Rand Kart Club Newsletter

Thanks to all who entered our race day on 10, which was attended by 102 competitors. The race was run in sunny late winter sunshine and, despite a no-showing by more than twenty drivers who opted for other less stressing activities over the long weekend, a memorable day was enjoyed by all.

The race of 24 August was blast and we were delighted to have 147 competitors, although a massive 156 had entered. The 9 who didn’t pitch really missed a great day’s racing. We are fairly certain that our entry is the best we have had in the past three years or so in the entire Northern Region, and it is a good sign for the future.

Following these two events, we attach the latest Rand Kart Club Championship standings. Tim Rowland made a welcome return to karting and did extremely well in the F100 class. His result in a highly entertaining, and at times, a robustly contested race on the 10th of August is an amazing achievement considering the rust in his joints after having been “out of it” for so long a time. Pretty soon there will be three racing Rowlands, as son Greg and brother Phillip now own karts and have joined the RKC.

In the 125 Promo class, Rob Bakewell is almost unbeatable and always provides a show of cool precision and finely honed skill. He is a pleasure to watch as he calmly demolishes the opposition, but, somehow, Rob always duffs his starts, giving away a place or two out of the blocks. Perhaps his age has something to do with it….? Nonetheless, Mr. Promo stands to win the RKC, TKC and Regional Championship this year, stamping his authority on the Class in no uncertain terms.

Consistent hard charger Adrian Wood took over the Cadet championship lead from Caleb Williams after a sparkling drive on the 10th, but Caleb returned with determination to reverse his fortunes on the 24th, and now runs head to head with Adrian on 45 points. Lyle Ramsay continues to impress and improve with every outing and currently lies third in the points. John and Vanessa Wood work very hard at the Cadets and the standard of racing his improved immensely.

Dean Lester gives 15 points away as a result of his strong showings in the Nationals, which kept Kyle Mitchell ahead in the Club Championship by a slender margin of 4 points until the race of the 24th. Kyle now lies in a strong second after Dean scooped the honours on the day. The GP Junior Class provides stunning racing, with Moms prancing about and yelling and waving furiously and Dads sucking furiously on cigarettes with clenched jaws. There is always a hubbub between the old folks in the finishing lane while the little ones stroll nonchalantly about as if racing were an everyday thing. We will be watching the Nationals closely to see how the Club points are affected after deductions.

Consistency does it, as does supporting all Club races. Gordon Peter continues to lead the Max 172 Championship from Andre ten Napel. Gordon was the only driver who offered his services as a marshal on Saturday the 10th, and did a darned good job of it too. Thanks very much, Gordon.

Andre van der Merwe has clearly claimed the Max Junior Class as his own and is well clear of second placed man, by a lead of 14 points.

It’s the aptly named Masters in the Max Challenge who have recently been showing the youngsters the way around. Steve Ridgway more often than not takes home the trophies in both the Challenge and in the Masters Classes. Steve’s spectacular, yet controlled on the edge driving, we hope, will earn him a place in the World Finals along with our Club’s illustrious multiple South African and World Champion, Claudio. Jennifer Murray still heads up the Club’s Challenge Class and we are confident that she will make up a trio of Rand Kart Club Members on the world stage. Judging by the points standings reported on the internet, the Final in Cape Town is going to be a humdinger of note.

In the 125 Grand Prix Class, Kurt Bakewell leads the Club Championship from Marc Murray. Marc has given away 19 points to Kurt’s 10, both’s deductions being a result of their exploits in the Nationals. Marc won the previous round of the Nationals in enthralling fashion, taking the field by storm with his superb showing. He now lies third overall in the Nationals. Kurt is lying eighth.

Laurent Calkoen leads the RKC’s Stock Championship, despite not having entered the events of 10 and 24 August. Had Nic Clarke not had to give away 4 well earned points due to his success in the Nationals, he would have been a mere two points behind Laurent. Kyle Lawrence, who is lying 4th in the Nationals, has given away 14 Club points due to his very good performance in the Nationals, and as a result, lies 3rd in the Club Championship. With 3 more events to go in the Championship, however, the Stock Class remains wide open.

Laurent has been racing overseas in the Junior Intercontinental A (ICA) Championships, in machines that take 5 seconds off our Supers, per lap.

