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East London-born karting kid Kwanda Mokoena will always remember his 13th year — the lad who now lives in Paulshof in Jozi’s Northern Suburbs and is in Grade 7 at Rivonia Primary School, delivered a seismic performance to win the 2017 South African Mini Rok karting championship against the very best primary school karting talent in the country.

“It was a very good season,” Kwanda explained. “We have worked so hard over a few years and to win the Mini Rok title has been a fantastic reward to my team and family —  my mechanic Thabs, team boss Elijah; my manager Vaughn Williams, Ettiene and Wayne from RKT and everyone else who has helped make it all happen — and of course my family — especially my dad Kwame. 

Kwanda’s SA National Mini Rok season never quite started as strongly as the team would have liked, with an up and down day at the challenging iDube kart track in the KZN Midlands where he had the pace but was caught out in the fraught action on track. “We had a tough start at iDube,” Kwanda reflected. “I ended up seventh after being helped off the track in the first race, but I fought back to second in race 2 and then we retired from the final.”

Karting however sees drivers dropping their three worst races of the year, so Kwanda could drop those two bad iDube results, but that also presented a double-edged sword, as Kwanda explained: “We knew we could drop those two bad races, but we also knew we only had one more race left to drop for the rest of the year, so I could not afford any more poor results.”

With that in mind, Kwanda arrived in Cape Town for Killarney’s second championship round with a spring in his step and determined to dominate. And dominate Kwanda certainly did as he took no prisoners, storming to an emphatic overall victory with wins in all three races at Killarney to move into the championship lead. “That was the perfect weekend,” Kwanda smiled. “We never put a foot wrong and that made up for a difficult weekend at iDube — and I was leading the championship too!'

Moving on to Pretoria Zwartkops for round 3 at the Zwartkops Kart Raceway, Kwanda delivered another brilliant performance, once again starting on pole position and winning all three races to add to his already handy Mini Rok Cup championship lead. “I took my A-game to Zwartkops and managed to extend my Mini Rok Cup championship lead,” Kwanda grinned. “I was so happy to grab pole position and to win three races.

Mini Rok then headed to Vereeniging for the championship decider at the Laserfiche Raceway, where Kwanda did what he had to do to clinch the 2017 South African Mini Rok championship, driving a sensible race to second overall as he tied up his first and a very well deserved national title. “That was truly an awesome day!” Kwanda beamed. “I qualified second but I knew what I had to do.

“We arrived at Vereeniging in the championship lead, so I was under no pressure to win any of my heats — I would tie it up as long as I finished all the races without incidents. “That was the most calculated drive I’ve ever driven — I am so grateful to God for being there to help me win the Cape Town and Zwartkops nationals and now the South African Championship.

“Big thanks to my team Squadra Corse, my main guy and my biggest motivator Thabs. Thanks also to my mom and dad and my team boss Elijah and all those who supported me through this journey and not forgetting the other drivers who raced alongside me - thank you very much I am honoured to have raced against such tough rivals.”