Summarize

The past weekend was a tough one for South Africa’s top kart racers as they tackled the double duty of a Northern Regions raceday on Saturday in preparation for Sunday’s Rotax Max African Open, which wild winner-takes all Finals, guarantee the winning driver a place in the Rotax Max World Finals in Portugal come November. It was an even tougher weekend than most for Jason Coetzee, who started no less than twelve races over the two days, but he came home with one hand on a World Final seat.

Jason finished second in the African Senior Max Open Final won by fellow Capetonian Luke Herring, who so earned the right to a DD2 seat at the Portimao Final. But Herring is hell-bent on racing in the Senior Max World Final, something he will achieve anyway should he clinch that SA championship in Pretoria in a few weeks and not in DD2, which is where Jason comes in and he will happily take the DD2 World Final seat.

But that’s still not a definite as Jason still leads the SA Junior Max championship race, so he could still gain an automatic enrty, should he turn that into a win, but for now he’s just happy with a good weekend past. “It definitely wasn’t a bad weekend, Jason admitted. “It started well and ended well.” Coetzee’s weekend started with a strong second in Junior Max and a fighting fourth in Senior Max as he treated the Northern Regions races as a warm up on Saturday.

But Sunday did not begin as planned. “I was second in the first Pre Final but my Junior Max African Open chase ended in race 2 because my clutch screws broke so it put me back to 12th for the start of the Final. “I didn't give up and came back to fourth, which was a race I really enjoyed. “The Senior Final was my most stressful race, but it was fun — I was fifth out of turn 1 and fought back to the front and then got passed and came back to finish second to Luke Herring.

“It was a eventful day but was fun and now I'm focusing on my last few races before the international finals overseas — Luke does not want to race DD2, which is the prize drive for Senior Max so for now it seems I have that as a first choice.” That starts at Killarney’s seventh round WP championship races Saturday 2 September: “I’m very excited for another weekends racing,” Jason concluded. “This time at home again and I’m hoping to do well but it will be close as always!”