Zimpapers Logo

Collin Matiza-Sports Editor

PRAISES continued to roll in at the weekend for Pole Position Karts’ initiatives to promote karting within Zimbabwe. 

Last year the FIA-specified race and rental kart track won accolades from the FIA Africa Development Task Team consultant, Derek James, who was impressed with the good work being done at the facility. 

Globally, karting is recognised as a motorsport in its own right and as the route most F1 drivers take to start their careers. 

Rental karts are a fun activity for drivers over the age of eight and are a progressive way for novice drivers to enter the kart racing arena.

Zimbabwe has seen over 30 youngsters begin racing rental karts at Pole Position Karts and move through to race karts. 

A Zimbabwean club, Kart Sports Club, has a busy race schedule each year, seeing grids of up to 25 drivers race at the track. Two drivers have competed in the World ROK Championships in Italy in two different years, and a variety of drivers from the club have raced in regional and national races in South Africa.

Earlier this year, five young Zimbabweans, who all began by driving rental karts at Pole Position Karts and progressed to race karts, competed in the FIA African Open Kart Championship at Zwartkops raceway in Pretoria, South Africa. 

Saturday was the first round of a three-race series of one-hour endurance races held at the one-stop karting facility located on the grounds of the National Sports Stadium in Harare. 

Designed for social teams of at least four drivers, each team drove a powerful Sodi 390cc rental kart for the full hour of the race. 

Within each team, all drivers had to drive for at least 10 minutes and each team had to complete four pitstops and four “joker laps”, or extended laps, during the one-hour race.

With eight teams registered and 35 drivers taking part, the track-side atmosphere was electric. As in the pit lane garages of F1, teams huddled together to work out race strategies determined by the speed of their drivers and the approaches of other teams. Pit boards were hung out to advise drivers of changes to strategy that had been made while they were on the track. 

Spectators cheered for their teams and celebrated during the podium ceremony.

Unusually for an endurance race, there was close racing all through the grid for the entire hour. 

The new Sodi 390 karts are powerful machines, with a potential top speed of 100kmph. 

Due to the power and speed of these rental karts, all drivers had to pre-qualify for standard rental karts provided by Pole Position Karts. 

This meant that drivers were aware of certain basic rules of racing. 

“It was good fun today and a great initiative — making racing accessible to all,” said Dexter Shumba, who has been a karting enthusiast for over five years. 

Josh Flight commented: “I had a fabulous time racing and there was good racecraft all around. Thank you for a brilliant day.” 

Zimbabwean motorsport enthusiasts from other disciplines also took part and enjoyed the excitement and challenge of karting. 

The Archenoul family, a familiar name in Zimbabwe motorsport, had two drivers – Kate and Craig – taking part in different teams. 

Nick Berkau and Kevin Almark, more usually seen racing at Donnybrook, were also racing in one of the teams. 

Onysmo Mhute, a drag race champion, was spotted driving for one of the teams.

The track, and a rental track in Eastlea, are open for the public to try rental karting from Wednesday to Sunday. 

Anyone over the age of eight and taller than 1.3m can drive. Safety is prioritised and trained marshals are always on duty to advise on driving the karts. 

Junior drivers are allocated smaller, slower karts, while adults drive larger, faster karts. The Sodi 390 karts can only be driven by experienced drivers who meet pre-qualifying criteria at selected events. Coaching is available in both rental and race karts, with serious drivers able to purchase race karts, spares, and race-wear through Kevin Dufty, owner and developer of Pole Position Karts.