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12-year old Kwanda Mokoena enjoyed a great weekend at the inaugural Rok Cup karting races in Vereeniging on Saturday, but the Rivonia Primary Grade 7 kid is now more focussed on the weekend ahead, once again at Vereeniging's Laserfische Raceway for the second round of the Northern Regions series.

“We had an awesome day on Saturday,” Kwanda admitted. “I surprised myself by qualifying fourth in my first outing in the super fast 125 OKJ Academy series and I put it on pole for the 60cc Mini Rok race. “I have trained hard in the off season, working on my fitness because I knew that this weekend wasn’t going to be easy especially considering that each class has four races, so I had to be ready for eight, long 15-lap races one after the other.

“Still, the last heat was really hard for me — I had just won the last Mini Rok heat and had to jump straight into the Academy kart and go straight back out, so I was very happy with fifth overall there. “I took the fight to my competitors in Mini Rok and had some great dices with my friend Leyton Fourie, but I won 3 out of 4 races to take the Mini win for the day and in OKJ I had an unbelievable 5th for the day. 

“Anyway, they say that there is no rest for the wicked and it’s back to Vereeniging for the regionals this weekend, so I have to salute my team, who work so hard to help me every race - and that’s every week these days! “So many thanks to Elijah, Thabs and my Squadra Corse Team; to uncle Ettiene for the help too and of course, my mommy and dad for shouting for me each lap as I drove past to help me stay focused!”