How solemn a catastrophe, how cunning a nemesis.
The Friday feels were all there as Cronje stepped onto the tarmac at the newly refurbished karting track at Red Star Raceway in Delmas with high hopes running through his veins.
Having counted the points to the very last number, Noah knew that every race win was going to count this weekend in his championship battle with fellow Kid Rok competitor, Riley Van Staden.
Saturday drew a brilliant crowd from various National teams across the country. All the colours of the rainbow made the track a kaleidoscopic vision as the sun broke through the fog in a bold attempt to warm the winter day.
A POLE POSITION from the Pretoria native drew a roar from the crowd as Cronje crossed the finish line with a lap time of 59.662.
Heat One saw Cronje flash around the track with arch nemesis, Billau, in tow – seemingly hungry for a part of the action. Setting yet another fastest lap time of the morning, Noah put a 59.848 on the board with the ease of a professional – leaving Billau in his dusty wake.
Heat Two was not devoid of brilliance either as the sandstorms of Delmas rued the day they ever came up against the force of Cronje as the checkered flag bridged him over the line with a gallant fist in the air.
Walking into Heat Three, Cronje motored confidently to his kart – knowing that he needed this penultimate win to get him to the lead of the championship. As usual, Noah’s driving was beautifully symphonic with the little tyke weaving through the corners and taking charge on the straights. Sadly, due to another competitor’s complete driver misconduct on the track – the second this season – Noah was pushed off at the third last corner, allowing Van Staden to breeze through and take the win.
There is no remedy for the pain of motorsport, but this was going to be a bitter pill to swallow for Noah. The tears were flowing, and the anger was palpable from all corners of the RPM tent. Noah had flatlined, there was no pulse.
How do you come back? How do you not want to give in to the pain? It’s called resilience and Cronje has it in spades. Heat Four was for all intents and purposes filled with fury. Billau led; Noah led – the roll of the dice was intense but ultimately Noah chose not to engage with the leader to prevent yet another unfavourable scenario that could leave him in the dust once again, showing an exceptional amount of maturity for his age.
An overall win for the day put Noah on the top of the podium and as happy as he was to receive that honour, the loss of his championship, through no fault of his own, would be forever etched in time as the hardest karting year of them all.
Noah would like to extend his hand and congratulate Riley Van Staden on his ROK CUP SA KID ROK CHAMPIONSHIP win. Wishing you all the best as you travel to Italy with your SUPERFINAL ticket.
Published by: Zeppelin Media.
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