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Collin Matiza,Sports Editor

ZIMBABWE’S top kart racer, Zac Dufty, has set himself new challenges in 2020.

He has moved to the competitive KZ gearbox class in South Africa which experienced huge growth last year and regularly attracts grids of over 30 karts.

The KZ championship is for serious competitors and will run over four national and six regional events at various tracks throughout South Africa. It is affiliated with the FIA-CIK KZ World Championship classes.

This is the top level class of karting and most of the current top world Formula One drivers such as Lando Norris and Charles LeClerc graduated from this exciting class.

The class offers speed, power and race knowledge that no other class in South Africa can match.

It requires a very specific driving style and is a tough category to compete in.

With speeds of over 160kph on longer tracks, they are a handful to drive and changing gears in less than a second while steering into a corner which will pull at least 3G is not for the faint-hearted or the unfit!

Sixteen-year-old Dufty, who raced in the fast DVS class in South Africa last year, with a best position of second overall in the wet in Cape Town, says he is up for the challenge.

“This class will be the toughest that I have entered; it is on another level altogether and I can’t wait for the challenge!” he told The Saturday Herald.

His father, Kevin Dufty, who is also his mechanic and manager added:

“Zac is the only Zimbabwean karter to have raced outside the country for the past seven years and he is confident he can step up and continue to fly the Zimbabwean flag high in 2020.”

In 2020, Zac will also be competing in drag racing meetings at Donnybrook in Harare in his Motul Super Shifter kart, which stunned crowds last year with a top speed of 149kph.

He will also be coaching young and upcoming karters at both Pole position Karts in Eastlea as well as some of the members of Sables Karting Club at Donnybrook Raceway.

In a related development, Pole Position Karts, the only arrive and drive karting venue in Zimbabwe, will be title sponsors of Sable Kart Club’s 2020 Mini Rok Championship to be held over eight meetings at Donnybrook.

The sponsorship yields one of the biggest prizes in Sables Kart Club’s history, including trophies and additional top-quality prizes for each round of the championship.

Currently, Pole Position Karts has dozens of youngsters driving rental karts every week in a safe environment.

Kevin Dufty said: “For those youngsters and adults who feel they’ve gotten everything possible out of our rental karts and are looking at progressing to racing karts, we can assist with the transition from rentals to racing. It’s a great opportunity to get behind the wheel of a kart!”

With a 40-year family history in karting, Kevin Dufty was part of the team that introduced the Mini Rok class to Zimbabwe in 2012.

However, he is probably more well-known as being father and team manager for Zac, who competed twice in this class at the World Finals in Italy.