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.

CRG NZ Victorious at the 2025 Top Half Series, taking out the top 2 steps overall.
Mathew Johnston P1
Ashton Phipps P2
The final round was held at Kartsport Hamilton, we thought we had the best tyre strategy with both boys still having a green set of slicks to use so everything should have just flowed nicely.
Well what a different story that turned out to be, we were cursed with the dreaded bad batch of tyres on all 3 of our karts, Mathew, Ashton and Hannah. Day 1 we persevered with what we had but all of our karts just had no pace to compete with.
Day 2 we made the decision to go back to our first sets that had already been used at the previous 3 rounds with 100+ laps on them, turned out it was the best of a bad situation with all 3 karts finding better pace and Ashton having the fastest lap in both Sunday races. The tyres were better but were still old and they fell off the cliff in the final. Still no one was even close to contest for the title so it was just a question of which CRG is going to take the series. Ashton and Mathew gave it everything they had in the final finishing 3rd and 5th respectively and that was enough for Mathew to take the Series win by 3 points.
Mathew Johnston joined team CRG NZ just over 2 years ago, watching his progression through the ranks has been a great thing to witness and this year he has really put his name on the map. With the support of his Mum and Dad, Sharon and PJ as a family this is something special to celebrate, it is a pleasure having the Johnston family as part of our CRG NZ crew. So on behalf of the team, Congratulations on this great achievement and we praise you all. Massive thanks to our resident Einstein Mike Rose, thankyou to all our families and supporters for all the help throughout the series.
Next stop Kartsport Auckland where we sign off the year and also sign off from the Rosebank Rd track as we prepare to get up and running at our new track on Prices Rd.

📸 Shutter Media Group

2025 Top Half Series Round 3 was held at Kartsport Rotorua.
The weather certainly made it a tricky weekend as it has been throughout the whole series, wet and dry conditions, tyre choices were last minute but CRG NZ still held strong.
Mathew and Ashton have been the only 2 drivers that have been on the podium at every round and that's why they lock out the top 2 steps in the Championship. Good pace and consistency throughout the series, Matty with a 13 point lead in 1st and Ashton in 2nd a long way ahead of 3rd.
The racing was intense on day 1 but it all changed in heat 3, Rotax light was the first class on the grid at 9am on day 2, the track was still wet and the weather had cleared so it was really a 50/50 on tyre choice. As a team we decided to stay on wets, those that aren't in the running for the championship took a gamble on slicks, Ashton won the race so the call on the wet tyre was the best for that race but it was at the expense of ruining our tyres and being on the back foot if it was to rain again during the day.
So leading into the final it was CRG NZ on grids 2 and 3 the track was dry but at the last minute the rain came again as we were about to head to the grid so we had no choice but to run a wet tyre that was now a slick. Mathew, Hannah and Ashton did a great job in the final considering we had no tyre as you can see in the photos. Ashton coming home in P6, Matty P8 and unfortunately Hannah with a DNF
Mathew and Ashton still finishing on the podium for the round 2nd and 3rd respectively.
So now we head to Hamilton for the final round, the new 8 total slick tyre rule for the series has been interesting to watch and how people have managed it. From what I've seen most people will be going into the final round with used tyres, good thing for Ashton and Mathew they still both have only scanned in 4 tyres so they still have a green set up their sleeves. Bring on the Final.