Hitting the track, in more ways than one

Kart racing in Benoni is fast joining the category of popular sports.

Kart racing or karting is a variant of motorsport road racing with four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts.

They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motorsport circuits.

Two Benoni residents and avid karters have been living it up at the tracks, showing their skills and determination for the sport.

Lakefield resident Kegan Martin (10) recently won the Rotax African Open Champion for the Micro Max class 2021.

“Kegan only started karting in August last year,” said Samantha Thorogood, Kegan’s mother.

“His talent was spotted by the owners of the Formula K track in Benoni when he went there one Sunday afternoon to drive rental karts with his dad, and he has never looked back.”

This year has been Kegan’s first full season competing in regionals and nationals for South Africa.

“There have been many ups and downs this season,” she said.

“Kegan broke his hand in a serious karting accident in April and had to have two operations, but wasted no time getting back into his kart. With his doctor’s consent, Kegan was happy to be able to race nationals in Benoni with his hand in a brace.”

Kegan said, “A big thank you to my coach, Kyle Lawrence from K2 Motorsport, as well as my sponsors, Dunlop Belting Products and Mobil1.

“I hope to attend the Bahrain World Finals in December – pending Covid and travel restrictions.”

Rynfield resident Josh le Roux (15) has been racking up achievements in karting since he began racing professionally in 2017.

“Josh kickstarted his racing when he was 11 years old, which is quite late to start a racing career,” said his mother, Sanel le Roux.

“Most children start racing around six years of age. The reason he started so late was that we weren’t aware of the fact that children could race go-karts and that there were actual championships for them to compete in.

“A friend of Josh’s dad introduced us to the karting world and initially Josh was just going to play around a little bit, but from the first moment he got into a real go-kart, he was hooked.”

This go-getter drives for Racing Factors (Brian Kruger) in Kempton Park and Josh le Roux Racing in Benoni. He has to juggle homework and karting.

“In 2019 I participated in the ROK Cup Super-Finals in Italy with people from all over the world,” said Josh.

“I raced in the Junior ROK category and finished 15th out of over 150 drivers.

“In this same year, I was awarded a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the FIA Karting Academy Trophy Competition 2020. Only one participant per country (54 countries) is selected. It is a unique competition designed to put the best hopefuls of the world against each other on equal terms.”

To his greatest disappointment, Covid-19 stopped his plans in their tracks and this competition never happened.

But this wasn’t all that Covid-19 had to say as Josh’s karting career came to an abrupt halt.

“As a family, we then decided to move our focus to main circuit racing,” Josh explained.

“As soon as regulations allowed for it, I started practising in my open-seater car for the Investchem Formula 1600 series, hosted by Extreme Festival.”

In his second national race on the main circuit, which took place earlier this year at Zwartkops Raceway, Josh brought home a second-place overall.

“This was a wonderful feeling. As a rookie on the main circuit it was quite unexpected,” he said.

“During the last few years I have had many setbacks, such as debilitating racing incidents, mechanical failures and unfortunate accidents, which sometimes makes one doubt if you really should be in a racing career at all.

“The achievements bolster my belief to keep going as it confirms I am on the right track and I have the talent to be an outstanding racing driver.

“Ever since I can remember, all I wanted to do was race and now I am doing exactly that. I hope to do it for many more years to come.”

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