CRG NZ

Mega weekend at the 2nd round of the The NZ Rotax Max Challenge held at Kartsport Hamilton.
The weather was looking pretty bad but we were lucky enough to enjoy good hard racing in the sun.
Great results by our team.
Stunning drive by Dayton Emmett Motorsport in his Mini Max final, awesome battle with our good friends Dominic Dale Racing for the final podium spot with Dayton eventually getting the upper hand to come home in 3rd.
The Rotax Light final was intense, unfortunately for Tai Eglinton and Amelia Carter their finals ended early both losing their chains.
Mathew Johnston and Ashton Phipps both had a strong presence at the pointy end of the field, it was a calculated race by the top 4 with all of them smashing out qualy laps for the entire 20 lap final, gains were only going to be made if one of them made a mistake but credit to them, they all drove flawlessly. Mathew finishing P4 and Ashton taking it flag to flag for a great win 🏆
So proud of our team, always punching above our weight and keeping that Black and Orange CRG kart in the limelight.

First ever club day at the new amazing Sir Colin Giltrap Raceway in Auckland. First of all on behalf of CRG NZ I would like to congratulate and thank every single person involved in bringing this dream to reality. With the opening ceremony, the past and present members of karting walking around the pits, catching up with people from 10, 20 , 30 years back it was pretty emotional and finally seeing our kids drive through the cut red ribbon to officially open the track it was destined to be a good day. The track is outstanding and the racing was pretty epic.
The racing over the weekend from team CRG was outstanding but tonight's post is more about what goes on behind the scenes, the people that don't wear helmets and the drivers when they are not wearing their helmets, I'm probably being a little biased but I don't think there is a better team in NZ that does things quite like CRG NZ, we aren't all about test days and finding the best engines that money can buy so we can win, don't get me wrong we love to win and we do put in the effort, we are most certainly a team that punches well above our weight but we are all about family and that's what I consider this team to be, its our extended family that work and play together, share each others highs and lows, help each other out whenever and wherever we can. Enjoy a few drinks and a laugh, this weekend just reminded us of what this sport is meant to be about. Also to see the whole Cunningham family at the track Bob, Lyndsay, Aarron, Wade, Mitch, Rebecca and the boys. this family has done so much for our sport right from their beginning in 1994, to see them all together again from where it all began was a sight to cherish.
I hope moving forward that people will take a step back and just think about what this sport is about and what it was about when they first started, its about creating memories with your children, getting up at 4am because of the excitement of our first club day, forming lifetime bonds with strangers, all enjoying the same thing that we all love which is racing. There is no room for political s**t, we should all move on and do what's best for the members, families and racers, its time to reflect and bring back the grassroots of the sport, the fun, the smiles.
To our team, CRG NZ, thanks for being part of this awesome little group of people, looking forward to many more days of racing.

2026 RMC NZ.

Team CRG NZ kicked off the year with the first round of the NZ Rotax Max Challenge held at Kartsport Rotorua.
Huge numbers, hard racing and plenty of drama, the first 2 we like, the third not so much lol.
Bit of an eye opener, learning the MOJO tyre and how it works on NZ tracks. After Friday testing we thought we had a good idea of where we needed to be. Unfortunately and admittedly my mistake we were to far out of the window for qualifying and put our Rotax Light drivers on the back foot with not so good qualy positions.
But as we always do as a team we put it behind us, soldier on, study the data, get the feedback from our drivers and do the best to make our karts stronger.
The hard part was being back in amongst the s**tfight it was very difficult to make up ground. However in every race our team moved forward, despite the challenge in front of us and the odd penalty I was really proud of how our team stuck together as a whole. We all had fast karts putting in good lap times, Ashton putting in the fastest lap of heat 2 despite having to move through traffic at the same time, and then the Final Ashton and Mathew having the 2nd and 4th fastest laps respectively also while negotiating the traffic. Our newest member Tai making huge gains over the weekend not only learning the new tyre but also learning a totally different kart and setting his PB in the final. Amelia and Hannah also showing really good pace but were just caught up in that annoying take no prisoners part of the pack. So to our Rotax light drivers i pat you all on the back, not the results we were hoping for but so many positives leading into the next round.
Next I want to bring you to the attention to our little rocketship Mini Max driver Dayton Emmett Motorsport , still only new to the game, racing for 2 years but due to other sport commitments hasn't actually done a lot of racing. Well didn't he turn some heads, finishing P4 in his final Dayton showed a lot of grit and his racecraft and speed has improved so much over the past couple of months. Race of the weekend I think was the Super Heat coming out of turn 1 in P9 Dayton made his way back up to 4th passing some pretty talented young drivers on the way through, the CRG 950 Black Mirror was singing a nice tune. Top effort little man.
Huge thanks as always to our families and friends that are there through thick and thin helping this team do what we love but there are 2 standout people for me, they don't stop, forever on peoples karts helping with anything that needs to be done.
Bailey James Maunsell and Mike Rose you guys are legends, your contribution to this team doesn't go unnoticed and we are forever thankful.
Looking forward to Round 2, this series is awesome, everyone is fast and the racing is intense which is what weave been looking for and haven't had for a while.
Big thanks to Richard and Tania from Right Karts for putting this series together. You have team CRG NZs full support.