Laurent, who is 14 years old, competed in the Belgium Open Championship and the qualifying rounds for the European Championship in Denmark, followed by the Finals in France. Laurent is currently supported by Autoquip and Mad Bull, which is a new, fully South African produced energy drink.

Racing in dry conditions in Belgium, Laurent impressed the international karting community by qualifying 3rd . After a race win, a third and a second place, he finished second overall in a strong international field.

A week later Laurent repeated his good form by being 4th fastest out of 154 at the challenging and difficult race track in Denmark, racing against full time professional drivers with ample local knowledge of track conditions, ideal chassis set-up and passing points. Most others had done extensive testing in the weeks prior to the race.

532 competitors, hailing from Russia, South America, Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands were competing to make it into the top 34 of this race event, in order to qualify for the European Championship Finals (held in France 20-25 August).

At the same time that Laurent was racing in Denmark, qualifying races were also held in Italy and Spain for drivers from different regions of Europe and other continents.

After the race heats, in which he finished 6th, 7th, 14th & 10th, Laurent was in 11th position overall, thereby easily qualifying for the Finals in France.

The Finals of the 2002 European Karting Championship were then held at the demanding and difficult French Angerville circuit between 22 and 25 August, an event which is visited by a host of F1 team officials and talent scouts.

Most teams had spent the whole of August testing their equipment and finding the right set-up. Laurent and the PDB Racing Team only had a day and a half to do the same, and did a fantastic job to qualify in 10th position.

Seven elimination heats were run to determine the 39 drivers to race in the Pre-final and Final.

Things started out well for Laurent, as he got an 8th, a 4th and an 8th in the first three races, clocking the 2nd fasted lap time in the process, and beating the current European Champion to the flag.

A starting accident in race 4, ahead of Laurent, relegated him to last place on lap 1. He fought his way back to 21st place. This result pushed him back down the overall order, as each race counts. He finished 8th, 6th and 6th in the remaining races – thereby making sure that he had qualified within the group of 39 drivers going through to the Finals.

After the customary starting accidents in which the Final was red-flagged twice to allow the ambulance to clear up the debris of the over enthusiastic, Laurent had to fight his way back from last to 17th, but dropped back to finish 19th overall.

Laurent was the fastest driver using the Gillard chassis, powered by a Parilla motor. With the knowledge of having beaten the 2001 and 2002 Champions during races earlier this year, Laurent is confident to do even better next year with the help of Autoquip and Mad Bull.

South African karting is World Class, and we congratulate Laurent on his remarkable achievements.

I recently popped over to Zwartkops to have a look at the progress being made with the new track. The contractor is in full swing with the earthworks and there is a huge hole where the Armco fly-over is to be built. The foundations of the structure have been cast, and are covered with plastic to allow the concrete to gather full strength. The entire area has been converted into a muck shifters playground; the earth has been ground into powder by excavator tracks and a cloud of dust pervades every strand of your hair and clothes. Several portions of the track are taking shape nicely as the earth fills reach final height, while in other places, the excavations are more than 4 metres deep.

Gazing over the site from its highest viewpoint, I followed the track in my mind through the mounds of rock and soil, and as I completed an imaginary lap, I caught myself with bated breath and my adrenal glands pumping at full song (– and then spun off). Those who haven’t yet seen the track on the internet owe themselves a bit of web surfing to see what lies in store.

On the political front, the final report on the comments received concerning the proposal for a one-off annual National has been submitted to Peter Lanz and his Executive Committee. Although there are obviously those who prefer the current format of three Nationals in the year, there appears to be a lot of support for a single event format, and we will now have to wait and see what the karting Powers do with the idea. As many people as possible were given a chance to have a say in the matter, as all Clubs in the country received the draft proposal to consider. Rocky Gush and I attended the AGM of MSA, held recently. All three Chairmen of the Northern Region Kart Clubs were there to listen to and take part in the proceedings, as were the serious politicians of karting like Peter Lanz, Bruce Morgan, Ray Brooks and Iain Pepper.

It was a great pleasure to finally meet the Honorary President, Trevor Kilburn, who has roots in karting going back 30 years, and who is an Honorary Member of RKC.

