Ballito’s Habig streaks ahead at the 2019 Rotax SARMC Nationals

Ballito’s karting master is leading the race for the SA title after winning the 2019 Rotax SARMC Nationals weekend in PE recently.

Benjamin Habig was off to a good start from day one as he put the No 58 kart on pole during qualifying on the Saturday.

It was clear that battle lines were drawn in every class with qualifying times nail bitingly close.

Mother Nature gave the guys a surprise on Sunday morning as they were greeted by cold, rainy conditions changing the hunting grounds somewhat.

Heat one was an early tussle for the front between Habig, Roman De Beer, Bradley Stermin and Rob Whiting who had a great qualifier and started fourth. Habig said the start was tight.

“There was a lot of pressure with very close racing but I managed to keep it as clean as I could in the wet and was very happy to see the chequered flag taking first for heat one.” said Habig.

Heat two saw Habig with Brad next to him on the first row of the grid with Stermin and De Beer on the second row. The first lap was slippery into turn one with the wet conditions which caught Habig and a few drivers out.

“I had to keep up the pace and commit 101 percent and I just tried to make up as many places as possible,” he said.

Lap by lap he made good passes and finished a strong second from eighth behind De Beer. Once again heat three saw Habig at the front row of the grid.

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“It was just the weather that changed all day long but I knew I had to give it my best shot if I wanted to be on the top step of the podium. At the start, I slotted into a safe third, then just sat my time out behind Bradley and Roman taking no chances. Once I made the pass on Brad I could concentrate on getting to the front. I made a calculated move, made it stick, then it was head down, leaving no room for error and slowly widened the gap to take the chequered flag and the overall win for round two,” said Habig.

There are four rounds of regional events which count towards the SA Title. Round three is in August at Idube near Camperdown and the finals are at Zwartkops in September.

With Two Nationals and Two Regionals now completed he is leading the SA Title race overall.

He is also leading the KZN Regional Championship and he is leading the KZN Kart Club Regional. The winner of the SA Title travels to the World Finals in Italy in November.

Habig has been to the World Finals representing SA four times in DD2, 2012 in Italy, 2014 in Spain, Portugal in 2017 and last year in Brazil.

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