Summarize

Drama aplenty as records fall at Killarney

The third round of the Western Cape Karting Championships proved a dramatic affair at Killarney on Saturday as perfect conditions greeted competitors to another epic afternoon of racing with penalties and red flags aplenty tied in to extreme action on track and two lap records falling through the day. 

Jason Coetzee came out on top of a dramatic afternoon among the DD2s, Andrew Rackstraw took Senior Max honours and Joseph Oelz Junior Max, Kyle Visser won both Mini Max and Mini Rok and Reza Levy was unbeaten en route to Micro Max honours. Ian Joubert and Johan Hamman were likewise unbeaten in the respective polar under-8 Cadet and open class Clubmans races on a day that will be remembered for some exuberant karting antics…


The action started early as the tension between the two top protagonists already overflowed in qualifying for the premier DD2 class. Luke Herring somehow fell over Jurie Swart to ruin both their sessions and leave Jason Coetzee on pole position ahead of Jonathan Thomas, with Herring third as Swart started from the back. Herring made the best start to quickly move into the lead while Swart took four laps to close him down from the back before Herring went into roadblock mode in his efforts to keep the five karts in his wake behind over the next six laps.

Came to a head
It all came to a head with two laps to go after the last of several Swart efforts to pass the extremely defensive Herring resulted in contact, with Swart and Coetzee making it through to win from Herring, Thomas, Sebastian Boyd and Jarryd Evans, while Roy Gruer took Masters honours from Gary Lennon. Swart was however penalised five seconds for a dislodged nose cone to hand the win to Coetzee from Herring, Thomas, Boyd and then Swart with sentiments running high in pit lane over Herring’s tactics.

Swart then delivered a brilliant second heat, leading from pole position to the flag as he drove away to win at ease from Herring, who kept ahead of Coetzee, with Boyd keeping a watching brief and then Thomas, Evans and Lennon, who put one over Gruer in Masters. Swart was on a comfortable pole again for race 3, there was heavy contact with Herring that resulted in both drivers going off the track. Herring made it back albeit a lap down but Swart was out. That left Coetzee to cruise to a close win over Thomas, Evans, Gruer, Lennon and Herring after Boyd also went off on the opening lap.

Herring was initially handed a nose cone penalty and later excluded from the heat for his part in that latest incident with Swart, leaving Coetzee to take the day from Thomas, a frustrated Swart, Evans, Boyd, Gruer, Lennon and Herring relegated to the back and his title chances out the window. Swart leads the DD2 championship before drops, by four points from Thomas with Boyd and Coetzee next up tied on points and Evans close behind. Gruer sits ten points clear of Lennon in the Masters chase.

Lap records
The two new lap records fell to Junior Max winner Joseph Oelz and Mini Max winner Reza Levy after equally crunching races in both those classes too. Oelz and Charl Visser clashed in a wild heat 1 to let an overjoyed Kai van Zyl through to pick up the pieces and take the heat 1 win from Visser and Oelz, who was penalised for a loose nose cone to drop down to 8th behind Tate Bishop, Sibo Solomon and Troy Dolinschek. 

Visser then had an issue before the start of race 2 and lost a lap while Oelz romped away as he broke the high school Junior Max last record for the second time in two heats en route to winning from van Zyl, Dolinschek, Solomon and Bishop, before repeating the win over Visser, Dolinschek, van Zijl, and Bishop in the final. Oelz ultimately won the day by a point from Kai van Zijl, Dolinschek, Visser, Bishop and Solomon, with Denis Joubert seventh from Luca Wehrli, Simon Simpson-Heath, Storm Lanfear and Tristan Galp. Oelz now has an iron grip in the title Junior Max title chase over van Zijl, Dolinschek and Bishop.

Reza Levy was the other lad to break a Killarney Kart Track lap record en route to an ultimately dominant trio of wins in under-11 Micro Max, although he had to work for his glory as Reese Koorzen kept young Reza right on his toes throughout. Karting princess Mischa Williams was however the star of the day after she went from third into the ambulance after a race 2-stopping incident. She was given the all clear and bounced back to finish that race 5th and go on to take third for the day ahead of Ethan Stier, Joshua Smit and Troy Snyman. Paul Malcolm, Ethan Deacon, Conner Rensburg and Ethan Lennon closed off the top ten ahead of Raylandher Tavaresand and Julian Booysen as Levy closed to within 3 points of Koorzen at the top of the WP Micro title table with de Oliveira a close third.

Mini King Kyle
For the rest, Kyle Visser made the under-13 classes his own with two hard-fought victories in both Mini Rok and Mini Max, where he defeated Joaquin de Oliveira two races to one. Brothers Andre and Kyle Le Riche ended up fourth and fifth overall ahead of Luke Oellerman and uptown visitor Josh le Roux, while Visser drew level with Fernandez in the championship chase .

Kyle Visser took another two race wins to one over Lucas Royston to win Mini Rok too, but the consistent Jason MacBeath beat Royston to second after Joaquin de Oliveira and Josh le Roux were eliminated in yet another red flag incident in the final. De Oliveira still ended fourth overall from Joshua Smit, Mischa Williams, le Roux and KC Ensor-Smith. Royston is the only driver to have beaten Visser in the first nine races with that race 2 win, which leaves Visser firmly in charge of the championship chase.  

One of the few classes to go down without incident was the open age group Senior Max, where Andrew Rackstraw overcame Jason Coetzee to take two close-fought race wins before clearing off in the final to leave Coetzee to deal with another uptown visitor in Nick Verheul. Coetzee eventually pulled away to take second in the race and second overall for the day ahead of Verheul with Reece Oellermann fourth from superbike star Hayden Jonas, who decided to go race a kart in the week before and ended up fourth in the final and fifth overall for the day. Storm Lanfear ended up sixth from Andrew Thomas and Ziyaad Ibrahim, while the victorious Rackstraw moved to the top of the title table, albeit just three points clear of Coetzee.

Dominance young & old
The karting kindergarten under-8-year old Cadets was another class to avoid drama, but nothing was going to stop Ian Joubert from charging off to a trio of wins on the day in spite of Eric Norman’s best efforts. Norman took all the seconds with Rayan Karriem an ecstatic third overall ahead of Matthew Smit and Luan Mostert who endured a dreadful day at the races, while Norman kept Joubert in championship check just nine points adrift after all was said and done.

Karting madala Johan Hamman stormed to a trio of WP Clubmans wins over Harry Georgiou to exert an iron grip on that championship, while a delighted Robert Peche overcame Dayne Angel for third. Michael Jordan was next up over Terry Watt, Wesley Angel and Ryan Buda.

They say that there is no rest for the wicked and a number of Cape karters will now travel up to next week’s Vereeniging pre-national, before the second round of the national there at the end of the month. WP karting then returns to Killarney for the 12 May mid-season championship meeting, which shares its date with the second round of the national Rok Cup championship.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of WPMC Kart Club

What:WPMC Karting Round 3 Report
Where:Killarney Kart Track, Cape Town
When:Saturday 7 April 2018
Community:Cape Town, Western Province Regional.

For further information please contact secretary@wpmckarting.co.za

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