Tyler Edney will represent Kuranui College at the KartSport national schools’ championships. PHOTO/CATHERINE ROSSITER-STEAD
MOTORSPORT
Kuranui College’s Tyler Edney only took up KartSport last September and is already proving to be an exceptional talent on four wheels.
The Year 10 pupil will represent the college at the national schools championships at Kaitoke on July 12-13.
“The schools’ competition involves a practice day and then an actual racing day. There will be five races, a final and a grand prix,” Edney said.
“The heat races will roughly be seven or eight laps, but once you start getting into the pre-finals it will be around 18 laps and the finals will be somewhere in the 20s,” he said.
Edney took up the sport after being set a book review project on former V8 Super Car star Greg Murphy as part of the college’s Ignite curriculum.
As a youngster, Murphy started his motorsport career in karts and Edney was intrigued enough to take up the sport. Now, he wants to follow Murphy’s tracks.
After a hectic few months competing in the junior class [11-18 years], the 14-year-old obtained his tier one licence after racing in this year’s Wellington Provincial Karting Association’s Goldstar series.
“I had to go through the different licences to get my tier one. I had to do two tier two events and come in the top two-thirds of that event to gain the licence.”
He was also awarded Rookie of the Year at the KartSport Wellington AGM and was one of four pupils to be presented with a $500 sports scholarship from the Wairarapa Sports Education Trust at the Wairarapa Times-Age Sports Awards.
Edney has already attracted sponsorship from the Mad Butcher, Machinery Specialists, Fast Lane Spares, and Karts and Parts Ltd.
Karting was not for the faint-hearted, given the karts could get up to speeds of 120kmh.
“I’m used to it now but when I first started out, it was a bit scary,” Edney said.
“Now when I’m out on the track I’m just so focused on the next corner, everything kind of becomes normal.”
He is practising hard at the weekends in his 2018 Haase Zenit which is powered by a 2019 Vortex Rok DVS J 125cc engine for the schools’ championship.
He keeps on top of maintaining his kart.
“Before every event we clean and make sure everything is tight on the kart so nothing will go wrong during the race.”
After the schools championships, Edney will compete in the Top Park series in Hamilton, Rotorua, and Tokoroa.
