and 2005.

During their karting careers Whincup and Winterbottom would regularly go head-to-head in the Australian CIK Championship – a rivalry that has now continued into the V8 Supercar Championship as their careers have progressed over the years.

Whincup won a CIK Championship in both 1998 and 1999 while Winterbottom secured the top crown during 2001.

This year’s Championship will see all drivers use the IAME Parilla KF2 (formerly Intercontinental A) specification engine, an engine that produces an impressive 40hp, on the chassis of the driver’s choice fitted with Dunlop tyres.

Competitors in the CIK Championship will also receive a participation prize in the form of a merchandise pack from Dunlop, who will also have staff trackside to provide technical assistance.

Newcastle will have two competitors racing in the opening round of the CIK Championship, Simon Roberts and former Australian Rotax Champion Hayden McBride.

For Roberts, this is the next step in his flourishing karting career.

After spending a number of years in the 100cc Clubman category he stepped up to the 125cc Leopard category 18 months ago and finished on the podium at the recent National Championships in his division. Now, he is ready for the next challenge – the CIK Championship.

Roberts first started his karting career aged seven at the Mount Sugarloaf circuit and raced continuously through until the age of 18. After a couple of years away from the sport Roberts has been a front-runner in the major events across Australia for the past few years.

“This will be the first time that I have competed in the CIK Championship and it is something that I am really looking forward to,” said Roberts.

“All throughout my karting career I’ve always looked at aiming for my next challenge which is why I moved from Clubman into the Leopard class, now it is the CIK Championship as it is considered the most challenging class of karting across the world.”

Other drivers lining up for the opening round of the Australian CIK Championship include reigning New Zealand Formula Toyota Champion Mitch Cunningham, former Intercontinental A competitor Ryan Gallagher and PCR driver Matthew Bailey.

It is expected that there will be in excess of 150 competitors racing in the six categories across the weekend during the opening Event of the 2009 Rotax Pro Tour. All drivers competing at this weekend’s Event will be using 125cc water-cooled engines with different categories for age and weight divisions.

To view the entry list for this weekend’s opening round of the Australian CIK Championship and Rotax Pro Tour I please click here.

AUSTRALIAN KARTING ASSOCIATION EVENTS IN MAY

NEW SOUTH WALES
30/31 Southern Zone Round 4 Forbes
30/31 Newcastle – Australian CIK Championship Rd 1/Rotax Pro Tour
30 King of the Dirt (spare date) Central Coast Speedway

QUEENSLAND
30 Mt Isa
30 Club Champs Rd 2 Townsville
31 Gold Coast

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
31 June Club Day Mt Gambier
31 Open Meeting Whyalla

TASMANIA
31 Club Day – Closed Meeting All Clubs

VICTORIA
31 Closed Club Day (All Clubs)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
30/31 South Eastern Zone Series Round 3 Esperance
31 Northern Zone Series Round 3 Karratha

AUSTRALIAN KARTING ASSOCIATION EVENTS IN JUNE

NEW SOUTH WALES
5-7 East Coast Over 40’s Titles Coffs Harbour
5 Practice NSW Speedway
6 – 8 Australian Title NSW Speedway
7 Lismore
14 Round 4 Central Coast Speedway
14 Forbes
14 Junior Challenge-Rd 3 & Club Championship-Rd 4 Port Macquarie
14 Sapphire
14 Club Day Tamworth
20/21 PSC Round 3 Sydney Kart Racing Club
21 Canberra
21 Dubbo
21 Round 5 NSW Speedway
21 Club Day Wagga
27 North Shore
28 Manning Valley

NORTHERN TERRITORY
11 – 14 Northern Territory Sprint Kart Titles Darwin

QUEENSLAND
6 Towers
6 Gladstone
6-7 Shakedown Cooloola Coast
7 Ipswich
7 Fraser
13 Cairns
14 Warwick
14 Rockhampton
14 Club Champs Rd 3 Townsville
20 Mt Isa
20 Mackay
21 Toowoomba
27-28 Tech School Southern Zone
28 Ross Gray Motor Meet Bundaberg

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
14 June Club Day Mt Gambier
14 Festival State Cup 3B Southern
20 June Meeting Broken Hill

TASMANIA
13/14 Launceston Club Titles Rnd 4 – State Closed Titles LKC
28 Club Day – Closed Meeting All Clubs

VICTORIA
6/7 North West Victorian Kart Titles Mildura
14 Gold rush Albury Wodonga Albury Wodonga
21 Country series round
3 South West
26/27 Australian CIK Championship Rd 2/Rotax Pro Tour II
28 Closed Club Day (All Clubs)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
6/7 Western Cup Series Round 2 Mid West
13/14 Clubrun Weekend
21 City of Perth Final Bunbury

It’s not immediately clear by looking at the entry list who these karters are because most are using racing licenses from Japan or Italy.
Mitchell Gilbert, an Australian that has raced a lot in Malaysia will be taking part with the factory Kosmic kart team, while Stefano Marcelo from the Phlippines is with TonyKart. Both these guys are driving with Italian racing licenses now.