Doctor “Smokin’ John” Boden, President of the Medical Commission, who has done so much to raise the standard of emergency services in all types of racing, attended the meeting and informed me that several competitors over the last year have been busted with traces of banned substances in their blood – not cough mixture, Ouma’s Roastie Remedy and the like, but serious stuff like Boer Mampoer, marijuana and cocaine! These fellows don’t belong in the sport – they endanger us all, and we hope their bans will give them a long time to reflect on their actions. If you need a boost, judiciously apply turpentine and R40 to your butt with a clean tissue, but remember to steer clear of anything in the Red Book.

The AGM’s most pressing cause for concern is the relatively little exposure to and knowledge of motor sport in South Africa amongst the general public. Motorsport programmes are often screened late at night, or are only to be seen on the pay-channels. These are tough times, and the media and corporate sponsors are not keen to throw their money at motorsport at high level, which has the spin-off of making finding smaller sponsors, at Club level, a very difficult thing to deal with. For instance, many will have noticed that only recently has there been any coverage of the previous two Nationals, and that because there was no money to fund the production of the film lying in cans on the shelves. The Karting Commission’s Trust funds had to be used to get the coverage onto the box, which is as far as I’m concerned, a crying shame, bearing in mind the standard of our racing and the success of our talent on the world stage, not beginning to mention that karting provides a spectacle rivalling many other forms of racing.

The most positive outcome of the AGM, for us, was that Peter Lanz has been elected to the Board of Directors of MSA, which gives us a hitherto unheard voice in the Corridors of Power. Whilst congratulating Peter on his appointment, we also wish him much success in promoting the cause of karting, which, we hope, will include developing a workable and successful marketing plan for the sport.

Having mentioned marketing and sponsorships, those karters who put so much back into their sport by sponsoring events, trophies and other drivers, such as our own sponsors, Mitchell Packers and ACC Airconditioning, deserve our support and business wherever possible. We appreciate their seeing the sport as a marketing tool, and the fact that they put back, at a personal level, as much as they get out of the sport, and more.

I also wish to single out Bridgestone and Mercedes-Benz and their representatives, Tony Newman and Winston Wentzel, both of whom attended the AGM, and who both devote so much of their time and energy to the cause of karting. Without these gentlemen and their companies’ resources, karting would be very much the poorer.

Bridgestone subsidises the cost of the tyres we use, sponsor our Nationals, and have bought the naming rights of the new Zwartkops circuit, while Mercedes-Benz runs a very successful development team at various levels. Winston is a Director of MSA and is personally working on a development policy and programme for the MSA Board. Remember too, that Mercedes-Benz have made a very significant contribution towards the building of the Kyalami Kart circuit and are very committed to track racing.

Speaking of Kyalami, Giovanni Piazza-Musso informs me that 700 more tyres need to be packed and bolted together to finally complete Kyalami Kart Circuit, after which he will formally apply for a license to run MSA sanctioned events should it so happen that any of the Clubs wish to run their races there. Giovanni, however, has re-affirmed that he will be concentrating on building the junior classes and getting all the Stock and F100 motored karts back into circulation. There must be hundreds of them out there; their owners having given up racing but anxious to go for a weekend bash just for the sheer joy of driving a kart. He will not be applying for any of the existing Northern Region’s racing dates next year, but will instead run races for unlicensed social drivers. His ambition is to assist and promote social drivers into formal racing. A number of invited drivers have tried the circuit and have given it the thumbs-up and he expects it to be no more than a few weeks before the circuit becomes available to all.

Piazza Motorsports has now completely moved over to the premises at the track, and may be accessed through the Kyalami Circuit’s Main entrance, following the road to the inside of the Main Track and heading past the current pits.

Please diarise our race meetings on 12 October and 23 November, both of which will be held in Vereeniging. Our last event of the year will be held at Zwartkops on 7 December, which will also be our Prize Giving. This date immediately follows the closing of the schools and will be worth staying home one extra day for.

Regulations are out for our 12 October Club race. Entries close on 2 October.

In closing, we wish all Rand Kart Club members the very best for the Nationals at Vereeniging, and for the Rotax Max Challenge Finals in Cape Town.

Cheers and happy karting!

Geoff Ackermann

RAND KART CLUB