Zim competitors for African Karting Cup
IN an exciting development for kart racing in Zimbabwe, two local competitors, Jaedon Masiyanise (14 years) and Zaydaan Savania (13 years) will be representing Zimbabwe at the inaugural FIA African Karting Cup which takes place at the Formula K venue in Gauteng, South Africa, from February 15-17.
The African Karting Cup will be held over three days, with the first one being an orientation day on Friday filled with practice and qualifying heats, and the main race on Saturday.
Over 40 drivers from Angola, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, will be racing in two high performance classes, OKJ for junior drivers and OKN for senior drivers.
The event is the result of the FIA’s new strategy to further develop kart racing and motorsport in Africa, which is essential to their goal of doubling motorsport participation worldwide.
In an effort to focus on driver skill and level the field, the event promoted by ROK Cup South Africa, will be based on an arrive-and-drive format race, where all 20 competitors in each class will have the same kart brand and pool engines which are drawn by a random draw.
The track layout will also be a new configuration undriven by these competitors, making it fair for all those competing.
Savania won the 125 Max championship last year having performed exceptionally well during his rookie season and Masiyanise, now in his third year of racing, had a very impressive year de-spite a school sports injury hampering his championship hopes.
The drivers are members of Kart Sport Club which was established at the beginning of 2022 in a bid to rejuvenate karting in the country and uses the new world class kart circuit at the National Sports Stadium as the club’s home track.
Club chairman, Victor Shambare, said: “This is an opportunity to showcase the excellent talent that Africa has to offer and will be a great platform to network and make new friends.
“With new karts, different engines and tires and a new circuit to learn, it will be a big challenge for the boys but we have no doubt they will do their very best and fly the Zimbabwe flag high.”
ROK Cup Zimbabwe promoter, Kevin Dufty, who will accompany the team, said:
“The event will empower drivers from the continent and provides a much needed stage for them to display their outstanding skills.
“Hopefully, this will help them receive much needed recognition on their motorsport journey. We are gratified that the Pole Position Karts new track has been instrumental in giving competitors the confidence and experience to compete outside the country.”
Dufty added: “We would like to thank Motorsport Zimbabwe for all their assistance and the Sports and Recreation Commission for their support in helping our competitors enter this fantastic event.”