19 Sep Race Report by Hayley – Spinning and Success: Karting in Spring – 14 July 2024
On Saturday, the 14th of September, round 6 of Killarney’s regional karting took place. With the sun out and karters ready to take on the day, practice went underway.
A few karters had an unlucky start to the day when they went out on their free practice session without their key component – a transponder. While others took some spins into the tyre barriers, this being #77 – Zeph Hair – of the Mini Rok category exiting the 180s and #414 – Reece Ward – of the gold class in the Clubman’s category on the entry of turn 4.
Qualifying went smoothly for the most part as #48 – William Marshall made contact with the tyre barriers in turn one with 30 seconds left on the clock. Luckily for Marshall, this incident had no effect on his qualifying performance as he remained on pole.
Race 1 of the Senior and Junior Category had a good start as all the karts remained in the tramlines in the beginning of the race. #288 – Gabriele Gazzilli – of the Senior Max class’s back bumper had slowly been falling off during the race and resulted in the racer receiving a black and orange flag.
Gazilli was not the only ill-fated racer in this race, #276 – Jude Stuart – received a five second penalty after a nosecone infringement.
Charl Visser finished race 1 of the Senior and Junior Max category in first place with his peers, Luca Wehrli, following in second and Storm Lanfear in third.
The MiniMax category is where the action had begun. #515 – Michael Danks – accidently hit into the back of #599 – Zac Hindley – after what looked like Hindley braking too early. No severe collision was made; however, Hindley had finished the race second-last due to an unfortunate clipping with a different kart in the 180s causing him to spin off track.
The same seemed to happen with #549 – Kiyaan Reddi – and #523 – Zach McAuley – after a little altercation inside of the 180s, both fighting for a podium spot.
Max Boshoff finished race 1 of the MiniMax category in first place with Michael Danks following behind him in second and Reddi in third.
Heading into the main straight, #38 – Tony Aubey – of the OKJ category got the fright of his life when peer, #95 – Tristan Botha – spun before the start/finish line. This resulted in Aubey spinning as well.
Both racers jumped out of their karts, frightened, as the race leaders were heading towards them at a speed. Luckily, no one got hurt and the karts were moved off track before the top 3 could start a new lap.
Ethan Lennon finished race 1 of the OKJ category in first place while Manelisi Nkomo scored second place and Onwabile Mcinga third.
Race 2 of the MiniRok category saw that of #14 – Ebrahim Khalpey – receive a 5-place penalty after he had taken another kart out going down the main straight into turn 1. #49 – Jose Slamet – had been on the receiving end of this collision and ended the race in eighth place with Khalpey following behind in ninth.
Max Boshoff won race 2 of the MiniRok category with a best lap time of +45.754 sec with Noah Cronje following closely behind in second and brother, Zac Boshoff, in third.
Andre le Riche – #18 – of the gold class in the Clubman’s category collided with the tyre barriers entering turn one on lap one, pictured below. Luckily, for the racer, he made his way back onto the track and continued racing.
Alex Lappelly – #29 – ended the race with a DNS, while Kyle Visser finished race 2 in first with Zimvo Majova in second and Matthew Carter in third. Carter scored the best lap time with a rapid time of +42. 549.
On the second lap of Micro Max’s race 3, #689 – Michael ‘o Mahoney – and #616 – Jayden van der Merwe collided and spun off going into turn 1. This resulted in both ‘o Mahoney and van der Merwe dropping down three places.
Race 3 of the Micro Max category was won by Liam Wharton with Ruhan Victor in second and Yaqeen Gamieldien in third. Victor scored the best lap time of +44.579 seconds.
Before Race 3’s warm-up lap could start, #188 – Conor Hughes – had forgotten to top up on petrol. Joseph Oelz finished Race 3 in first place with Jason Coetzee and Ethan Stier following behind him in second and third place. Oelz completed a speedy best lap time with a +39.978 seconds.
Pictured below, Bambino #23 – Radhi Harris – had pulled off to the side and gave the tyres one mighty kick of the foot thinking his kart hadn’t been working properly. After a few laps and the all clear from nearby marshals, he was back on track but unfortunately had only completed 4 laps, not classifying with a result.
Peer Caleb Lingeveldt resulted in taking first place with Lehan Fourie in second place and Divaaj Govender in third place. The best lap time had been allocated to Lingeveldt with a time of +59. 483 seconds, concluding a day of racing successfully.
Be sure not to miss the next round of regional karting on the 5th of October. See you there!
Text and Photo by Hayley Zaayman