Summarize

Rotax karting thrills the Cape, Gauteng

Saturday saw two crucial Rotax Max Karting Regional Karting Championship rounds going down at both Zwartkops in Pretoria and Killarney in Cape Town, partially also in preparation for the SA National Finals at the Cape circuit in two weeks time. There was a fair share of domination as well as a few surprises each end as the Gauteng drivers fought it out over four rounds each class in the Northern Regions races. And it was much the same in the Cape in the three-heat Province meeting.

Polo Cup campaigner Jurie Swart returned to karting in style as he played disruption to take a dominant 3-win DD2 victory at Killarney. Swart left the title contenders to fight over the scraps as Sebastian Boyd edged Jason Coetzee by two second-places to one. Behind them, Masters winner Roy Gruer ended fourth from Jason Greyling, Conor Hughes and an on-form Robert Peche. A quirk of scoring however, saw Hughes end second overall ahead of Greyling in the official over-30s scoring!

Up in Gauteng meanwhile, Jamie Smith and Nick Verheul diced hard to share out the first two DD2 heats. Smith then made off in the remaining two races to take the day from Verheul. Ian Allnutt fought Niko Zafiris off for third, ahead of Divan Braak and Philippe Chapat, who took a dominant four-race Masters triumph. Rob Nicholson was second over-30 man home from Tinahe Ncube, Fernando Bandeira and Marouan Selmi.

Top chain drive class Senior Max rookie Aqil Alibhai was untroubled on his way to a four race win rout over Kgalema Mngadi each time up in Pretoria. Tyrone Sterne emerged third after a tough day fighting it out with Llewellyn Sutherland, Erwin Sterne and Josh Le Roux.

Alibhai’s national rival Tate Bishop, Formula 1600 star Andrew Rackstraw and two more WP National Senior contenders, Jason Coetzee and Charl Visser ended up in that order overall in the Cape Town Senior Max action. Bishop won the opening races, but Visser fought back from a first race retirement to take a hard fought final heat win over Bishop. Storm Lanfear ended fifth overall ahead of Andre le Riche.

Another class rookie to dominate up in Gauteng, was new SA champion Muhammad Wally in under-15 high school Junior Max. He trotted to four straight wins over Tyler Robinson, who was second in three of the heats and final heat second man Kian Grottis. Olerato Sekudu beat Moosa Kajee to fourth.

In Cape Junior Max meanwhile, Kyle Visser took overall honours with two race wins to one over impressive Junior debutant Ethan Stier. Stier improved through the day and took the final heat, leaving Kyle le Riche to clinch third over brother Andre as they shared out the heat thirds between them, ahead of Matthew Wadeley and Reza Levy.

There was a turn-up for the books in the Gauteng Mini Max races. Jayden Goosen trotted to a dominant four-heat win to take an easy overall victory from a delighted Erich Heyste and Mahlori Mabunda. Newly crowned SA champion Ghazi Motlekar ended fourth from Lwandle Pule and Berlin Robinson. The first race saw a magnificent five kart dice for the win, before Goosen made a break in the other three heats.

The Cape Mini Max races also delivered a surprise as Joaquin de Oliveira romped to triple wins over Reza Levy each time. Ethan Deacon beat Joshua Smit to third, with Jude Stuart and Jordon Wadeley next up down there.

Although Mohammed Moerat had to work hard in the beginning of the three opening under-11 Micro Max heats at Zwartkops, but he ultimately dominated. Reagile Mailula won the brilliant three way final heat dice to secure second for the day. Luke Hill ended third ahead of Moerat in that final to steal third from the day from Ntiyiso Mabunda and Wian Boshoff, who also took third places, Aadam Kajee and Enzo Rujugiro.

Caleb Odendaal was missing from the Northern Regions Micro races, because he was in the Cape preparing for that national Final. It went well too as Odendaal took the overall win after home favourite Reese Koorzen dropped out of the top three during a wonderful race 1 dice. Koorzen duly took the next two race wins to end second for the day, although Odendaal does not score in the WP championship. Joshua Smit narrowly beat Jordon Wadeley to third, from Joshua Moore and Keagan Beaumont.

The future of SA motorsport is in brilliant hands, if Saturday’s action on both sides of the Boerewors Curtain are anything top go by. In the Cape, Aiden Beaumont took the day by dint of coming out on top of a brilliant three way fight in the second heat. He only just lost out to second overall Jack Moore following another fine dice in the final. Siyabonga Ntuli and Sebastiano Human fought it out all weekend en route to fourth and fifth with Zack McAuley and Michael Danks next up after third man in the opening heats, Kai van Rensburg retired from the final.

And up in Pretoria, while Rafael da Silva ultimately took three wins and a third to take baby Bambino honours for the day, the track action was intense throughout. There was hard dicing for the lead in every heat, with up to six karts battling it out through the races. First heat winner Manelisi Nkomo ended second for the day from Mattao and Maddox Mason, Cristian Verheul and Matthew Shuttleworth.

The attention now turns to that all-important 17 October Cape Town National Final. Muhammad Wally and Ghazi Motlekar may well have already booked their tickets to the Olympics of Karting Rotax Max Finals in Portugal in January, but the rest of the SA team berths open to SA champions in those classes, remain wide open. All of the above, plus KZN, Eastern Cape and other stars will be there to fight it out. Bring it on!

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Rotax Max Challenge

What:Rotax Max Challenge SA Regionals Report
Where:Killarney & Zwartkops
When:Saturday 3 October 2020
Community:South Africa National

For further information please contact jennifer@kart.co.za

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