Summarize

South Africa’s finest karters deep in battle against the best in the world at this week’s 24th annual ‘Rotax Max Olympics of Karting’ Grand Finals at the Circuito Internazionale di Napoli in Sarno, Italy. Comprising South African and African champions, the twelve-man Team is up against 388 rivals from over sixty countries across to crown a global champion in each of the six Rotax classes. 

The Grand Finals commenced with the equipment handover over the past weekend. Practice commenced Monday and Tuesday, before some qualifying sessions Tuesday afternoon. The rest of the classes qualified on Wednesday morning, before all raced their first of three heats on Wednesday afternoon.

South Africans, African Open champion Sebastian Boyd qualified 35th and South African champion Bradley Liebenberg 47th in top direct-drive two-speed DD2 class on Wednesday morning. Both Boyd, who climbed six positions to finish eleventh, and Liebenberg who made nine overtakes to end 14th, thoroughly impressed in their opening qualifying heat.

Also in DD2, Namibian Zain Beuthin qualified 58th and Mozambican driver Cristian Bouche 70th. Beuthin slipped two places to end 32nd, while Bouche gained a couple of places to 34th in their first qualifying heat. South African over-31 DD2 Masters champion Bjorn Roos qualified 28th Tuesday afternoon, before finding a couple of places to end 26th in Wednesday’s first qualifying heat.

African Open Senior Max champion Charl Visser qualified 17th, with Kent Swartz 45th of 72 open class chain drive starters Wednesday morning. Both went straight into their qualifying heats in the afternoon, where Visser made up two places to end a strong seventh. Swartz finished 27th among a tough pack.

Luke Hill qualified 22nd in his high school Rotax Junior Max group, where William Marshall ended 30th Wednesday. Hill then put in a stirring drive to fight up to eleventh in his first qualifying heat, while Marshall picked up a couple of places to end up 28th.

African Open winner Aaryan Singh qualified thirteenth, in Rotax Mini Max, while South African champion Tshepang Shisinwana was 30th of the 72 under-13 karting kids on Tuesday. Singh then ended 17th in his Wednesday qualifying heat, while Shisinwana unfortunately retired.

The star of the Team South Africa show so far is however its youngest member. Matthew Shuttleworth qualified sixth in under-11 Rotax Micro Max, before finding two places in his opening qualifying heat to end up a fine fourth.

Thursday is crunch day at the Italian Rotax Max ‘Olympics of Karting’ with each driver racing his second and third qualifying heats. Points scored in each heat are tallied up in a mini championship, with result of that determining the grid for Friday’s Pre Finals in each class. 

The top 36 in each then go through to the Saturday 26 October Grand Finals to determine a champion in each Rotax Max category. Catch the live stream at www.kart.co.za.