Habig extends his SA champs lead

It was an amazing day of racing in the third round of the Rotax Max Challenge, the penultimate event of the 2019 SA Rotax Karting Championship title race.

Ballito’s Benjamin Habig put his No 58 TonyKart on pole on Thursday, August 10 in the premier class of karting in South Africa. Habig continued his form on Saturday and clinched overall honours in both the first and second heats, followed by Bradley Liebenberg in Heat 1 and another Ballito karter, Dominic Lincoln, in Heat 2.

Heat 2 saw Habig taking the lead from Liebenberg in the second lap, setting a blistering pace and maintaining a very consistent lap time, taking the chequered flag 3.460 seconds ahead of Dominic Lincoln of KZN with Liebenberg taking third.

“Due to a technical issue which occurred in Heat 2, we were forced to change our engine and we know that this could be a turning factor in the day’s performance,” said Habig.

Heat 3 starting grid was Liebenberg on pole, with Habig alongside, followed by Lincoln and Smith on row 2, and Allison and Bantho on row 3 of the grid.

“I had a bad start, but also had to run with my practice engine as my race engine suffered a gearbox failure in Heat 2, but soon made my way to the front of the pack.

“Midway Bradley took the lead and I just managed the rest of the heat keeping my focus on the goal for the weekend – winning overall and stretching my lead in the National Championship. A good place to be for the finals at Zwartkops in a month’s time.”

Habig has a substantial lead and only has to finish third in one out of four heats at the Rotax Finals to clinch the SA Title and represent South Africa in Sarmo, Italy in October.

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