Summarize

The Zwartkops International Kart raceway played host to the fourth round of the 2021 Gauteng Rotax Max Challenge races on Saturday. Despite several competitors being unable to race due to Covid isolations, a heartening entry list made for some cracking racing throughout the day.

It was a family affair in a packed grid of premier direct drive gearbox DD2s as Brandon Smith showed brother Jamie the way in all three races with Niko Zafiris third. Masters winner Eugene Brittz was next up from Divan Braak, second Masters man Carlo Gil, Nicolas Spanoyannis and Masters trio, Llewellyn Sutherland, Philippe Chapat and Tinahe Ncube, after first Masters man home Nic Verheul came in underweight in final to lose the overall win.

Top chain drive class Senior Max continues to show encouraging growth, but nobody was going to stop Gauteng top gun Kian Grottis from trotting off a trio of wins over Olerato Sekudu each time. Newcomer Roshaan Goodman impressed in third ahead of Andrew Hill, Ryan Wustmann and Ethan Bostander. Under-15 Junior Max is also attracting a good number of new names, but it was SA champion Muhammad Wally who took the day two races to one over KC Ensor-Smith, with Moosa Kajee next up from Jayden Goosen, Karabo Malemela and Ricardo Tebbutt.

In the primary school classes, Wian Boshoff romped to a trio of under-13 Mini Max wins while Kent Swartz shared out the seconds and thirds with Caleb Odendaal. Georgia Lenaerts was fourth from Tjaden Tromp and Amani Kinyua. Under-11 Mini Max has become very competitive and Rafael da Silva continues to impress but he had to work to stay ahead of race 1 winner Spice Mailula, Mattao Mason, Kegan Martin, Taylin Patel and Aadam Kajee. 

Maddox Mason was unbeaten in an encouraging 14-kart field of baby Bambinos. Santiago Frade was second from Matthew Shuttleworth, with Shayaan Mohamed next up from Brodi Dowling and Kayde Cornofsky. The Clubmen closed off a great day’s racing as Robert Fulton beat Ryan Schwartz two races to one with Avinesh Francis third.

The Rotax Max regional focus shifts to Killarney next for the fourth round of the Cape Challenge, where another encouraging entry will race this coming Saturday 12 June. Past Saturday’s GTi Challenge winner Jason Coetzee will want to put one over DD2 rivals Joseph Oelz and Sebastian Boyd again down there, while Andrew Thomas is keen to beat Conor Hughes in Masters. Tate Bishop is the Cape Senior Max lad Investchem Formula F1600 leader Andrew Rackstraw wants to beat. 

In the schoolboy ranks, Reza Levy is the Cape Junior favourite, with Matthew Wadeley, Jaden Jacobs, Joshua Smit and Oliver Roach in chase and Joaquin de Oliveira has been in top Mini Max form over Joshua Smit and Jordon Wadeley. Brothers Keagan and Aiden Beaumont will have Dale Hobbs, Matthew Chiwara and Matthew Roach to deal with in Micro Max and Michael Danks resumes battle with Siyabonga Ntuli, Liam Wharton, Ruan Lewis and Zac Boshoff in Bambino.