Going into the final round, thirteen year old Jefferies was a fairly comfortable 30-points clear of his closest challenger so he went out and did exactly what he needed to do in order to claim the title.
Driving his familiar Birel chassis he qualified second fastest and then drove a sensible and mature opening race to finish in the same position even though fastest lap proved he was the quickest driver. Second place was good enough to give him the championship he’d determinedly worked so hard for all season.
With the title in the bag it was decided that he should follow the example set by Aston Hare last year and withdraw from the remaining races rather than risk the title by falling foul of officialdom.
“I agreed to the idea even though Axcil wanted to race the two remaining events, but who knows what might’ve happened,” said Neil Curtis team manager and owner of The Kart Shoppe where the karts are prepared. Indeed, there have been at least two incidents this season where drivers have been excluded for on and off track incidents that happened after the chequered flag was waved.
This season Tasmin Pepper (17) has proved to be a tough racer on her Birel in the Bridgestone shod Super Rok class, the fastest class of karting in South Africa. Earlier in the season she won a string of races at regional championship events, but Lady Luck deserted her in the national championship races and she arrived at Zwartkops desperately wanting to improve on her fifth place in the points log.
After three incredibly tough races the Midrand schoolgirl ended the day with fourth place which lifted her to fourth in the championship. “Look who’s behind her and don’t forget the who’s who of South African kart racing competes in this class. I think she’s been brilliant considering the luck she’s had,” commented Curtis.
Despite a strong opening race performance things did not go right for Morgan McColl. He’d won the opening event in Port Elizabeth and then backed it up by winning the next round in Vereeniging in June where he took two wins by the closest margins seen during the year. Then came round three at Idube near Pietermaritzburg. He drove his heart out but couldn’t find the pace needed to win and lost the championship lead.
In this hard fought class, McColl ended his remarkable season in third place after taking a hard fought second in Saturday’s opening race. All in all it is quite an accomplishment considering he lives in Klerksdorp where there’s no race track so he doesn’t get many opportunities to go testing. When he does it means a lengthy and time-consuming 400km round trip.
Vereeniging is his closest circuit and at round two a group of school friends were there to cheer him on … and he did not disappoint.
It was a season where the karting fraternity sat up and noticed the Toyota Castrol Development Motorsport squad and the team did not disappoint.