Pasin Lathoras will be representing Thailand on his Maddox kart with the only Thai entrant - Simon Racing. Also from Thailand, Nanin Indra Payoong will be racing on a TonyKart with Japanese team Thirty’s Racing using a Tony Kart. Finally also on a Japanese license will be Malaysian driver Bryan Mehta who recently signed a 3-year deal with Birel Pacific. He has been really impressive in Japanese KF2 races, but with grids of 10-15 drivers at the Japanese events this race will be Bryan’s first major KF2 challenge.

It’s interesting to note that of the 41 entries, only 8 drivers are going to be on Bridgestone tyres while the rest will have Dunlops. Nanin is the only one of the SEA-contingent that will be on Bridgestone.

Some of big names to watch out for in the KF2 category will be current WSK leader Matteo Vigano (Birel / Parilla / Dunlop), and other WSK front runners such as Brandon Maisano (Intrepid / TM / Dunlop), Ben Cooper (Tony Kart / Vortex / Dunlop). Russin driver Maxim Zimin (FA Kart / Vortex / Dunlop), a few Italians, and of course a few from the large field of Japanese drivers should be at the front as well.

For Super KF there is a promising entry list with a total of 42 drivers with close to half of them from Japan. Most of the main factory teams have a presence on the grid with a few world champions in the mix.

Entry lists, schedule, live timing and results are all available on the event page on cikfia.com

The next event will see the championship returning to the Sepang circuit, and after that an Asia/Malaysia double header will be held at a new track in Pekan, (Pahang, Malaysia). Total entries this year for the Malaysia Challenge have been at their highest since the series started in 2000, and the momentum looks set to carry on for the rest of the year.

The remaining rounds are as follows:

Rotax Malaysia Challenge

• 27-28 June, Sepang
• 25-26 July, Pekan
• 15-16 August, Speedway PLUS

Rotax Asia Challenge

• 25-26 July Pekan, Malaysia
• 15-16 August, Speedway PLUS, Malaysia

Sepang, May 17, 2009 - More action, drama and excitement were felt in Round 2 of the 2009 Yamaha SL Cup at the Sepang Go-Kart Circuit yesterday. A total of 44 karters competed in the Cadet, Junior and Senior in which all classes displayed impressive racing for podium honours.

In the Cadet category, it was a fight between Mohd Luqman Hakim and Adam Muqri for the highest podium place. Luqman however emerged victorious in Race 1, clocking 14:29.348s in the 15 lap race. Adam managed to finish second while Shawn Seelan took third.

In Race 2 however, Adam bagged the win with a total time of 14:20.744s while Luqman had to settle for second spot and Seelan again snatched the final podium spot.

The Junior category saw seasoned campaigners Gilbert Ang and Rahul Raj Mayer stirring up the drama for the weekend. The two who were about 10 seconds faster than the rest of the pack, grabbed a win each. IS Racing Team’s Rahul took Race 1 title with a time of 20:15.954s with Gilbert crossing the finish line two seconds behind. Rookie Akash Neil Nandy of SGR Racing Team finished third with a time of 20:22.724s. Gilbert however stepped up his game in Race 2, as he won it in 20:07.894s with Rahul recording a total time of 20:08.009s. Coming in third 10 seconds later was Nik Azri Syazwi.

The Senior class saw defending champion Ryan Mumford fight off strong competition to win both the races. In fact both the races finished in similar order with Farriz Fauzy and Ooi Fei Hoong finishing in second and third place respectively.

“It was definitely a tough race which a slightest mistake will be punished hard but I am happy to be able to win it,” said Mumford. Also present to make the day more memorable was former Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong. “The races were close and exciting and at this rate we are sure to see the pool of talented drivers grow at a faster and larger rate in the near future,” said Alex who also presented the trophies to the winners.

The next round will be held at the same venue on June 14.

Results

Cadet

Race 1 (15 laps)

1. Muhd Luqman Hakim 14:29.348s; 2. Adam Muqri 14:35.347s; 3. Shawn Seelan 14:40.697s; 4. Xekin Zuniga 14:56.716s; 5. Sushanth Sugumaran 15:1.449s; 6. Mohammad Naufal Jeffri 15:11.449s (1 lap); 7. Muhd Najib 15:14.008s (1 lap); 8. Muhd Aiman Zafri 15:16.662s (1 lap); 9. Eezzati Nue 14:35.730s (1 lap); 10. Long Muhd Nor Ariff 15:22.858s (4 laps).

