08 Oct Race Report by Hayley – HOT SHOTS AT KARTING: A CANICULE DAY AT KILLARNEY – 05 OCT 2024

On 5 October 2024, round 7 of Killarney’s Regional Karting had been held on the karting circuit in the centre of the raceway’s track in Cape Town. The day, as hot as fire – a scorching 29 °C – started off with free practice. 

With the sun hitting off the track and barely a breeze going by, Raffaele Musso of the OKJ category had spun off the track in the middle of the 180s bringing out the yellow flags and causing him to retire for the rest of the session, unable to score a best lap time.

After a somewhat smooth practice session, Qualifying went underway with no hiccups.

The Bambino category brought the action on lap two of race one as Lehan Fourie and Aleena Doutie knocked into one another exiting the 180s, just before Ashlyn Beaumont and Emelee Adriaans collided, spun off the track and waited to be safely released by the nearby marshals.

Radhi Harris finished race one of the Bambino category in first place with peers, Caleb Lingeveldt and Aleena Doutie following behind him in second and third respectively.

 The Micro Max category had an effortless start to their first race of the day. Jayden van der Merwe had moved himself up by three positions, making him take the lead by the second lap, pushing race leader Michael o’ Mahoney down to third with the help of Liam Wharton.

These three karters had been trading positions for the remainder of the race ending the results as follows: o’ Mahoney in first, Wharton in second and van der Merwe in third.

The last first race of the day blew some smoke into the air as Andre le Riche of the Clubman’s category braked too hard going into turn one on the first lap, making him lose control of his kart and spin off into the runoff area. Charlie Millar nearly joined le Riche as he took turn two too wide and slightly glided off the racing line. 

Storm Lanfear finished race one of the Clubman’s category in first place with Zimvo Majova in second and Sean le Riche in third.

Race two of the OKJ category had a bitter start to their race when Tony Aubey did not start the race due to a single kart accident on the exit of the 180s during the warm-up lap. Following this incident, Rayan Kariem, was involved in a racing incident when two other karts accidently knocked him off track during their battle for a better placement.

Joseph Kinyua won the race with Aleksander Praizovic in second and Manelisi Nkomo in third.

On the start of race three for the Senior and Junior Max category race leader Charl Visser had an issue with his exhaust as he crossed the starting line soon entering the pits to fix the issue caused by what seemed to be a racing incident on his second lap moving his position from first to second-last.

The winner of the Senior and Junior Max category was Luca Wehrli, Tate Bishop followed behind in second with Storm Lanfear in third.

The Mini Rok category saw that of Zeph Hair and Aadiv Singh retire early due to an incident in turn one during their third and final race of the day. Their peer Max Boshoff finished the race in first place while Logan Roerhig and Jose Slamet finished in second and third place respectively.

Joseph Oelz put on an impressive display in the DD2 category as he gained 6 positions from eighth place to second in the span of three laps in the last race. However, there were a couple of karts that had not succeeded as well as they had hoped – Aidan Hughes had to retire early after only completing three out of ten laps, while peer Andrew Thomas did not start at all, not even to exit the pre-race paddock.

Jason Coetzee won the DD2 category’s third race while Oelz scored a well-deserved second place with Matthew Wadely in third.

The Mini Max’s final race of the day went without any hitches, all karts were well behaved and just like Oelz, Kiyaan Reddi who started from eighth place finished the race in second behind the race leader.

The rest of the results were as follows: Max Boshoff in first place with Reddi behind him in second place and Zac Hindley in third.

And with the wave of a checkered flag, a hot day’s worth of racing had come to an end.

Be sure not to miss the final round of Regional Karting this year on 9 November 2024. See you there!

Text and Photo by Hayley Zaayman