The Worr team took part in the Rotax National Round this weekend at the Vereeniging Kart Circuit. The team achieved a mixed bag of results with many positive takeaways. From Zehnya’s return to track to Gianna’s Victory, the weekend proved one to remember at another of team Worr’s home grounds.

Zehnya returned for another round with the team. She took part in the weekend with nerves high after a crash from FK. It was an uncomfortable start with struggles in practice and qualifying. She found herself off track, going for a swim in Practice round 3. Nerves and pains took her focus as she qualified P18. Continued to struggle in race one. Confidence was off allowing karts that went off track to recover and outpace her. She retired before the end of the round. This was the story for the weekend as she retired in the other 2 rounds. She got some good advice from Gianna about processes to follow before each round. “She knows what to work on and we’ll continue putting in the hard hours.” Commented coach Wes.

Ashaan struggled in traffic during practice. He qualified P16 ahead of Zehnya. Race 1, he took time to overtake the car in front though he had exceptional speed. Once he hit clean air he was paced quite well. A slight loss of concentration saw a last lap position loss. Race 2 he brought some more positive pace with warmer tires, but the competition was hard enough to keep him in place for this and the next round. A better qualifier could have seen him keep ahead of the field as his pace was on par with those on the podium. This weekend showed that Ashaan has massive potential to be a podium regular with a few tweaks and favourable conditions.

Kiyaan was uncomfortable with the kart in the Friday sessions. The normally explosive starter had to rely on his craft, and it bore fruit. Kiyaan had a great recovery on Saturday morning to sit P2 in warm up at a stage until a tricky axel situation reared its ugly head. The problems compounded when he crashed out of race 1 after he had made huge strides in the field. The team worked well together to get Kiyaan back on track but the pace was just not there for him and a P20 finish is all he could manage before a better race 3 outing.

Lwashu stuck to his guns on Friday despite superior pace. He played the long game by extracting peak performance sparingly and judging the pace of his competitors. He was continuously blocked from the overtake during practice which showed he would have a difficult time in qualifying. Starting within the traffic, Lwashu had no choice but to keep the pace of the midfield despite a superior straight-line speed. After qualifying P12, Race 1 gave Lwashu 3 places as he played a long game against a hostile field on his home track. He continued to start the rounds steadily so, gain some more heat in his tires on an impressive VKC circuit and make his moves to gain position. He completed the day in an encouraging P6.

Gianna eased into the weekend. She maintained a good pace during practice clocking a P4 time behind a determined trio. She pumped up the heat in the late afternoon to clock a P2 time for qualifiers and left with time remaining to spare her tires. Race 1 had a bumpy start with pushing from the rear that broke her concentration and led to a loss of position. The continued pressing ensured P1 was never further than a half a second away from her in third. Now concerned about the clock, she ramped up the pressure on lap 5 until a mistake gave her back P2. In race 2 and 3, early errors cost her from a pole starts. With switches to the race winners, G was in a good position to clock the fastest time for each round and she maintained her placement. She completed all 3 rounds in P2 to finish the day in P1.

“A tough weekend for many of our drivers but we still have time to extract their full potential. Congratulations to Lwashu and Gianna who both had great outings.” Concludes coach Wes.