Race 2 (15 laps)

1. Adam Muqri 14:20.744s; 2. Muhd Luqman Hakim 14:28.119s; 3. Shawn Seelan 14:41.651s; 4. Mohd Hairi Fikri 14:42.659s; 5. Xekin Zuniga 14:43.246s; 6. Muhd Najib 14:54.967s; 7. Sushanth Sugumaran 15:08.573s; 8. Engku Armand Nazrin 15:13.095s; 9. Long Muhd Nor Ariff 14:28.456s (1 lap).

Junior

Race 1 (22 laps)

1. Rahul Raj Mayer 20:15.954s; 2. Gilbert Ang 20:17.575s; 3. Akash Neil Nandy 20:22.724s; 4. Nik Azri Syazwi 20:27.238s; 5. Patrick Imbacher 20:28.537s; 6. Asha Hairy 20:40.545s; 7. Ahmad Yazid Bajenid 20:40.848s; 8. Ken Koda 20:43.459s; 9. Nazerul Nazreen 20:46.992s; 10. Freddie And Ding Yu 20:47.277s; 11. Rafique Muzhaffar 20:50.635s; 12. Mohd Fazreen Fikri 20:52.563s; 13. Indra Muzaffar 21:04.638s; 14. Daniel Rao 21:04.890s; 15. Brendan Paul Anthony 21:05.119s; 16. Engku Zareth Ashman 20:45.141s (1 lap); 17. Muhd Shamim 20:23.441s (2 laps); 18. Raja Izzatil Lia Nabila 20:27.192s (5 laps).

Race 2 (22 laps)

1. Gilbert Ang 20:07.894s; 2. Rahul Raj Mayer 20:08.009s; 3. Nik Azri Syazwi 20:18.993s; 4. Akash Neil Nandy 20:24.302s; 5. Ahmad Yazid Bajenid 20:24.586s; 6. Asha Hairy 20:26.890s; 7. Ken Koda 20:27.174s; 8. Irfan Syah Ilyas 20:32.549s; 9. Patrick Imbacher 20:32.981s; 10. Freddie Ang Ding Yu 20:34.759s; 11. Brendan Paul Anthony 20:35.372s; 12. Daniel Rao 20:51.879s; 13. Nazerul Nazreen 20:29.803s; 14. Muhd Shamim 20:54.474s; 15. Raja Izzatil Lia Nabila 20:15.763s.

Senior

Race 1 (25 laps)

1. Ryan Mumford 22:52.894s; 2. Farriz Fauzy 22:53.326s; 3. Ooi Fei Hoong 22:58.604s; 4. Ray Kong 23:04.591s; 5. Adam Ilyas 23:06.190s; 6. Melvin Moh Chun Ho 23:07.294s; 7. Rueben Wong 23:15.365s; 8. Mohd Hanif 23:15.891s; 9. Victor Cheong Kim Foong 23:23.054s; 10. Mohd Nizam Roland 23:36.490s.

Race 2 (25 laps)

1. Ryan Mumford 22:54.720s; 2. Farriz Fauzy 22:56.726s; 3. Ooi Fei Hoong 22:56.945s; 4. Mohamed Hanif 23:03.855s; 5. Victor Cheong 23:14.825s; 6. Victor Cheong Kim Foong 23:14.825s; 7. Melvin Moh Chun Ho 23:15.085s; 8. Rueben Wong 23:15.503s; 9. Raez Azman 23:32.090s.

• Rotax Junior: Maranello RS9
• Rotax Senior: CRG Black Star 30/32
• Rotax DD2: CRG Dark Rider 32

It looks like Rotax is continuing its good relationship with CRG, making this the second year that all the karts at the event will be CRG produced. For more information on the karts visit www.maranellokart.com and www.kartcrg.com

• Full Results (MyLaps Link)
• Rotax Asia Challenge Standings After Rd.1 (PDF)
• Rotax Malaysia Challenge Standings After Rd.2 (PDF)

Discuss the event in the forums here.

The 2nd round of the 2009 Rotax Asia Challenge has been confirmed to be at the Sentul Karting Circuit in Indonesia, on the 9th-10th of May. Entry forms and hotel booking forms will be available soon.

“Most drivers report much long life” with FM-V visors, and the visor’s coating “not come off when you drive hard rain condition.” Don’t mistake the amusing use of Japanglish on FM-V’s website as an indicator of an inferior product - these are definitely worthy competition to the other two popular mirrored visors available on the market (CaraCoat and LLC from Lucky Design).

I recently got a couple of these fancy looking visors for use on my yet to be “dressed up” plain white Arai SK5 helmet. I now have a selection of two FM-V visors (Green pictured above, and Silver), a standard Arai dark smoke shield as well as the clear one that comes with the helmet.

