After a successful first event in 2005 and a second in 2008, the Bay of Plenty Kart Club will run a third kart race meeting round a street circuit in Tauranga this weekend.
The Farmer Autovillage Tauranga Street Race will again use parts of Cameron Rd, Elizabeth and Glasgow Streets and 3rd Avenue West with practice and qualifying on Saturday afternoon and racing on Sunday.
Over 120 entries across eight classes have been received for the event with the Senior Open class again the most popular with 23 starters, and 125cc Rotax Max Light not far behind with 17.
An indication of the popularity of a street-based race meeting is the number of entries from out of town including some from the South Island.
Returning to defend the street race wins they scored in 2008 are Aucklander Ryan Urban in the Open class, local drivers John van Bommel (125cc Rotax Max Light) and Justin Herbert (100cc Yamaha Light), and Rotorua's Darren Aislabie in 125cc Rotax Max Heavy.
Also expected to impress over the weekend are drivers like Cadet Dylan Smith who finished second in class at the North Island Sprint championship meeting Auckland over Labour Weekend and Reid Harker and Josh Drysdale who finished second and third respectively in the 100cc Junior Yamaha class at the same meeting.
Competitors will get to sample the track for the first time on Saturday morning before tuning and qualifying runs in the afternoon then a full day of racing on Sunday.
