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| The very quick Fabienne Lanz will compete in the seniors karting race. |
ALL eyes will be on three karters for KwaZulu-Natal at the 2014
Rotax African Championship at Zwartkops Kart raceway in Pretoria on
Saturday.
KZN’s Luca Canderle will be defending his 2013 title as Africa’s
fastest karter against a field of over 20 karters, including the reigning
overall SA DD2 champ Ryan Frost, past SA champion Eugene Britz and previous
Senior Max champions Chad Maciver and Mitchell Licen.
Benjamin leadis the points chase in
DD2, the top gearbox class in the Rotax series, despite his relative
inexperience in karting terms.
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| Cristiano Morgado |
Experience vs youth
2014 World DD2 Masters Champion, Cristiano Morgado from Durban will race both the DD2 class and the DD2 Masters class at the September 6
meeting, thanks to the Masters category
drivers having their own race this year, as they do in the Rotax World Championship and
European Championship events.
Morgado, despite being well in his
30s, is lean and keen and will easily make the lower weight limit of the “normal” DD2 class to show the whippersnappers what it is all about.
The racing who dream of adding Morgado's scalp to their winnings include Erwin Sterne,
Marouan Selmi, Richard van Heerde and John van Wyk.
Entry to Grand Finals
Stuart Johnson reports the big drawcard of this
one-day African Open event is that the winners of four Rotax Categories in the
African Open get an entry to the 2014 Grand Finals, essentially the world
championship of karting, in Spain on November 24 to 29. This African Open event
is seen as something of a “shortcut” to the World Championship Rotax meet, as
traditionally the winners have to compete a gruelling season of regional and
national championship legs to win a place in the Grand Finals.
This system is
still in place, and the winners of the September 6 meet will be joined in the
finals by the 2014 SA champions, who will be crowned in October after the final
round in October.
Maxterino Class
Maxterino Class
The primary school race
for the Rotax official classes is the Maxterino category, for drivers aged eight
to thirteen. There is an excellent entry of 24 karts for this category, vital to
the future of karting in South Africa. The favourite here is Dillon van Vuuren
from Gauteng, with strong opposition likely from Cape Town’s Charl Visser and
Gauteng’s Kwanda Mokoena. Encouragingly there are a number of visiting drivers
from Mozambique in this category, including Naomi Pitzer, Rodrigo Almeida, Allen
Remane and Hazique Rezaque.
The winner of the Maxterino class will get an air ticket to watch
the Grand Finals in Spain in November.
More information contact Jennifer Verheul at info@kart.co.za.
