Rand Kart Club Zwartkops Thriller

Rand Kart Club Rok ‘N’ Rotaxed in fine style at Zwartkops International Kart Raceway this past weekend.

In fact, Saturday’s friendly club environment which brought together 2 stroke karters to race together was such a success, that there is talk of more of the same when the final round of the Gauteng Kart Championships hits the same venue on 3 December where Gauteng Provincial Kart Champions will be crowned, along with the relevant Club Champions.

On Saturday, Kian Grottis tasted victory in the Premier DD2 class as he edged out Wayland Wyman two races to one. South Africa’s DD2 Master’s hopeful Eugene Brittz secured the final spot on the podium and Nicolaos Vostanis impressed on his premier class debut with a fourth overall ahead of Dusan Radojevic and Masters winner for the day Llewellyn Sutherland.

New names to the DD2 grid, Masters driver Ming Ma, Marnes van der Walt and Oliver Ehlers all enjoyed successful first outings while regular front runner Nicolas Spanoyannis suffered a zero score in race 1 to finish uncharacteristically in ninth.

Next up was a 17 kart ripper as the high school Max classes welcomed the very quick OKJ machine of Christopher Tait who poled the combined qualifying session. In Senior Max results, Karabo Malemela beat Olerato Sekudu to the whitewash twice in three goes to take the overall win from Ross Campbell in a handy third. Moosa Kajee, Kian Spies and Roshaan Goodman rounded off the top 6 there.

In Junior Max familiar names dominated the top 2 podium spots as Erich Heystek romped to three wins followed home by Jayden Goosen each time. Claiming an impressive debut third was Kent Swartz as he edged out Brandon van der Walt, Gianna Pascoal and Jonno Wilson.

In primary school Mini Max, Reagile ‘Spice’ Mailula took the win in each of the three races to secure him first for the day ahead of consistent performers Kegan Martin and Amani Kinya while SA Team member Adam Kajee had an out of sorts day to finish fourth and will be keen to bounce back as he heads off to Portimão for the 2022 Grand Finals next week.

Under 11 Micro Max was quickly looking like the Dowling show as Emma cruised to 3 wins ahead of her brother Brodi, who impressed on his Zwartkops debut. But it was Taylin Patel who split the siblings on the podium as his third and two seconds were good enough for P2 overall. Steady drives from Cristian Verheul, and Matthew Shuttleworth got them P4 and P5 respectively while another impressive newcomer to Micro Max in Kayde Cornofsky showed his metal with a handy sixth.

It was business as usual for the Bambino podium places as Diego Antunes’ two wins beat out Luhan de Wet’s one and Ronaldo Koen’s third and a pair of seconds on the day. Behind them, Adriaan Steyn was an impressive fourth ahead of an improving Callum du Toit and newcomer Aston Verheul, who is very much still learning his lines and turn in points. Omolemo Mfana, Ronald Venter and Mohumi Masenya all had a blast and will be back for more Bambino action in early December.

It’s all but done, for now. The 2022 Rotax Grand Finals in Portugal are next up for South Africa’s top karters before one final bash on 3 December to round out the Gauteng Regional Season.