There’s an awful lot of wins in Brazil

Durban’s veteran kart racer Cristiano Morgado (right) won the 2018 Rotax DD2 Masters Grand Final world championship in Conde-Paraiba, Brazil on Saturday.

The 39-year-old started from pole position in the final after a week-long round of elimination races and led from green light to chequered flag to clinch the title.

Morgado’s win was a record-breaking fifth World Championship karting title, and brings the victory tally of South Africans in this international series to 13.

Cristiano won his first Rotax world title in 2003 and was the World DD2 Masters Champion in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The other South Africans in the category, Michael Stephen and Jonathan Pieterse, finished fifth and 10th overall.

In the DD2 Gearbox class for drivers aged 15 and over, Vereeniging’s Arnold Neveling scored a brilliant fourth place, while Benjamin Habig of Balito did well to place 19th.

In the Micro Max class for drivers aged eight to 11, KC Ensor Smith from Witbank finished 13th overall, while Muhammad Wally of Johannesburg ran as high as fourth place in the final, before a slow puncture saw him drop back to 19th.

In the Mini Max class for drivers aged eight to 11, Kyle Visser from Durbanville showed increasing pace throughout the week-long Grand Finals.

He was running in the top 20 in the finals, but a huge crash involving a dozen drivers saw him drop down to 25th position.

In the Junior Max category for drivers aged 13-16, Aqil Aibhai from Johannesburg did well to qualify for the final in 33rd position. He ended up finishing 34th after an incident-filled race.