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The 2012 Karting season starts off with the first Cape Regional and Club event taking place this Saturday. The WPMC Kart Club is looking forward to another successful season with multiple competitors participating in not only their Regional Championship but the two National Series - the SA ROTAX Max National Series and the ENGEN Supakarts ROK National Series. Killarney will also host a National round for both of these series, one in April (Rotax) and the other June (ROK).
Several Cape competitors competed at International Events in Italy and France in 2011 while Cape lads Henry Bam and Luke Herring was awarded Junior Colours for winning the Maxterino Regional Championship and Luke Herring National Colours.
This weekend's action sees several new faces in the karting kindergarden Cadet class for the Club's special little people” aged between 5 and 8. It is amazing that some of them can barely write their names yet, but on the circuit they show a maturity far beyond their years. Newcomers to this class are Joseph Oelz, Tristan Galp and Thaqib Meyer (whose dad Faheem has been a long standing competitor in the senior classes). The rest of the field is made up by Kai Van Zijl, Charl Visser Jnr, Tate Bishop and Storm Lanfear.
Perhaps the most competitive class in SA karting, the Cape Maxterino class caters for kids from 8 to 13 years and is likely to breed many motorsport stars of tomorrow. Dario Busi, JP Hamman, Aidan Strydom and Julia Hoal all put in some stunning performances towards the end of last year and are going to be the ones to watch but as in all racing no competitor can be discounted. Other competitors to watch will be brother and sister team of Puck and Ike Klaassen, Giordano Lupini, Matthew Isaac, Liam Gargan, another brother and sister team - Storm and Gabrielle Lanfear (Storm is also competing in the Cadet class, so dad Guy is going to be a very busy man!), newcomer Jason Coetzee and Joshua Dolinschek.
Senior Clubmans is for karters aged 17 years upwards and the Cape's biggest karting class is once again going to be entertaining with their camaraderie, sportsmanship and some great racing – exactly what karting is all about and an aspect more than just prominent at any Killarney kart meet. This popular class is run similarly to main circuit clubmans whereby competitors are slotted into classes according to times. Some new names to the class are Mark Manson, Kahil Coetzee and Etienne Van As (by no means new to karting, but it has been a while!). Johan Hamman is likely to dominate Class A. Class B and C is going to be very competitive with Lourens Van Rensburg, Corne Van Aswegen, Carl Vismer, Stefano Fonti and Gordon Midgley just to mention a few - the list of names is too long to mention everybody!
Junior Max is another most exciting and hotly contested class for drivers from 12-16 years. Their antics on the circuit will certainly you on the edge of your seat for every single race. Jurie Swart, Jonathan Aberdein, Hilton Pieters, Eugene Denyssen, Steven Wells, MJ Delport and Julian Van der Watt are going to prove tough competition for each other.
Senior Max is for karters from 15 years upwards with SAKRA driver Chad Bell once again in the driving seat but is going to be hard pressed by Jonathan Thomas, Chad Daniel, Luke van Rensburg, Ricky Perdigao and our only damsel, Cate Walker.
The action at Killarney starts with official practice from 2pm before qualifying Saturday morning and racing from about 10:30 am onward. The Killarney kart track is situated in the infield over the main track from the pits. Saturday's action will be followed by Hot Rods on the oval adjacent to the kart track on Saturday evening. That would make for a fin Saturday's Cape racing entertainment...
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