A Super start to 2011 Saturday 26 February saw the 250 Superkart Series head to the tight confines of the Zwartkops Raceway for the first round of the 2011 season. The series has been boosted by the addition of not one, but two series sponsors for the 2011 season! AVL Africa and Logisticor have come onboard to provide some well deserved support to the loyal drivers of this adrenaline pumping series. The series will now be known as the AVL Africa / Logisticor 250 Superkart Championship.

A fair size field made it to Zwartkops for the first race of the year with a number of additional karts expected to join the field by the second race of the season. Qualifying: Veron Pappas (PVP Superkart) set the pace during qualifying and grabbed pole position ahead of Sean Moore (Logisticor PVP Superkart). Rookie driver Eerik Horn (OTTR PVP Rotax) surprised all when he grabbed third position ahead of Tyron Davis (AVL Africa PVP Superkart). Andrew Greenslade (AVL Africa Rotax Superkart) would line up on the third row behind his team mate with Greg Farah (Abner Electrical ADE Superkart) lining up alongside him. Gary Gribben (PVP Superkart) would start from the fourth row with Craig Marais (Rotax Superkart) starting from eighth position. Vincenzo Cassilo (V-Tek Service Centre Rotax Superkart) would start from the fifth row. Race 1 Pappas and Moore got off to a dynamite start in the first race leaving the rest of the field to play catch up. The pair proceeded to fight it out at the front with Davis slotting into third position. Marais was unfortunate to drop out of the race on the second lap with electrical gremlins. The battle for the minor positions was just as fierce with Farah grabbing fourth position ahead of Horn. Gribben, Greenslade and Cassilo were left to fight it out further back in the pack. Pappas held on to take a narrow victory ahead of Moore with Davis securing his first ever podium position in third. The performance of the two front runners was even more impressive when one considers that both of them broke the lap record for the class of 1:02.480. Pappas set a time of 1:02.308 during qualifying and then went on to obliterate the record with an incredible time of 1:01.596 during the race! Second placed man Sean Moore also dipped under the magical 1 minute 2 second barrier with a 1:01.943 in the first race which would have smashed the old record as well.

Race 2 Marais’ woes continued in the second race when the water pipe on his kart burst before the race even started. The reverse grid at the start of the second heat, a new venture for the series, worked out really well as the field jostled for position through the opening laps. Once again Pappas and Moore got to the front as the race settled into a good rhythm. Farah grabbed third position ahead of Davis with the rest of the field fighting it out for the minor positions. Pappas retired from the race on the sixth lap with terminal brake failure. Moore romped home to victory ahead of Farah while Davis took another well deserved third position.
Next Race: 30 April at Phakisa Freeway in Welkom.

Report by: Greg Reilly
Source: Official 250 Superkart Association Website

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For those who have not noticed it yet, MotoGP introduced a new onboard camera 3 or 4 months ago. This is one of the coolest features in MotoGP. The camera has built in accelerometers and GPS that keeps it level during all times so that it can give us the viewers perspective of the lean angle they achieve during cornering. It just looks insane!      It was developed by Dorna Sports Sl in Spain, the marketing company behind MotoGP.

Read more about it here and look at the video:

New Gyroscopic OnBoard Camera at Sachsenring – MotoGP.com

Here is awesome onboard footage of Danish driver, Andreas Fasberg in his PVP 250 Superkart at the Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans. I would just like to let you know this was Andreas’s first race in the European Championship and that he laid down the gauntlet by qualifying in p2 next to pole sitter, Gavin Bennett in his Anderson/DEA machine. Gavin clinched his 3rd European 250 Superkart Championship by winning both heats. He was also crowned champion in 2007 and 2009.

Gavin Bennett 2010 European 250 Superkart Champion

Andreas had a bad starts in both heats but managed to work his way through the field. Unfortunately he retired on the last lap of each race due to a broken chain and a seized engine.

Andreas Fasberg from Denmark

Well done Gavin and Andreas

Schalk Burger Jnr

Featuring Wade Nelson, Derick Irving and Marcel Angel.

Wade Nelson & Derick Irving 250 Superkarts South Africa 1990

Marcel Angel 250 Superkarts South Africa 1990

Schalk Burger Jnr

Simply tell us where our next race is?

We have tickets to our next race to give away

a Year subscription to On The Track Racing(OTTR) Magazine and some OTTR Gear.

How to enter:

Go to: “Superkarts South Africa” and write on our wall where we are racing next weekend.

or drop us a mail with the answer and your contact details to win@250superkarts.co.za

or simply comment on this post with the answer and your details.

That simple!

Thanks to OTTR Magazine and WPMC

Schalk Burger Jnr

250 Superkarts lap around Killarney at around 1:11 seconds which puts it up there with the fastest race cars and superbikes in the country! Reason for this is obviously a Superkart’s incredible power to weight ratio and low centre of gravity.

a Lap would take you down the main straight in 6th gear, braking hard for turn 1(Hoal’s Hoek) and shifting down to 3rd gear late apexing and accelerating up Joubert straight. Breaking for turn 2(Engen corner) can be tricky as there are some hidden bumps on the general racing line which is amplified in a kart due to it not having any suspension except for the bit of air in the tyres sidewalls. Turn 2 is a long wide hairpin which pushes you to the outside where you have to quickly move over to the right to line yourself up for turn 3 (The Kink) and then down into turn 4(Shell Sweep). Here you just tap of a bit in 5th gear at entry and power out through the corner at about 180km/h heading towards turn 5 also known as Malmesbury Corner/Sweep. This corner is a high speed double apex corner and getting your entry and exit lines right here is vital for maximum speed down the back straight. Here a well tuned Superkart can reach a speed in the region of 260km/h before braking hard for the last corner(turn 6/Cape Town Corner) shifting down to 2nd. Its a well banked positive camber hairpin that leads you out to the main straight with the finish line 400 meters away, and that’s a lap around Killarney or more or less.

There will be some competitions running up to the event where you can win some tickets and who knows what else. Return regularly for updates.

Schalk Burger (Jnr)

S.W. Burger (Jnr)