Summarize

Benoni’s Formula K hosted the sixth round of the Gauteng Rotax Max Challenge karting championship on Saturday. It was a great day all round with the usual thrilling action delivering some interesting results and surprise race winners in a hearteningly well supported meeting. 

Brandon Smith made no mistakes as he trotted off to a trio of gearbox class DD2 wins to take the day from Niko Zafiris, who kept him honest all day with a trio of seconds. Behind them, Wayland Wyman overcame Nicolas Spanoyannis, Nicholas Verheul and Divan Braak in an entertaining day-long dice for third. Carlo Gil dominated DD2 Masters, leaving Tinahe Ncube to deal with Philippe Chapat and Llewellyn Sutherland.

There were two surprises on the day. First, Olerato Sekudu took advantage of Kian Grottis’ race 1 problems to win and hold Grottis off for the Senior Max trophy as Kian took the second and third heats. Conner le Roux, Ethan Bostander and Ryan Wustmann fought hard for third in pursuit. It was a similar scenario in Junior Max, where Moosa Kajee capitalised on Jayden Goosen’s race 2 trouble to win with Karabo Malemela, Nicolaos Vostanis and Ricardo Tebbutt chasing in combat.

There were fewer surprises in the primary school ranks. Wian Boshoff sped to a triple Mini Max win as he left Erich Heystek, Caleb Odendaal and Reagile Spice Mailula and Kent Swartz to fight it out for the minor placings. And Kegan Martin beat Durelle Goodman two races to one ahead of Rafael da Silva, Taylin Patel and Emma Rose Dowling in an entertaining Micro afternoon. Matthew Shuttleworth beat Brodi Dowling, Diego Antunes and final race winner Santi Frade in Bambino.

On the supporting bill, David Hollis took the Formula K KZ shifter win from Ian Basson and Luis Dias, and Chad Francis took the Clubmans win from Robert Fulton and Michael Hawcroft. The Gauteng karters return to Formula K for their penultimate round on 6 November, but not before a double-header weekend of Cape racing at Killarney on Saturday 30, and the KZN finale at iDube on 31 October.