Summarize

The seventh round of the Western Province Karting Championship went down in ideal spring weekend conditions, where surprises were sprung on a splendid day at the Killarney Kart Track. While some races indeed saw expected results, others produced unexpected winners and a dramatic twist in the tail.

The most significant of those was in Rotax Senior Max, where Andrew Rackstraw emerged the overall winner of a dramatic day after a fraught weekend in the open class. Championship leader Luke Herring took the first race of the day from Coetzee and Rackstraw, but a second race incident between Herring and Coetzee allowed Coetzee through for the win. He was however penalised, to hand Rackstraw the win, before Herring returned the status quo in the final from Rackstraw and Coetzee.

A post race call by the Clerk of the Course around parents bickering in the pits however saw Herring excluded from the last two races to hand the provisional overall win to young Rackstraw from Coetzee, Reece Oellerman, Ziyaad Ibrahim and Jarryd Evans, but a cloud hangs over this one with protests and appeals likely to see the final result declared in court…

There were no surprises in DD2 however, where Umpie Swart (EMR CRG) romped off to another trio of wins from Jonathan Thomas (Partners Hair CRG) and Andrew Rackstraw (TonyKart) each time. Gary Lennon, Jacques De Bruyn and Roy Gruer meanwhile enjoyed a good spat for DD2 Masters class honours for more mature drivers.

Junior Max proved a most interesting weekend with Sebastian Boyd (Boyd Boss Freight Kosmic), Charl Visser (Charl Electric FA Kart) and Jason Coetzee (RKT Kosmic) scrapping through the three races with Boyd eventually taking two races to Visser’s one to take the day overall from Charl and Jason. Simon Simpson-Heath ended up fourth overall from Gabi Lanfear and Nicholas Sage.

Joseph Oelz (Kosmic) took his customary trio of Mini Max race wins from Kai van Zyl (SAKRA Kosmic) and Tate Bishop (TBP Kosmic), who emerged best out of a tough battle for second with Tate Bishop (TBP Kosmic) and Sibo Solomon (Kosmic). Luca Wehrli was fourth from Thaqib Meyer and Andre and Kyle Le Riche.

There was another surprise in Under-11 Micro Max, which was red flagged and re-started after a race 3 incident, as Denis Joubert (SAKRA Kosmic) enjoyed a strong weekend on his step up to the class to deliver a trio of seconds on the day for a great debut second overall behind African Open winner Reese Koorzen (FA Kart). Koorzen took the first and second races with Reza Levy taking the final win to end up third overall from Joaquin De Oliveira, Valentino Hoffman, Lucas Roysten and Mischa Williams in seventh.

Troy Dolinschek (Makita Kosmic) took a trio of Maxterino wins to continue his fight back in the championship as he beat Kyle Visser (Charl Electric Zanardi) to second in that 60cc air-cooled primary school class. Jason MacBeath took third from Tate Bishop, who drove to a pair of seconds after a first race issue to end up fourth. Paul Malcolm ended fifth following an entertaining mid-pack spat headed with Denis Joubert, Reza Levy, Lucas Royston and Dylan Snell.

Joshua Smit was unstoppable with a trio of wins in the baby Cadets, but a delighted Luan Mostert scored his best result yet to take second overall with a couple of seconds and a third place in the races to beat Ethan Deacon to second. Eric Norman ended up fourth from Matthew Smit and Reese Koorzen, who hit trouble in the second and third races.

The Cape Clubmans karters enjoyed a great tussle through their three races as race 2 and 3 winner Jody van Rensburg (Star CRG) fought off Andrew Thomas (Blake brothers Intrepid) for the win after race 1 winner Graham Stephen took an early shower. Kyle Poulter won Class B, while Robert Peche, Terry Watt and Charles Matthewson scrapped in Class C.

The next stop for the Cape’s top karters is the SA National Championship Final at Zwartkops 23 September before the WP Finals two weeks later, once again at Killarney.