Penalties prove costly for Cranston

Palmerston North’s Jacob Cranston came home 24th in the Rotax 125 Max at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals at Portimao in Portugal.

Cranston showed good pace across practice where he was ranked ninth overall and had a heat race high of third in his second race.

But nose-cone penalties cost him in the other two heats. Despite that he still ranked 24th heading into his pre-final, where he finished 22nd, before finishing 24th in the final.

Wellington’s Ryan Wood claimed the best Kiwi finish - ninth in the Rotax Junior class.

‘‘The racing here has been next level,’’ Wood said. ‘‘To start the final 16th and finish ninth… the whole thing has been a fantastic experience.’’

Christchurch’s Tiffany Chittenden was 17th in Rotax DD2 Masters. She was on track for a top-10 finish and was disappointed with where she ended up.

‘‘I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we had an issue with the brakes so I wasn’t able to really make the moves I needed to, to move back up through the field,’ she said.

Seven Kiwi drivers qualified to compete at the annual gathering of the best drivers from national Rotax Max Challenge category series around the world, but Wood, Chittenden and Cranston were the only ones to make it through to the finals of their respective classes.

Aucklander Ryan Urban, who won the Rotax DD2 Masters final at the same track in 2015, was one of the pace-setters early on at the event, topping the Rotax DD2 Masters times sheets in the third practice session, and finishing fourth and setting the fastest race lap in his second heat race.

However, in the third heat a kart spun in front of him and his race ended in what he described as ‘‘the biggest shunt of my life’’.

He was able to repair his kart but just three laps into his pre-final his race ended when he rode a wheel of a kart in front. He continued but was penalised 10 seconds for a pushed back nosecone and classified 30th.

That was outside the cut to qualify for the final and he ended up 48th overall in the Rotax DD2 Masters rankings.

Other Kiwis enjoyed mixed fortunes through practice and the heats. Jono Buxeda from Tuakau ended up classified 43rd in Rotax DD2, while fellow younggun CJ Sinclair from Auckland was 46th in the Rotax DD2.

The third Kiwi in the Rotax DD2 Masters class, Auckland veteran Dave Malcolm, finished 52nd.