Summarize

Team South Africa’s six Rotax Max 24th ‘Olympics of Karting’ Grand Finalists found the going tough in a brutal day of World Finals at the Circuito Internazionale di Napoli in Sarno, Italy on Saturday. Matthew Shuttleworth ended 16th in his Grand Final, Aaryan Singh 18th, Sebastian Boyd and Bjorn Roos 23rd and Luke Hill 29th, while Bradley Liebenberg retired. The annual Grand Finals saw 400 Rotax Max karting champions gather from around the world to fight for the Grand title in each class.   

Gauteng kid Matthew Shuttleworth closed off a fine week 16th in an incredibly close and hard fought under-11 Rotax Micro Max Grand Final, and best of the South Africans at Sarno. Having made up a two places on the first two laps, Matthew became embroiled in a huge 20-kart spat with barely a second between the lot of them. He slipped to 20th with two laps to go, before finding a few places back to end up sixteenth. Shuttleworth made it to the final from sixth in qualifying, before third in his first and 28th in his second heat and the ninth in the Pre Final, to start his Grand Final in eighth. 

Dubai-based South African Aaryan Singh ran twelfth early on before he too was engulfed by the angry pack and squabbled in the midfield to come home eighteenth in the Rotax under-13 Mini Max Grand Final. Singh qualified 13th on Tuesday and raced to 17th in Wednesday’s first heat before a fine fifth in the second race. Singh then scored a splendid second in heat 3 before coming home fourth in his Pre Final to qualify ninth for Saturday’s big race.

South African DD2 drivers, Capetonian Sebastian Boyd qualified finished 23rd while Jozi driver Brad Liebenberg retired from premier gearbox Rotax DD2. Boyd started 23rd and fought around there before he was shoved wide and dropped back to 33rd. Sebastian then fought back, making up ten places to finish 23rd. Liebenberg made a good start to jump up from 30th to 23rd, but that’s basically where it ended. An incident saw him drop to the back, from where he stopped some laps later.

Boyd started his week 16th on his first heat grid, delivering two 11ths and a 12th to start his Pre Final 10th and finish 16th to sit 23rd on the Grand Final grid. Liebenberg rose from 23rd on his first heat grid before racing to 14th and then  21st and 22nd heats. Brad then went from 18th to 11th in his Pre Final to sneak into the Grand Final 30th on the grid.

Johannesburg DD2 Masters driver Bjorn Roos made up four places to finish the over-31 class 23rd overall. Bjorn spent the first half of his race fighting it out in a close spat before it settled down around the middle of the race. From there he drove home a steady 24th. As in his Final. Roos enjoyed a steady week at Sarno to qualify 28th, before finishing 26th in heat 1, but he retired from his second race. Bjorn then made good with 25th in the Pre Final to qualify 31st for his Grand Final.

Jo’burg high school lad Luke Hill ended up 29th in a mad Junior Max Grand Final. Luke started his Final in 20th position and made good progress early on to move up to 17th. He was then forced wide to plummet to 33rd around mid-distance, from where he scratched back to finish 29th. Hill qualified 44th to start his opening heat in 22nd, before 18th and a fine 6th to start his Friday Pre Final in 14th and find five places to finish ninth and qualify 20th.

Four more South Africans, Senior Max duo Kent Swartz and Charl Michael Visser, Junior Max lad William Marshall and Mini Max kid Tshepang Shisinwana, as well as DD2 duo, Mozambican Cristian Bouche and Namibian driver Zain Beuthin, failed to make the cut to progress to their Grand Finals. Team South Africa’s 2024 South African and African Open champions earned their seats by delivering best results through the past year of local Rotax Max Challenge racing. It all starts all over again early in the new year. Learn all about Rotax Max karting in South Africa at  www.kart.co.za.