Zwartkops came alive with the Rotex African Open this past weekend with team worr represented across multiple categories. A cold, icy drive in -2 temperatures made the Africa Open seem more like a European race. Senior Max was a highly contested affair with former worr team members giving the current drivers a run for their money. Mini was also a stacked field with over 30 drivers fighting for the win and the ticket to the world championships.
Maxed Out Seniors
The heat was on from the beginning of the African Open. Troy had a fight on his hands at the front of the field in a tough exchange with Mo Wally and Charl Visser. Jesse stayed tightly behind the leading pack in P6 while Anele kept improving. Pre Final 1 ended with Troy in P3, Jesse in P9 and Anele in P19. They qualified in P7, P15 and P21 for the second round.
Prefinal 2 was a dramatic drive. The biggest mover was Troy who was P2 at a stage until the penultimate laps when Anele made massive improvements to gain P15. Troy finished in P4, Jesse in P8 and Anele in P15.
The Finals were a 20-lap test of endurance to conclude the championships. Starting P4, Troy climbed to P2 by the second lap behind Mo Wally. Jesse was in P9 where he started while Anele had gained P14 from a P15 start. A shocking lap 4 lost Anele 3 places and a loss of concentration let 5 drivers through on Troy in the space of 2 turns. Further trouble came for Anele as he lost a further 4 places leaving him in P21 by lap 9. By the midway point our drivers had a second wind. Troy returned to P4, Jesse took P8 and anele gained P20 on lap 11. As the race was reaching its conclusion Troy defended P4 while Jesse made a last-minute rush for P7 and Anele claimed P19.
Juniors in the Midfield
The Junior Max championships had Lulama coming in at P14 as the highest ranked Worr Driver in a field that included Ashaan(p18) and Micheal Danks(P20). A weak start lost Lulama 2 places almost immediately. Ashaan came right behind him followed by Danks. Good teamwork lead Lulama to catch and take P15 by lap 6. By lap 12 Lulama had P13, Ashaan P15 and Danks P16.
Prefinal 2 gave our drivers descent starting positions with Lulama in P12, Ashaan P14 and Danks right behind in P15. A better start from the team had each loosing one position other than Danks who dropped to P19. Lulama and Ashaan gained back their starting positions the next lap as Danks had a mammoth task ahead of himself. By lap 9 Danks was up to P16. An error caused another huge slide down for Mike as he found himself in P20 at the end of the race. It ended with Lulama in P12, Ashaan in P13 and Micheal in P20.
The finals were quite the disaster for the team. Starting with just Michael in an improved P19 from the race results of Prefinal 2. Lulama dropped like a rock to P17 in the opener behind Ashaan in P16 and ahead of Mike in P18. As Ashaan held the race together for the team Lulama regained some pace. Michael found himself out the race in Lap 2. By lap 5, Ashaan started dropping down the order rapidly. After he crossed the line for Lap 6, Ashaan dropped out of the race too. Lulama was left in P14. He gained P13 momentarily but lost out on the position towards the end to finish P14.
Largest field for African Open
Mini Max was the biggest field of drivers for the African Open. Kiyaan qualified p20 while Lwashu was in P24. Back at their favourite track Kiyaan did his signature first lap jump to get to P15 by the first 2 turns while Lwashu claimed P21. Our drivers kept within the top 20 of 32 excellent drivers representing 3 different countries. Lwashu finished P20 as Kiyaan claimed P14.
Prefinal 2 gave Kiyaan a P12 start and Lwashu a P22. Kiyaan claimed sculps at the start once more. He jumped into the top 10 by the first turn to claim P9. By Lap 3, a slight decline started with Kiyaan dropping 2 places and Lwashu out the top 22. By L4 Lwashu had huge engine problems and dropped rapidly while kiyaan was defending his P11. The race ended with Kiyaan in P11 and Lwashu in P32.
A huge crash at the start of the final had 10 cars piled. 2nd kart in the crash was our very own Kiyaan, who couldn’t complete lap one because of this. The race got back on the move very quickly with Lwashu playing cat and mouse with 2 drivers. This had him climbing to 17 or dropping to 19 for the duration of the race. He eventually finished where he started to conclude a descent afternoon for the team.