Summarize

Killarney plays host to a karting spectacular Saturday 12 May when the second round of the South African Rok Cup joins up with the midseason fourth round of the MSA Western Cape Karting Championships for a power day of racing at the WPMC Kart Track. The Cape Town race weekend hosts the second round of the South African Mini Rok championship as well as round 2 of the DVS, OKJ MSA Academy and Micro Rok titles, while local action revolves around the fourth rounds of the regular Rotax DD2, Senior, Junior, Micro and Mini Max titles, along with regular Cape Clubmans and Cadet races.

Under-13 Mini Rok will no doubt prove the highlight of the day as that class counts towards both the second round of the South African national and the fourth round of the Western Cape regional championships with a huge field expected to fight it out in an epic north versus south battle between Jozi’s finest and the cream of the Cape crop, who will be itching to get one back over their visitors. Jozi lad Jarrod Waberski led a Gauteng rout at the Vereeniging opener to beat compatriots Jordan Brooks, Nikolas Roos, Josh Le Roux and Matthew Morrell home last time out.

Best of the locals, Kyle Visser leads the Western Cape Mini Rok title chase and one would expect a hometown advantage for Visser, Lucas Royston, Jason MacBeath, Joaquin de Oliveira, Paul Malcolm, Mischa Williams and Joshua Smit at Killarney. The visiting contingent should be boosted by the likes of Kenzo Barnard, Reece Fuller, KC Ensor-Smith, Mohammed Moerat, Mandla Mlangeni, Elam Modiba, Michele Patrizi, Wian Boshoff, Luviwe Sambudla and Tristan Coertze, so Mini Rok is certainly one race not to be missed.

The new Super ROK DVS karting class boasts a quality field of open class drivers with MSA Academy champion Jordan North leading the way over Jozi home rival Blaine Rademeyer. Also expect retaliation in the form of Cape Town kids Dino Stermin, Luke Herring and Mario Ras at home at Killarney, while the Jozi contingent will also boast a few more handy drivers the likes of Liam Pienaar, Wayland Wyman, Carlo Olivier, Brandon Smith and lady karting hero Fabienne Lanz.

South Africa’s 2018 CIK-FIA Academy representative, PE star Joshua Coertze should be back from the first round of that series in France to defend his lead in the local high school age MSA Academy running the same OKJ class karts at Killarney, but he has a most capable field to contend with at Killarney that includes Jozi drivers Aqil Alibhai, Kwanda Mokoena and Leyton Fourie. Add leading karting lass Tiffany Napier, Jospeh Ellerine and local lad Tate Bishop plus the likelihood of a few of the Cape’s top junior drivers and the Academy class is also likely to stun.

Upcountry drivers Luke Hill and Anthon Lombard topped under-11 Micro Rok at Vereeniging, but they were kept honest by Cape Town rookie Luan Mostert and the local hero will be out to go one or two better at home. Add Jozi visitors Cruz Martin, Langa Fakude and Mzwandile Anele, plus the likelyhood of a few WP wildcards in the mix and Micro Rok is assured to be another class to watch.

But that’s not all by any means as the Killarney weekend includes the full regular MSA Western Cape karting contingent out for their fourth round races in the same action-packed program and there can only be fireworks among those hard-fought classes, many of which should also entertain upcountry rivals joining in the action in preparation for the Rotax Max national at Killarney in August.

The local action will be headed by the next dramatic episode of that Jurie Swart versus Luke Herring DD2 show that has proven explosive to say the least so far this season. Add the likes of Jason Coetzee, Jonathan Thomas, Sebastian Boyd and Jarryd Evans to the mix and sprinkle in Masters crew Roy Gruer, Gary Lennon and the lads, and we have a recipe for extreme action.

WP Senior Max action has been tame in comparison, but expect Jason Coetzee to fight back against the recently rapid Andrew Rackstraw there, with the likes of Reece Oellermann, Storm Lanfear, Andrew Thomas and Ziyaad Ibrahim in close attendance. 

The same cannot be said for the wild under-15 WP Junior Max lot, which is another class guaranteed to thrill between the likes of WP championship leader Joseph Oelz and SA national championship leader Charl Visser, with the whole gang including Kai van Zyl, Tate Bishop, Sibo Solomon, Simon Simpson-Heath, Denis Joubert, Luca Wehrli, Storm Lanfear and Tristan Galp all in close attendance.

Mini Max is another key Western Cape karting battleground and there one can expect Kyle Visser and Mikhail Fernandez, who are tied on points after three rounds, to continue their championship tussle with Joaquin de Oliveira, brothers Andre and Kyle Le Riche and Luke Oellerman out to steal their glory.

Reza Levy broke the lap record en route to under-11 Micro Max victory last time out, but expect championship leader Reese Koorzen, Ethan Stier, Joshua Smit and Troy Snyman to be right back on his case, while Paul Malcolm, Ethan Deacon, Conner Rensburg and Ethan Lennon will be keen to fight among the leaders this weekend too.

Killarney’s under-8-year old Cadets will see Ian Joubert out to fighting off Eric Norman and Luan Mostert’s best efforts as usual with Rayan Karriem and Matthew Smit also keen on a look-in, while the WP Clubmans will entertain on the other end of the spectrum with old man Johan Hamman keen to keep his advantage up over Harry Georgiou, Robert Peche, Dayne and Wesley Angel, Michael Jordan, Terry Watt and Ryan Buda.

The Rok Cup classes qualify Friday afternoon with first races going down from 15h20 before the locals qualify on Saturday morning before the second Rok heats kick off a full day’s racing at 10h30 Saturday morning. Good food is available at the Kart Café in the clubhouse in the pits with entertaining and informative commentary all in a cool atmosphere. Find the Killarney Kart Track at the end of the circuit’s southern entrance off Potsdam Road in Milnerton.