{"id":486977,"date":"2026-06-20T11:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486977\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:57:21","slug":"sunlive-tauranga-boy-unbeatable-at-karting-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486977\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Tauranga boy unbeatable at karting nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old Tauranga kart racer has delivered a near-perfect weekend of racing winning a national title in dominant fashion.<\/p>\n

Nico Thomasen claimed the coveted 1NZ title at the New Zealand Sprint Karting Nationals that took place in Rotorua.<\/p>\n

Competing against a field of 33 of the country\u2019s best young drivers, Nico delivered a commanding performance to secure the Vortex Mini Rok national crown.<\/p>\n

He qualified second before going on an unbeaten run through the event.<\/p>\n

Thomasen won every heat race, the pre-final and the final, crossing the line more than 11 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very happy because it was one of my dreams to win the Karting Nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomasen said it was a great weekend of racing overall, apart from a brief issue where he lacked pace after his brakes began dragging.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we sorted that out, it was sort of going to plan, and because it\u2019s nationals, everyone\u2019s there to win, so going into the event we didn\u2019t have much pace but it was still a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomasen said racing out front and watching his friend fight for second place was a personal highlight from the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see them as I was on a different straight, they were on the other side and I could see them battling.\u201d<\/p>\n

No stranger to a national title, this one is the latest milestone in what has already been a remarkable year for the young racer.<\/p>\n

\"Nico

\nNico Thomasen won every heat race, the pre-final and the final at the New Zealand Sprint Karting Nationals. Photo \/ Bens Gallery<\/p>\n

Earlier this season, Thomasen claimed back-to-back New Zealand Grand Prix titles and has continued to test himself against top competition on both sides of the Tasman as he competes in New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n

He said racing overseas, specifically in Australia, was a valuable learning experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot more people, and the battling is crazy over there, there are 10 kids all going at the same speed, and they can all win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At just 11 years old, Thomasen has etched his name alongside some of New Zealand motorsport\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n

He won the 2025 New Zealand Top Half Series, a championship previously won by Formula One driver Liam Lawson in 2014, before Nico was even born.<\/p>\n

Thomasen said Liam Lawson is one of his motorsport heroes, along with fellow Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Wood.<\/p>\n

He said winning the same trophy as Lawson made him feel \u201cfast\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all fierce drivers, are good at battling and maintaining tyres.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nico

\nNico Thomasen has been driving karts since he was 6 and has won multiple national titles. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

With dreams of one day forging a professional career in Supercars, those closest to Thomasen say the success has been built on countless hours of preparation, long road trips, and family sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Thomasen\u2019s mum, Shannon Thomasen, said he started racing aged 6 and his success at such a young age was \u201cimpressive and pretty admirable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s worked hard to get to where he is, and to consistently win, he\u2019s now got a few championships under his belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Nico was well respected in the racing pits with other young drivers starting out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very determined little person and it certainly comes out on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what his advice would be to other aspiring Kiwi kart drivers, Thomasen\u2019s answer was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve in yourself and always believe that you can become something big one day, keep practising and keep putting in effort.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 11-year-old Tauranga kart racer has delivered a near-perfect weekend of racing winning a national title in dominant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-486977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}