I was first introduction to mirrored or iridium helmet visors when I got a silver mirror visor for my Bieffe Predator helmet. The first time I had it on track I had to wipe a bit of dirt off and the coating gone and the visor rendered useless with that one wipe! Needless to say I steered clear of mirrored visors for quite some time.

My next experience was a blue Visor for my Bell Helmet and that one had a much higher quality coating on it which lasted a lot longer than the one on the Bieffe. The Bell visor’s coating finally gave way when a bit of water got between my tear-off and the visor - after which I put the coating to test by trying to remove the rest with brake cleaner, fuel, and

The FM-V visors look to have a very high quality coating on them, but having only used the visor for a handful of sessions I’ll have to reserve final judegement on the visors until a few months down the road. One thing that sets the FM-V apart from all the previous coated visors I’ve tried is that they don’t have only one uniform color, rather they have a few different hues as you go from the center to the edges. For example my silver visor is blue at the sides, and the green one goes to blue, red, and then gold.

Visor Choices

FM-V has a massive selection to choose from. The color choices are red, blue, silver, green, gold, and the latest addition brown. All the colors are available on all the Arai visor variations: clear, light smoke, dark smoke, and clear double visor.

Reduced Glare - or is there?

One of the selling points of these iridium/coated/mirrored visors is that they reduce glare and ghosting to improve your vision. After a completely unscientific analysis of driving with a normal smoked visor and a smoked-mirror FM-V visor I honestly can’t say there’s a noticable difference.

Visor Lifetime

While FM-V’s website claims that their mirror coated shields are extremely durable, it depends completely on your definition of the word. FM-V’s manual also states that the coating is very durable, but on the same piece of paper a section on “Visor Lifetime” reminds users that the coating is “very delicate” and visors should be replaced every 6 to 12 months depending on use.

Replacing visors fairly often is a good idea regardless of what kind of a visor you’re using. Many drivers keep the same visors far too long, and scrutineers should actually point out visors that are well past their best-by date. Even if you don’t use these mirror coated visors you should be buying visors a lot more often than you’re buying helmets.

Tear-Offs

You can use tear-offs to extend visor life (I use a new tear-off every race weekend), but even with tear-offs you eventually get scratches that get in your vision which means it’s time for a replacement. Tear-offs can distort your vision a bit and I found that you have to take more care when putting tear-offs on these coated visors because the coating makes the tear-offs more ddsupsceptible daf . A little bit of care when putting on a tear-off is all that is required though.

It’s easy to get used to driving with a visor that is in less than ideal condition - but when you put on a new visor you realise immediately how clear everything suddenly appears!

If you’re thinking about getting one of these FM-V visors an option to extends its life is to keep it as your race weekend only visor and use your normal less expensive visors during practice days. I’ve now relegated my dark smoke visor to practice use, while me clear visor is reserved for when the heavens open up.

Cleaning your visor

FM-V recommends using a diluted dish washing detergent with lukewarm water for cleaning. I recommend to always have a microfibre cloth in your helmet bag which is dedicated to keeping your visor sparkling - and another one that you use for your helmet. The reason for this is that if you happen to pick up some tiny stones when cleaning your helmet and then start wiping down your visor you end up with scratches all over it and ruin your day!

Are there any other Mirror Coated Visors on the market?

As mentioned earlier for Arai helmets there are at least LLC and CaraCoat. For other helmets it is usually the helmet manufacturer that produces the coated visors.

• FM-V www.fm-v.net
• CaraCoat www.caracoat.co.jp
• LLC www.luckydesign.it

To the best of my knowledge all three use original Arai Shields onto which they apply their mirror coatings, so the difference is in the selection available and the coating.

Conclusion

Personally I really like the look of non-coated dark smoked visors on a helmet, but still prefer a nicely coordinated mirrored visor because they look the part in a racing outfit.

You’ll have to  plunk down about twice the dosh for a coated FM-V visor compared to a standard smoked Arai visor, and you should expect a coated visor to last you no longer. Obviously it’s not a value for money purchase in absolute terms. A paint job can also double the price of your helmet without giving you any real performance advantage. As with paint jobs, we buy mirrored visors because we want them, not because we need them ;).

Get One

In Malaysia, you should contact SK Wong of Headstrong Helmets and accessories. Check the HeadStrong Helmets Forum Section here on KartingAsia in the Karting Market. He sells the Visors at RM600, which is a very competitive price compared to prices I’ve found online.

A Japanese online store that sells them: http://monocolle-motorsport.com/shop/

This review was written by Mikko Nassi. He has several years of experience using all sorts of helmets with all sorts of visors.