Summarize

Sebastian Boyd enjoyed a great opening round of the 2019 South African Rotax Max Challenge national karting championship, ending up a fine fourth overall at his home track at Killarney in Cape Town over the weekend. It could have been even better however, had SACS College scholar Boyd not been victim to robust driving by some rivals.

Qualifying went well enough as Seb put it eighth on the grid and a clean first race saw him climb to fourth as he qualified fifth for race 2. “The second race went very well for a few laps — the first three of which were wild, but I was soon up to third and passed Benj Habig for the lead on lap 5 and stayed there for the next five laps,” Sebastian explained. “But it got a bit hectic and I was pushed back to fifth.

“The final was another strong race for me — I started third and was back in front by lap 3 and managed to lead for ten laps until Dino Stermin found a way past and I was looking good for second, but Roman de Beer pulled a late and rather desperate move and bumped me down to sixth, which was a great pity.

“Anyway, I'll take my fourth in the championship with both hands even if it could have been a bit better overall, but we’re racing with the big guys here and I suppose I need to up my game. “It’s PE next at Easter time and I'm looking forward to that — we have the pace, now we just need to keep it clean and out of some of my rivals’ way — looking forward to that challenge!"