Cristiano Morgado flew the South African flag proudly as he celebrated South Africa’s fourth consecutive win in the Rotax Max Challenge World Karting Championship. –
– Morgado started the all important 26-lap Grand Final from the outside of the front row and drove a tactical race. The Durban based CRG driver passed Dutch driver Riccardo van der Ende (LRG) for the lead on lap two, but a lap later the order was reversed. –
– From then onwards the two were glued to each other and on the penultimate lap he squeezed ahead of the Dutchman only to for Australia’s Adrian Estasy (Arrows) to pass them both. The fight wasn’t over though and three corners from the flag Morgado made a decisive move to lead across the line and score the most important win of his career. –
– Van der Ende was exactly half a second behind with Estasy less than a kart length behind. Fourth place went to England’s Tristam Oman (Trulli) and Birel driver Bjorn Roos showed how strong the level of karting in South Africa is by almost catching Oman on the last lap. –
– South Africa’s other representative, Jonathan Pieterse was in the wars and retired from the race on lap 18 after coming off second best in a clash of wheels before half distance. –
– Australia triumphed in the over 35- years old Max Masters race when Arrows driver Mark Wicks won a thrilling three kart fight from Mark Lane and Sean Murphy. –
– Cape Town’s Wiaan Swart put in the drive of his life to take a hard earned third place in the Rotax Junior Max Final. With all drivers aboard identical CRG Road Rebel chassis, this race was action packed from beginning to end. –
– Pretoria driver Andre van der Merwe charged from 11th place to run as high as fifth place before retiring five laps from the end with a duff spark plug. –
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