What Rotax Max Challenge South African National Round 2 Preview
Where Vereeniging, Gauteng
When Saturday 26 April 2025
Community South Africa National
There will be no karting treaty in Vereeniging this weekend
Vereeniging. A town most famous for the treaty signed there to end the Anglo-Boer Wars a century and a quarter ago. Rest assured there will be no treaty on the table when the 2025 South African Rotax Max National Karting Championship returns to that Southern Gauteng city for the first time in a few years for its second round on Saturday 26 April. It will be war!
There’s also revenge in the air, as local karters will want to get one back on their Cape rivals, who so dominated in certain classes at the season-opening Killarney races a month ago. Among those, Gauteng hero Bradley Liebenberg will be all out to bounce back after his Cape DD2 gearbox rivals, Jason Coetzee, Sebastian Boyd, Anwill April, Matthew Wadeley and Ethan Stier ran riot and locked out the top five at Killarney.
It was another Cape rout in Rotax DD2 Masters, back at Killarney. But KZN multiple Rotax Max world champion Cristiano Morgado will be all out to get one back on Cape settler Jonathan Pieterse, his new compatriots Jared Jordan, Conor Hughes and Neville Chapman, Mozambican Cristian Bouché, and home heroes Jimmy Auby and Justin Rogers up in Vereeniging.
Expect a monster field of Rotax Senior Max entries on what should be an overall record entry for the past ten years at Vereeniging. But there too, the locals must first overcome Cape leaders, veteran Charl Visser, William Marshall and Jordon Wadeley, to claim home glory this weekend. Expect nothing less however, from Roshaan Goodman and the rest of the Jozi regulars at Vereeniging.
If it’s not the Capetonians the Jozi high school Rotax Junior Max lads need to overcome, it’s their own hometown lady rivals. Local lass Emma Dowling arrives at Vereeniging ahead of all the boys in the title chase, where she can expect Cape driver Sebastiano Human, Eastern Cape lad Caleb Moss and home contenders Jack Moore, Nicolas Lennox and Manelisi Nkomo to be on top form in V-Town.
Yet another Cape driver, Max Boshoff heads north to defend his early Rotax Mini Max title advantage over what should prove another record under-13 entry at Vereeniging. Max has his work cut out however, as it’s his upcountry rivals Renaldo Koen, Brody Dowling, Rafael de Souza, Declan Jurgens and Liam Wharton who enjoy the hometown advantage this weekend. But will that alone, be enough?
One home driver who beat the Cape’s best in their own back yard last time out, Luhan de Wet will be after another three straight heat wins in under 11 Rotax Micro Max. His local compatriots, Adriaan Steyn and Luke du Toit, the Cape attack comprising Michael O’Mahoney, Yaqeen Gamieldien and Slater Smith, among a few others who will make the trek up north in search of victor, will all be out to stop de Wet.
Gauteng trio Alonzo de Oliveira, Sebastien Shuttleworth and Rofhiwa Ndwambi are three more young drivers intent on taking revenge over their championship leading Cape visitor, Divaaj Govender in the baby Bambino race this weekend. Add Mozambican lass Teresa Bettencourt, Jozi lad Yerhu Malabi and the rest for a little spice, and it’s certainly a case of light blue touch paper and step back five yards.
“We enjoyed the perfect start to the 2025 Rotax Max National karting season at Killarney last month,” Rotax SA CEO Ed Murray concludes. “Now let’s see if the Gauteng crowd can beat those record entries and their Cape rivals at home at Vereeniging this weekend. Let’s race!”
The 2025 South African Rotax champions will be crowned at the fourth and final Max Nationals in September. They will form the basis of the South African team to travel to the annual Rotax Max Grand Finals ‘Olympics of Karting’ in Bahrain in December.
The next step towards that goal however happens at Vereeniging this weekend. The kart track is situated at the city’s showgrounds. There should be no better entertainment available anywhere in Gauteng on Saturday 26 April. The racing will also be streamed live via www.kart.co.za and the Rotax South Africa Facebook page.
Issued on behalf of Rotax Max Challenge
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