Zimpapers Logo

Collin Matiza-Sports Editor

WITH 22 victories so far in the 2021 Sables Kart Club Max Championship, Zac Dufty finished the penultimate race of the season in dominant style, at Donnybrook Park Raceway, in Harare. 

Three wins in last Sunday’s race meeting means he has an unassailable championship lead. 

A mechanical glitch in the first race dropped him into third position but a quick fix saw him win each of the three remaining races of the day in his PPK Kosmic kart. 

Jordan Watt ran a consistent day, finishing second ahead of Junior Max driver Michael Mukori, who finally had a trouble-free race day, and scored his first win in this class.

“We had solid pace throughout the day and were on the pace from the outset,” Dufty explained. “However, with the hot weather, my tyres were going off very quickly so I actually set my fastest qualifying time in the first lap.

“We knew we only had to finish in 2nd position on race day to secure the championship but, of course, we are racers, so the triple win capped the day for me.”

The Pole Position Kart Mini Rok class, for 8-to-13-year-olds, has a feisty mid pack, which is proving very competitive. 

Bradley Steyn is in the championship lead but, on Sunday, it was Tawana Shambare who took advantage of Steyn, who was racing with a broken toe. 

With a grid full of eager youngsters, Shambare came out in full attack mode and seized the race wins.

However, Steyn was not giving in easily and qualified on pole, although he was slightly down on pace during the races.

It was to be Shambare’s day though, with three wins and Steyn doing some great damage limitation by finishing in third position overall.  

There was an exceptional performance by Guy Leliard, who finished in second place and scored his first win.  Behind them was Antoine Adeloye fourth, Ethan Wushe fifth, Maleehah Hanscomb sixth and Austin Tigere seventh, all covered by only five points, at the end of the day. 

Adrian Beddes-Zekas had a troubled day finishing off in eighth. Newcomer Takunda Mapiro stunned everyone with his pace in his first race meeting with lap times only a few hundredths off the mid-pack.

In the Rok Kid Mini Class, Ollie Welman proved all his hard work is paying off by taking pole position in qualifying with an exceptional time of 46.73 some 1.8 seconds faster than second place driver Jayden Kerwin.  

In the races it was Kerwin who had the edge and took the overall win for the day. Second place and Driver of the Day was taken by Devin van de Linde who had his best race of the year. Welman finished third and Zac Staples had a great day bringing up fourth. 

These young guns, aged between 6 and 9-years-old are still learning their craft and several penalties were handed out during the day to encourage fair and safe racing.