Go-karting heats up in season’s second leg

The second leg of the Namibian National Go-karting Championships this past weekend at the Tony Rust Raceway once again showed excellent racing and sportsmanship on and off the tracks.

During the event, sponsored by Momentum Short-term Insurance, young racers left it all on the track despite it being only the second leg of the tournament and early in the season.

Tony Rust, one of the handful of women drivers, took part in the senior max class due to a lack of junior max class racers. But this did not deter Rust, who comes from a racing family that practice across almost any code, and she gave her male counterparts a run for their money.

“We call it the hooligan class since you get bumped a lot but it is thrilling and fun.” Rust said in an interview just after the race.

During the last heat, Rust was bumped from behind, leaving her vehicle slightly damaged and meaning she could not proceed with the rest of the race.

After the race, her father Michel said the incident was unfortunate but not unexpected on the race track, expressing his relief that she walked away with no injuries.

Top Revs also spoke to young racer Dylan Zandberg, who took third place in the senior max class.

“It felt wonderful and the car was doing exactly what I wanted it to do, though the weight was a bit off and I hit a cone at one point. But other than that, it was a great race,” Zandberg said. Hitting a cone could result in penalisation and the loss of vital points.

Cecil Koorts, a junior racer who recently competed in Cape Town as part of his preparation for an upcoming competition in Italy, said he was happy with the weekend’s race.

While relaxing in the shade, the young racer told Top Revs all was going well.

“We won four of the six races. I am driving today in my two classes, and so far the year looks good as I am leading the championships in both classes I take part in, so I think it will be good.”

Koorts expressed his gratitude toward his parents for supporting him throughout his go-karting career.

The third leg is scheduled for early next month at the Tony Rust Raceway.
The results are as follows:
Senior Max: James van den Heever (first place), Kian Fussol (second place) and Dylan Zandberg (third place).
Mini Rok u10: Milko Botha (first place), Milla Botha (second place) and Francois Gouws (third place).
Bambino: Rocco van Eden (first place), Zian Nel (second place) and Willem Retief (third place).
Micromax: Russel Josephat (first place), Ben Goldbeck (second place) and Gury dos Santos (third place).
Mini Rok: Cecil Koorts (first place) and Herman Schouw (second).
MiniMax: Cecil Koorts (first place), Nicolai Mostert, (second place) and Joubert Espach (third place).

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