Summarize

Perfect weather set the scene for Killarney’s final kart meeting of the year to crown 2017’s Western Cape Karting Champions as Jurie Swart, Luke Herring, Jason Coetzee, Joseph Oelz, Tate Bishop, Joaquin de Oliveira Joshua Smit and Jody van Rensburg all going home with titles in their pockets Saturday evening.

Jurie Swart drove his EMR CRG to two race wins, but fumbled at the last hurdle en route to winning the quickest DD2 gearbox class. Swart had crossed the line first in every race in his 2017 title chase , but ended third after an incident with championship second place man Jonathan Thomas in Saturday's final. Swart nonetheless dominated the Cape DD2 championship, even if that final race win went to Jason Coetzee (RKT Kosmic) on his DD2 debut from Andrew Rackstraw (Tony Kart) with those two ending second and fourth on the day.

Gary Lennon took DD2 Masters honours from Roy Gruer on the day, but third was good enough for Jacques De Bruyn to wrap up the cape madala’s title from Ernst Viljoen, who ended up fourth on the day.

Jason Coetzee (RKT Kosmic) and Andrew Rackstraw (CRG) were busy lads as Jason led Andrew to a Senior Max 1-2 and threaten an upset in that overall championship, but SA champion Luke Herring (FA Kart) added the WP title to his 2017 basket in spite of a troubled ay at the races. Herring crucially won the final race of the day to secure the Senior title at the wire. Coetzee had to settle for the title second despite winning the opening two heats from Rackstraw with Jarryd Evans impressing in a fourth overall that included a first race second place, Reece Oellermann and Ziyaad Ibrahim.

Karting championships are scored with an anomaly that sees drivers dropping their three worst race positions from their title tally. Which means that by not racing the final round, drivers like Jason Coetzee who scored well throughout the year in Junior Max, can miss the final to unlock enough points to wrap up the championship by the new zero points scored in the final. 

That’s exactly what happened in that high school class as Coetzee parked his Junior Max RKT Kosmic to leave SA junior champion Sebastian Boyd to romp off to a trio of wins to secure second place in that championship on his debut aboard a Kosmic chassis. Simon Simpson-Heath (SAKRA Kosmic) turned the tables on Charl Visser (Charl Electric FA Kart) taking two second places to Charl’s one for second on the day, but Visser ended third in the title race behind Boyd and Coetzee. Nicholas Sage was fourth on the day ahead of lady karting trio, Cape sisters Gabi and Jade Lanfear sandwiching Jozi visitor Tiffany Napier in fifth.

Joseph Oelz was another driver who dominated through the year to sit back and watch his rivals squabble over second while his absence unlocked a pile of otherwise lost points to clinch the WP under-13 Mini Max championship while his Kosmic sat in the garage. That left Kai Van Zyl (Kosmic) to rack up a trio of wins to win the day to clinch the title second from Tate Bishop (TB Kosmic) Luca Wehrli, Andre Le Riche Thaqib Meyer, Sibo Solomon and Kyle Le Riche.

SA champion Tate Bishop was the third driver to elect to miss the under-12 Maxterino finale, knowing that unlocking his thee previous worst scores through the year would be enough to add the Western Cape title to his national crown. That left Troy Dolinschek (Makita Kosmic) to score two race wins to SAKRA Kosmic driver Jason MacBeath’s one to draw even on points and steal the championship third from Jason by dint of Dolinschek’s 13 race wins through the season.

Kyle Visser kept his nose clean with a couple of second places en route to fourth overall to clinch second in the championship, while fifth on the day was enough for Denis Joubert to cement in the championship from Mikhail Fernandez, Paul Malcolm and Dylan Snell. Connor Rensburg, Jamie Katz and Lucas Royston closed off the Maxterino top ten on the day.

The Western Cape under-11 Micro Max title race was one of the few to escape drivers sitting out the weekend to secure their score as that championship does not drop races. The class indeed delivered a thriller as Reese Koorzen beat Valentino Hoffman two race wins to one to take the day over Valentino by a single point. 

Denis Joubert was a championship late comer to stand on Saturday's podium in third, but that was not enough to stop Reza Levy (Armien Levy CRG) from taking second in the championship by just two points from Hoffman. Indeed none of that was enough to stop Joaquin De Oliveira from clinching the WP Micro Max title over Levy and Hoffman, with the trio split by only eight points at the end. Behind all this, Julius Schwager ended sixth from Mischa Williams, Ethan Stier and Julian Booysen.

Joshua Smit made no mistakes as he wrapped up the baby WP under-8 Cadet title from Ethan Deacon, who was also second on the day. Luan Mostert moved into third in the championship with third Saturday, ahead of newcomer Ian Joubert, Eric Norman who took fifth in the championship and another newcomer in Rayan Karriem.

Jody Van Rensburg (Star Security) narrowly beat Andrew Thomas (Blake Bros.) to the overall and Class A WP Clubmans title after a year-long war between the two. Neither could however stop Mario Ras from storming to three race wins to take the day. Harry Georgiou took the Class B win while the absent Kyle Poulter took the class title and Robert Peche beat Wayne Abegglen and Charles Matthewson to the Class C win as Matthewson secured second in that class championship behind Terry Watt, who did not race on the day.

Most of the Cape karters now take a holiday from the sport, but the likes of Luke Herring, Sebastian Boyd, Jason Coetzee and Reese Koorzen head to Portugal to represent South Africa in the Rotax Max World Finals in November and a number of drivers will also compete in the SA Rok Cup Finals in Vereeniging. The rest will however have to wait until February for their next kart racing fix when the 2018 WP championships get under way again at the Killarney Kart Track.