Wasmuth joins top SA Moto-X team
ONE of Zimbabwe’s most promising junior motocross riders Regan Wasmuth has joined top South African racing team Linea Pro Racing Team - for this year’s South African National Championship Series.
The seven-round 2018 South African Nationals are set to begin on February 17 with the staging of its first round at the Rover Raceway in Port Elizabeth and the series will run until October.
And Wasmuth, who turns 16 in March, yesterday told The Herald that he has left Zimbabwe-based Grainger Racing Team KTM to join South Africa’s Linea Pro Racing Team which is based in the Eastern Cape and is run by one of that country’s top professional motocross trainers Wayne Roberts.
“I am no longer part of the Grainger Racing Team KTM as I’ve now joined Linea Pro Racing Team. They are a top team in South Africa. They are going to help me get around that country to compete in major races, including the South African National Championship Series, and give them exposure.
“They are just a team who want the best of the best in their team and help their riders to be the best they can.
“I will be based in South Africa again this year and I will be competing in the 125cc High School Class,” said Wasmuth, who came first in the 125cc Class and third in the MX2 Class during last month’s Zimbabwe Summer Series held at Donnybrook in Harare.
Linea Pro Racing Team currently has one professional rider in their stable Anthony Raynard - but there are a number of aspiring young South African riders in the same team and they will soon be joined by Zimbabwe’s pro biker Wasmuth.
And by joining Linea Pro Racing Team, Wasmuth has followed the footsteps of fellow talented Zimbabwean junior motocross rider Emmanuel Bako who this year will be racing for another top South African team - Team Vision Racing Team who are owned by Grant Florey.
Emmanuel Bako’s father and manager, Brighton “Bucks” Bako, recently revealed that his 12-year-old son will this year be part of Team Vision Racing Team and will compete in the 65cc Class during the 2018 South African Nationals.
Team Vision Racing Team last month helped young Emmanuel Bako in his preparations for the 2017 Zimbabwe Summer Series and this saw him scooping the gold medal in the 65cc Class at the end of this three-day race meeting at Donnybrook.
“From this year, Emmanuel will be a full-time member of Team Vision Racing Team during the South African National Championship Series in which he will be competing in the 65cc Class and hopefully he will bring the title back home just like what his rival Daiyaan Manuel did last year,” Brighton Bako said.
Last year, Manuel (13) did himself and the nation proud when he was crowned the overall winner of the 65cc Class at the end of the tough South African Nationals and this saw him lifting his second title in the series in three years after he walked away with the 50cc crown in 2014.
And according to his mother, Yasmin, young Daiyaan, who will this year be a Form One pupil at St. John’s College in Harare, has graduated to race in the 85cc Class for the 2018 South African Nationals.
So this year will once again see Zimbabwe having a strong representative in the South African National Championship Series with Wasmuth, Emmanuel Bako, Daiyaan Manuel and Jayden Ashwell all expected to carry the country’s flag high in this tough seven-round competition.
And Emmanuel Bako’s father and manager, Brighton Bako, said they will have to fork out about R500 000 ($62 500) for his son to take part in all the seven rounds of this year’s South African National Championship Series.
This year’s South African Nationals will get underway on February 17 at the Rover Raceway in Port Elizabeth, followed by its second round at Zone 7 in Cape Town on April 7. BORC in Free State will stage the third round of the series on May 19 while the fourth round has been slated for July 7 in the Gauteng Province.
The last three rounds of the 2018 South African Nationals will be staged on August 4 at Thunder Valley in Pietermaritzburg, Welkom Track in Bloemfontein on September 8 and in the Gauteng Province on October 20.
Meanwhile, the 2018 FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships will be staged in Zambia during the weekend of August 24-26.
Last year’s competition was held in Botswana in August where Zimbabwe finished second behind continental heavyweights South Africa.