Select Page

What Extreme Festival 2024 Round 3 Preview
Where Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When Saturday 18 May 2024
Community South Africa National

Durban lad Dhivyen Naidoo leads Volkswagen Rookie Cup to Pretoria

It’s been a long wait for the young contenders, but Volkswagen Motorsport’s Rookie Cup Kart returns to action for its second round at Zwartkops’ Extreme Festival on Saturday 18 May. All eyes will be on young Durbanite Dhivyen Naidoo in Pretoria, following his dominant performance at Killarney last time out.

“Rookie Cup is designed to deliver young drivers a seamless transition up from karting into main circuit racing,” Volkswagen Head of Motorsport Mike Rowe explains. “This year we have six top young talents signed up and so far, it seems that Dhivyen Naidoo is the one to beat. We look forward to continuing to nurture Dhivyen, Jayden Goosen, Judd Bertholdt, Uzair Khan and Josh Moore through the upcoming Zwartkops weekend.”

Naidoo won both heats at Killarney, while Goosen and Bertholdt shared out the second places, with Moore and Khan in pursuit. The six main circuit rookies all have extensive kart racing experience and each driver is hungry for Zwartkops success. Academy instructors Daniel Rowe and Matthew Merton race with the rookies to observe and train their young steeds.

The Volkswagen Rookie Cup academy goes beyond just racing lines, late braking and racecraft. Recruits are trained in every aspect of racing, from driver fitness to physical and mental preparation, teamwork, collaborating with the race crew and team, data analysis and even on working with television, the media, and every other aspect of their future racing careers.

Young drivers interested can email driving@vwsa.co.za for further information on joining the Volkswagen Rookie Cup.

Issued on behalf of Volkswagen Motorsport

Photography by: Abri de Bruyn

MSA Publishes media releases from a host of different sources on our website as a service to the sport. It is not practically possible to vet/approve every release that is published. Some news items and articles are written by correspondents and do not necessarily represent MSA’s views.