Summarize

WP kart season starts in style at Killarney

The 2020 Rotax Max Western Province Rotax Max Karting championship kicked off in dramatic style on Saturday as bumper fields of eager young racers delivered thrilling racing and multiple winners on a scorching hot Cape summer’s day at the Killarney Kart Track.

In a dramatic top class DD2 gearbox class season opener, Sebastian Boyd beat old rivals Jason Coetzee, Senior Max graduate Charl Visser and Dino Stermin to victory in a day that saw all three taking a chance at winning. Coetzee romped to lights to flag heat 1 win, before Boyd returned the favour in the second race and then Visser took a somewhat fortuitous maiden DD2 win in the sensational final. 

Boyd took charge after a wild opening three laps to take the flag from Coetzee, Stermin and Visser, but Stermin’s throttle stuck wide open on the slow down lap and he went off taking his cousin Boyd with him in a sizeable accident. Both of them, as well as Coetzee, who had made contact during the race, incurred 5-second nose cone penalties to elevate a surprised Visser to the race win from Boyd Coetzee and Stermin! 

It was an equally thrilling weekend in over-30 DD2 Masters, where Conor Hughes, Roy Gruer and Jason Greyling shared out the race wins to end up in that order overall ahead of Andre Steenkamp, Jared Jordan and Andrew Thomas, who bounced back to end the final, second after a tough two opening heats.

Jason Coetzee had a great day to take Senior Max with a couple of race wins on his return to that WP class, moving from fifth to first in race 1 as he passed second place man of the day Tate Bishop, on the last lap to take the heat 1 win before moving ahead on lap 3 of race and making to an easy race 2 win over Bishop again. Reigning SA and WP Charl Visser, who had endured a rough day after a first race retirement, found his feet in the final and drove to a dominant win from Coetzee. So Coetzee took the day from Bishop, Kai van Zijl and Andrew Rackstraw, who shared out the third places, ahead of Storm Lanfear, Reece Oellermann, brothers Michael and Jared Jordan, the troubled Visser and rookie Tristan Reddy.

Kyle Visser took advantage of reigning high school Junior Max champion Troy Dolinschek’s troubles to streak to a lights to flag race 1 and ultimately overall win in the under-15 class, but Dolinschek was untouchable in the second and third races as he bounced back to save his day with second overall from first race second lad, upcountry SA Mini Max champion Troy Snyman who had a positive day getting up to speed in Junior Max. Junior Max rookies, Andre Le Riche ended up fourth for the day from Mikaeel Moolla, Matthew Wadeley and Kyle Le Riche.
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In primary school karting action, Jason Macbeath took an entertaining under-13 Mini Max win for the day with two race wins versus class rookie Reza Levy’s one. Macbeath fought Levy off in a great opening race dice before Levy led the second heat most of the way until overhauled by Macbeath and Paul Malcolm in the dying stages. Levy however made no mistakes as he drove to his maiden Mini win in the final, but that was not enough to topple Macbeath overall. Malcolm took third for the day from Ethan Deacon, Jozi visitor Ghazi Motlekar and Ethan Stier.

A cursory glance at the results would suggest that under-11 Micro Max champion Reese Koorzen enjoyed a dominant clean sweep of wins to take the day, but in reality he had to fight off a determined Joshua Smit in the first two races before coming from behind to pass Smit and making off to win the final en route to that triple for the day. Class rookie Keagan Beaumont completed the Micro podium with a couple of heat thirds ahead of newcomer Dale Hobbs, Bambino graduate Jordon Wadeley, Eric Norman, Yusuf Parker and Sabelo Ntuli.

It was an encouraging day in a baby Bambino class brim full of hopeful karting newcomers, as second year kid Kai van Rensburg took all three wins, while second lad Aiden Beaumont took fastest lap in first heat to sit on pole position for the second. Rookies John Norman, Sebastiano Human and Siyabonga Ntuli impressed ahead of Matthew Smit and Rebecca Wadeley, Zack McAuley, Liam Wharton, Michael Danks and Riley Stier.

The Rotax Max Challenge sees drivers racing like-powered karts in a tightly controlled series of races to crown regional champions in the major centres around the country, alongside a four-rounds SA National championship to crown this year’s South African champions. They earn Grand Final seats in the SA team in the Olympics of Karting, the Rotax Max Grand Finals in Bahrain in November. 

The next round of the WP series is at Killarney on 14 March, while Gauteng’s Northern regions chase starts at the new FK circuit in Benoni on 29 February before the opening National at iDube near Pietermaritzburg KZN on 29 March.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Rotax Max Challenge

What:WP Karting Round 1 Report
Where:Killarney Kart Track, Cape Town
When:Saturday 15 February 2020
Community:Cape Town, Western Province.

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

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