by Steve Wicks

Preview

New kart class to set the scene alight
KF2 Karts – Killarney – 29 March

The newly introduced KF2 class makes its grand entrance onto the South African karting scene at the opening round of the Engen Supa Kart championships taking place in Cape Town on 29 March.

It is a truly international CIK approved class and has been introduced as the fastest class in South African karting. “Its something for our top kart drivers to move into once they done their time in the established ‘TAG’ classes,” explained KF2 class chairman Derick Smalberger.

The new class, which is powered by 125cc motors from a variety of manufacturers, promises to be the fastest true karting class in South Africa. Times achieved in testing have been very impressive. Maximum revs on KF2 motors is limited to 15 000 rpm and carburettors are free but choke size is limited to 24mm.

Regulations also allow for front brakes and this has helped contribute to the impressive lap speeds. Tyres, like in other classes, are control Bridgestone supplied by Autoquip.

South Africa is the latest country to adopt the KF2 class and this year the class has also been introduced into Australia where already almost 300 drivers have registered for the KF2 Championship.

“Due to the late finalisation of the calendar some top karters are missing from the line-up due to overseas commitments but there’s no doubt that the class will grow as the season progresses,” he added.

So far the battle for supremacy should be fought between Rory Atkinson (Orange Logistics Birel/Parilla), Devin Robertson (Big Boss Auto Sodi), Duke Ridgway (Birel/Parilla), local aces Caleb Williams (Head2Head Birel/Parilla) and Dale Fourie (Birel/Parilla).  2007 Junior Rok champion Vicki Kemp (Comptech Birel/Parilla) is also in the line-up as is Trent Williams (PCR Winfire) while former Formula Ford star Marc Murray (CRG) makes a welcome return to karting and it’ll be worth keeping an eye on newcomers Mark Hamilton-Payne (Birel/Parilla) and similarly mounted James Ryan.

The event marks a new chapter of karting in South Africa and there’s no doubt the KF2 class will be watched with great interest.

Race Report

The opening round of the 2008 Engen Supa Kart national championships produced stunning racing on a perfect day and there was action aplenty, especially in the wild Junior Rok class.

After three closely fought races that had spectators on their feet, local ace Marco Busi (Automan) had won two of them to pip Klerksdorp’s Toyota/Castrol Development driver Morgan McColl who won the second race but was the loser in a bit of pushing and shoving in the last lap of the final race. Pretoria’s Michael Taylor (Rigidek) had two third places behind him which gave him third for the day.

Another local ace, Brad du Plessis was fourth with Sheldon van der Linde overcoming a poor qualifying to bag fifth ahead of Capetonian Jurie Swart who completed the all important top six.ahead of Bradley Taylor who lost a lot of time avoiding a first lap melee.

Junior Rok was a bun-fight from beginning to end but Sam Tingle (Sodi) kept out of trouble and resisted tough challenges from Aston Hare (Head2Head Birel) to win the day. In the final heat Hare saw an opportunity to snatch a last gasp win, but passed under a yellow flag and cleverly slowed so the positions were reversed by the end and at the end of the day Tingle had two wins to Hare’s one.

Also in the hunt was third placed Sean Frost (Birel) and fourth went to the surprise of the day. Loukea van Steijn (Birel) won the opening race which ended with more than half the field buried deep in the tyre barrier at turn one after sliding off on oil from Hare’s motor.

Despite being one of the heaviest drivers in the class Chad van Beurden (Birel) took a hard earned fifth ahead of Justin Allan.

There was no stopping reigning champion Michael Stephen (Engen TonyKart) in the Super Rok class as he won the day with a full house of wins ahead of Durban’s Shaun la Reservee (Alpine TonyKart). Fresh from his Formula BMW win in Malaysia last weekend, Simon Moss (Engen TonyKart) battled with a down on power engine but still managed to hold onto third despite being tied on points with David Perel (PCR). PCR Kartworld’s lady racer Fabienne Lanz was fifth with Birel’s Rory Atkinson two points adrift.

There was much interest surrounding the new KF2 class which made its South African debut at Killarney and unlike the other classes these drivers had four heats on the day..

Having qualified second fastest driving a Birel chassis, Head2Head Racing’s Caleb Williams made it his own as he won all four heats fairly comfortably.

Michael Stephen (TonyKart) was a late entry and surprised everyone by posting the fastest time in qualifying. Sadly an engine problem meant he non-started, which left Williams the sole occupant of the front row.

CRG’s Marc Murray also had an engine problem, but managed to rebuild the unit well enough to last the four races. Second place in the final race gave him enough points to snatch the runner-up placing from PCR mounted Trent Williams.

A superb second place in the opening race helped Devin Robertson (Sodi) to fifth place while local ace Dale Fourie took sixth ahead of 2007 Junior Rok champion Vicki Kemp (Birel).