Summarize

Thursday’s crunching second and third heats proved tough for Team South Africa at the Rotax Max Karting Grand Finals in Sarno, Italy, but the lads fought on and while some among them are faced with little chance of making the finals in their classes, others have placed themselves well to make it through for a good day on Saturday.

Pretoria’s Wednesday first heat winner, Nick Verheul suffered a setback in his third heat, but he will still start his Friday over-30s DD2 Masters Semi Final from a handy fourth on the grid, while Durban teammate Jono Pieterse had a steady day on Thursday to claim a fourth row start from 7th in his semi. PE lad Brett Brito sets off from 28th on his Semi Final grid.

Junior Max duo, Troy Dolinschek from Cape Town and Jozi lad Aqil Alibhai both meanwhile look good to make Saturday’s under-15 Finals in spite of a rough trio of heats. They will line up 13th and 14th in their respective Friday semi-finals — both must finish 18th or better to qualify for Saturday’s Final. 

Cape Town kid Charl Visser however faces a mid pack challenge to make the Senior Max Final from 23rd on his Semi grid — Charl likewise will chase 18th or better to get into his Final. In spite of them showing promise and pace, the karting gods similarly failed to smile on South Africa’s DD2 Team, which endured a grinding day of Thursday heats to see Cape driver Jonathan Thomas starting 22nd, Ballito’s Benj Habig 24th and Gauteng lad Wayland Wyman 30th in his heat on Friday.

Another South African, Luca Munaretto who has been racing in Italy for the past three years and is driving in the Italian Rotax Max Grand Finals team this year, meanwhile starts his DD2  Semi Final on pole position. Luca has kept consistent throughout the event event and is looking strong for a great result.

SA's Primary school lads are both destined to race in their finals, but both Pietermaritzburg’s SA Mini Max champion Troy Snyman, who starts his Friday Semi from 24th and Micro champion, Cape kid Reese Koorzen starting from 35th, have work to do if they want a fair shot of Finals glory in Sarno.

The annual Grand Finals see the Rotax Max national champions from over 80 countries come together to fight it out to crown the best in the world every year, all racing identical karts provided free of charge with only minor set-up changes allowed to ensure closest possible racing. A series of three heats in each of the six classes Wednesday and Thursday determined the 36-kart starting grids for Friday’s knock-out Pre Finals, with the top 36 drivers in each class qualifying to race in Saturday’s Finals.

Follow Friday and Saturday’s action through live streaming and timing from Sarno on www.rotax-kart.com.