22 Sep SPRING SUNSHINE BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN KILLARNEY KARTERS
The WPMC karters took full advantage of perfect spring weather at Round 7 of the Regional championship on Saturday 20 September, to deliver superb racing across all classes including, as always with kart racing, some unexpected results.
The premier Rotax DD2 class produced some of the closest racing of the day as Sebastian Boyd led home new South African champion Jason Coetzee and Matthew Wadeley in Race one, only to drop back to third behind a delighted Wadeley and Coetzee in the second outing. Boyd was back in front for Race 3, ahead of Coetzee and Anwil April, who posted the fastest lap of the race to take third away from Wadeley.
Another newly crowned National champion, Charl Visser, took the first two Senior Max races in fine style, leading home Keagan Beaumont and Luca Wehrli in Race 1, while Beaumont took a hard-fought second, just 0.236 sec behind Visser and 0.403sec ahead of Wehrli in Race 2.
Sadly, Visser went out on lap eight of the final race, leaving Beaumont to romp home well ahead of Jordon Wadeley and Matthew Carter.
The Clubmans class produced the biggest field of the day with 14 starters, but the result was an Ethan Deacon benefit, with three emphatic wins. Charlie Millar and Christopher Flack filled out the podium positions in Race 1 and Race 3, with Daniel Labuschagne a surprise second in Race 2, less than half a second ahead of Millar.
Onwabile Mcinga was another three-race winner, but he was made to work hard for each of his wins in the OKJ/OKN class races. He was chased all the way in Race 1 by Ruan Lewis, with Cecil Koorts a game if somewhat distant third. Race 2 saw a different dynamic, as Lewis and Koorts dropped back to third and fourth respectively while Chase Haskins moved up to challenge Mcinga. Lap three produced a real upset, however, as Logan Billau came out of nowhere to finish second, well clear of Haskins, Koorts and Lewis.
Aiden Beaumont looked set for a clean sweep in Junior Max, only to lose out by just 0.337sec to Michael Danks in Race 3. Danks put up a solid performance all day with third in Race 1 and second in Race 2, while Raffaele Musso took second in Race 1, but dropped out of contention in the second and third outings as Zach McAuley grabbed third in Race 3.
Mini Max delivered the closest racing of the day, with the top three inside a quarter of a second in the first two races and covered by just 0.866sec in Race 3! Liam Wharton took Race 1 from Max Boshoff and Ruan Victor, then Boshoff pipped Wharton by 0.087sec for the Race 2 win and Wharton came back to clinch the day with 0.68sec win from Boshoff and Jayden van der Merwe.
Mini Rok produced more nail-biting finishes as Logan Roehrig took Race 1 from Max Boshoff and Michael O’Mahoney. Boshoff replied with a hard-fought 0.088sec win in Race 2, ahead of Roehrig and Kade Cornofsky. Roehrig clapped back to win Race 3 by 0.079sec from Cornofsky, with O’Mahoney third.
Up-and-coming Micro Max star Yaqeen Gamieldien posted superb wins in Races 1 and 2 over Radhi Harris and Logan Roehrig, only to drop out of contention in their final outing, where Harris ran away from Roehrig and Jake Steyn.
Divaaj Govender continued his domination of the Bambino class with three lights-to-flag wins, followed home in Race 1 by Emelee Adriaans and Ashlyn Beaumont. Beaumont improved to second in Race 2, with Aleena Doutie third. They repeated that result for the final heat, clinching second for the day for Beaumont, with Doutie third overall.
TEXT BY: DAVE ABRAHAMS
PHOTO BY: ABRI DE BRUIN / CLOUD NR 9 PHOTOGRAPHY