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Bradley Liebenberg, Marouan Selmi, Luke Herring and Joshua Coertze each left the Zwartkops Kart Raceway Sunday afternoon clutching an automatic entry to the 2017 Rotax Max Karting World Finals at Portimao in Portugal in November. Each driver earned that right by winning their respective DD2, DD2 Masters, Senior Max and Junior Max classes at the annual wildcard winner takes all African Open. Mini Max winner Leyton Fourie and Micro Max winner Reese Koorzen and one parent each meanwhile won a trip to watch the World Finals.

Drivers from South Africa, Kenya, Angola, Dubai, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered at Zwartkops for the wild annual meeting, each one chasing that dream winning a prize race seat to compete against drivers from over 60 countries in that world championship of Rotax karting raced on fully supplied identical equipment to determine who really is the best in the world of Max.

Bradley Liebenberg took the DD2 pole position, won both Pre Finals and looked on for an easy Final win to reserve his racing seat at Portimao. Liebenberg indeed took the final win, but it was no simple matter as Eugene Brittz chased him to the line just 0.08 seconds adrift after a wild rort between the top four and wildcard Roman de Beer, who retired midway. Durban lad Benjamin Habig drove from 15th to end up a brilliant third, but he incurred a nose cone penalty to drop to 7th and hand Cape Town’s Jurie Swart thr final podium step, ahead of Bloemfontein driver Justin Allison. 

DD2 Masters winner Marouan Selmi was next up to book his drive at the DD2 Masters World Final too, a second clear of Masters rival Jonathan Pieterse, while Conor Hughes was the third Masters driver home.

Cape Town lad Luke Herring made no mistakes with a dominant performance in Senior Max, putting his LHR FA Kart on pole position before ticking off a couple of Pre Final Win. The Senior Final was also hard fought early on as Herring slogged it out with fellow Capetonian Jason Coetzee (RKT Kosmic) and Daniel Duminy (SMD FA Kart) before making a break around mid distance and leaving Coetzee to find his way past Ballito driver Duminy.  Another Cape lad, Andrew Rackstraw put one over locals Michael Buchholz and Oliver Gunner for fourth, but Luke’s Senior win earned him a place in the DD2 World Finals in Portugal.

Port Elizabeth youngster Joshua Coertze pulled off a bit of a surprise to take the South African team’s high school Junior Max drive at the World Finals aboard his Kosmic. Coertze popped up in second after qualifying before going on to win both Pre-Finals and then he came from third to pass Cape Town lad Sebastian Boyd (Boyd Boss Freight Kosmic) and Durban kid Dominic Lincoln (TonyKart), which drivers ended up second and third. Cape Town lad Jason Coetzee drove from 10th to fourth from reigning Mini Max world champion Jayden Els and Tiffany Napier, who put in a fine drive to sixth.

Jozi kid Leyton Fourie (Kosmic) dominated his way to the under-13 Mini Max Final, taking pole position and both Pre Final wins en route to a 0.3 second victory over Ormonde youngster Aqil Alibhai (Kosmic) and Cape Town driver Kai van Zyl (Kosmic. But Fourie had to fight his way past van Zyl on the Penultimate lap and Alibhai on the final tour, to clinch the win. Daniel De Paiva ended up fourth from Jarrod Waberski and Mathew Morrell.

Another Cape Town lad, Reese Koorzen (FA Kart) pulled off the biggest upset of the day to take under-11 Micro Max. Reese qualified third and then drove home in fourth and third in the two Pre-Finals, but he was quickest when it counted most as he took a delighted victory from home town favourite Muhammad Wally (TonyKart) and fellow Capetonian Reza Levy (CRG). Mandla Mlangeni took fourth from Joshua De Paiva after those two had led most of the way before a dramatic last lap reshuffle, while Kent Swartz was sixth.

There was also an under-8 Cadet race on the day, which Luke Hill won from Tshepang Shisinwana, Rayn Asmal, Adam Kajee, Cape visitor Luan Mostert and Mohammed Moerat.

Liebenberg, Selmi, Herring and Coertze won air tickets to Portugal, where each will be provided with a brand new kart to race in their respective classes, while Fourie and Koorzen and one of each of those drivers’ parents earned tickets to go watch the World Finals. The four drivers who will race in Portimao will compete alongside the South African champions in each of those four classes, while the SA Mini and Micro Max champions will race in those two finals, too. 

Should any of the African Open four winners who will race in Portugal become SA champions, the second placed driver in that championship will take the second World Final seat in the SA team. The South African Rotax Max karting championships will be decided at Zwartkops Saturday 23 September, with the World Finals taking place 4-11 November.