Australia’s leading karters to burn up Orielton track - From the Hobart Mercury

The four-day meet­ing, which starts to­day with of­fi­cial prac­tice, will see the best of the best try­ing to get their hands on the cov­eted num­ber one Tas­ma­nian Plate.

Four Tas­ma­ni­ans will de­fend the ti­tles they won at the 2013 state cham­pi­onships — Burnie based Gemma Wyl­lie in se­nior na­tional pro, Scott Wrigley, from Perth, in na­tional over 40s, Brody Ap­pleby, from La­trobe, in club­man heavy and Launce­s­ton’s Zane Wy­att in 125 TAG.

A to­tal of 12 classes will run over the cham­pi­onships rang­ing from the cadets (aged from seven) to the over 40s.

Kart­ing is of­ten the start for many Aus­tralian and in­ter­na­tional mo­tor rac­ing cham­pi­ons, with ev­ery cur­rent For­mula 1 and V8 Su­per­car driver hav­ing com­peted in kart­ing from a young age. This in­cludes lo­cal hero Mar­cos Am­brose, who won four Tas­ma­nian ju­nior state kart­ing ti­tles to kick­start his path into a mo­tor rac­ing ca­reer which has seen him race in Europe, win two V8 Su­per­car cham­pi­onships and race suc­cess­fully in the Amer­i­can NASCAR se­ries.