EightyOne Racing - Levi Trotter

R2 Goldstar Hawkes Bay started good on Saturdays practice, finding some pace and a solid set up for Sunday. I fell ill Saturday night and woke to rain.
Dosed up, hit the track, kept the nose clean (mostly) and grabbed x3 2nd's and x2 5ths while grabbing some z's between races. Came away with P2 for the weekend in a solid J-max field.
Huge thanks to Shane Wood and Murray McCulloch for the kart set-up and driver advice throughout the weekend. We're heading in the right direction given we're just getting started in jmax.
Congratulations to Riley Craig on the round win, solid all weekend.
Thanks to the Burrows family for another enjoyable weekend, and the great banter.
Würth New Zealand
CLAAS Harvest Centre Central Districts
Trotter Contracting Ltd

Goldstar Taranaki Round 1, run, done.
First meeting in the jmax class in dads old kart with very little seat time in the lead up.
Managed 2 race wins, 3 fastest laps and a 3rd overall. Kart was fast, still finding my feet with the size of the kart and different driving style but a huge amount of fun. Well done to Tyler Burrows on the p2 for the weekend, and thanks Shane Wood for the help.

Busy couple of weeks. Ran at the NZ rotax max challenge last weekend. It was an awsome meeting running a rotax engine and Mojo tyres that don't fall over after 80 laps. Results were a mixed bag, qualified 5th but found good pace after that finishing 3rd in both the heats. Sunday finals day went 180° and the pace fell out of the kart after the temps fell. Brought it home in 6th for the final, not as far up as we would've liked but sitting 4th on points was a small consolation to take away.

Onto this weekend where I swapped a rib protector for a Hans and a roll cage, got chucked dads keys and took the honda out for some laps at manfeild, thrown a curve ball with rain all day. Had an absolute ball, and had Dad reaching for the jesus handle coming into turn 7 at over 165kph 🤣. Thanks to Manawatu Car Club and the effort by the volunteers standing around in the rain today. Definitely won't be the last time you'll see me in that car. Roll on winter series?? 🤔

Last Weekend we competed in Kartsport Hawke's bay's Blossom event.
One day of testing, and 10 heats of racing over two days. Having not been at the track for 18 months it showed in our pace and set-up. We struggled all weekend to get the kart hooked up but finally got there towards the end.
Plenty of good race starts and quick passing throughout the heats helped me hold onto 2nd for the weekend, with that podium spot being decided on the last lap, last corner where I managed to sneak past old mate Reed Phillips Racing to clinch it by one point, shot mate 🤙🤣
Well done to RyanHealey29 for being dominant all weekend, well deserved.
Thanks to the Fletcher family and the Gaskins for a memorable weekend off track.
Also thanks to Shane Wood for checking in and helping to try get the sled cranking all weekend.

NZGP 2025 tagged and bagged!
After chasing dad around the race track the last few weekends, we came out the gate in fridays practice sessions on the pace, and with a relatively untouched kart from a practice weekend 3 weeks earlier.
Saturday morning saw us qualify in p6 out of the 43 best drivers in NZ, with a couple from Aus and USA. This gave us p4 for our heats after the field was split.
Heat 1 we crossed the line in p3 🤘
Heat 2 saw us and few other karts shown the grass at turns 1 & 2, ultimately dropping us to last but managed to recover a couple of spots.
Our pre-final on Sunday morning saw a couple of minor changes to the kart, which didn't work and could see that in the karts pace. Started p8, result p8.
This gave us grid 12 for the final, setting the tone for outside grids all weekend 😵‍💫. Got the word from the boss to hang the elbows wide and send it. Picked my way through the field crossing the line in P4. One spot from the podium but super stoked to be back up on pace and being able to battle confidently.
Massive thanks go out to Shane Wood for all the help over the weekend and keeping my head in the game, Uncle Graeme Curtis for accommodating us once again and the CRG NZ team for the pointers getting that CRG kart rocketing.
Onto Nationals at easter.....
Würth New Zealand
CLAAS Harvest Centre Central Districts

Top Half Series R3 at one of my favourite tracks Kartsport Hamilton.
First laps here since may, but quickly remembered how cool this place is. The weather held out for us only just, and we made slow but steady progress with getting a setup dialled in the CRG.
Heat one P15 - P7
Heat two P34 - P17
Heat three P5 - P6
Heat four P16 - P5
Final P6 - P7
This gave us a 5th for the weekend from a full grid of 34 karts.
Was great to get some quality laps under my belt here, and catch up with friends and family. I made some mistakes on track, dad made some on set up but came away with some valuable data and alot of positives going forward in the lead up to North Island champs here in two weeks. Had some good close (sometimes too close) racing, dodged a couple of nasty crashes and made it home in time to catch the last 20 laps of bathurst.
Huge thanks must go to Hayden Walker for the wicked job on the Arai GP-7 helmet, got soo many comments on how awesome it looks!