SIX SOUTH AFRICANS QUALIFY RMCGF FINALS

Shuttleworth, Singh, Hill,Roos, Boyd & Liebenberg make it through

Six South Africans have made it into Saturday’s 24th annual ‘Rotax Max Olympics of Karting’ Grand Finals at the Circuito Internazionale di Napoli in Sarno, Italy. With 400 of the world’s top karters chasing just 216 slots in the six combustion kart classes, only the very best would survive. Matthew Shuttleworth, Aaryan Singh, Luke Hill, Bjorn Roos, Sebastian Boyd and Bradley Liebenberg have made the cut out of the 10-man Southern African team.

Little Matthew Shuttleworth has been one of Team South Africa’s stars and will start in eighth on under-11 Rotax Micro Max Grand Final grid. Matthew qualified sixth for his first heat Tuesday, where he came home and excellent third on Wednesday. Thursday was tough when he had to charge back from the back to 28th after a first lap incident, but Matthew was back on it for his Friday Pre Final, where he drove home ninth. To see young Shuttleworth qualify eighth for Saturday’s Grand Final.

Moving up to Rotax Mini Max, Dubai-based South African Aaryan Singh starts Saturday’s under-13 Grand Final from ninth on the grid. Singh qualified 13th on Tuesday and raced to 17th in Wednesday’s first heat after a nose cone penalty. Aaryan then delivered a fine fifth in the second race, and then a splendid second in heat 3. He then came home fourth in his Pre Final to qualify ninth for Saturday’s big race.

South African Junior Max lad Luke Hill starts Saturday’s high school Junior Max Grand Final in 20th position. Hill qualified 44th of the 68 karts in class to start his Wednesday opening heat in 22nd, where he made up eleven places to finish eleventh. A busy Thursday mustered 18th and 6th in the two heats to see Luke start his Friday Pre Final in 14th He then made up five places to finish ninth in his Pre Final, and will start the Junior Mas Grand Final in 20th on Saturday.

South African DD2 drivers, Sebastian Boyd qualified on the cusp in 35th, while Brad Liebenberg had his work cut out from 44th. Boyd started his first heat 16th and finished his next two heats in 11th, and 12th. Liebenberg started heat 1 from 23rd and rose to 14th, before racing to 21st and 22nd in his next races. Boyd then started his Pre Final 10th and finished 16th so will start his Grand Final in 23rd. Liebenberg went from 18th to 11th in his Pre Final to sneak into the Grand Final 30th on the grid.

All that now remains after a wild week of racing, are the Rotax Max Grand Finals in each class from late Saturday morning.