The end is nigh and what an incredible year it has been!
The much-anticipated last round of the ROK CUP SA NATIONALS, held at Vereeniging Kart Club, was set to satiate the spring air with some sublimely contentious driving.
19 MINI ROK entrants, all vying for a coveted ticket to the ROK CUP SUPERFINAL in Italy, eagerly lined up for Friday’s practice and boy was it on like Donkey Kong.
The blistering heat took no prisoners as the track blew up from session one. Our team was flush with excitement as we took our karts to new heights. It’s not our home track and there’s always a fair amount of extra work to put in to maintain sustainable delivery to the very end, but we walked away feeling happy with the pace of our engines and a good tactical mindset.
‘No rest for the wicked’ lent itself to being our Saturday race day MANTRA as we returned to Vereeniging Kart Club for warmup by sunrise and the ever so daunting QUALIFYING round. Who really knew what the flavour of the day was going to be?
NAGURA closed his lid, it was time.
Barreling down the straights and holding heat round the corners, NAGURA eased into a comfortable rhythm– landing a NINTH place start on the GRID, just behind his teammate, Aaron Mason.
Heat ONE held no love for NAGURA though, as he battled to find solid pace between the brut of hungry MINI ROK drivers. There was no escaping the shackles he found himself in and it set him squarely into a TWELFTH PLACE conundrum.
HEAT TWO started off jovially enough but held him prisoner as an avalanche of drivers piled up in front of him and sadly there was just nowhere for NAGURA to hide. After doing his utmost best to try and get the kart back on track, a defeated NAGURA held his head in his hands and retired from the race.
HEAT THREE was seemingly picturesque as NAGURA stood his ground and broke the spell with a drive that propelled his race pace substantially and saw him tightly sandwiched between teammates MOORE and MASON to finish off SEVENTH.
HEAT FOUR brought all the boys to the yard as the finality of it all became a harsh reality.
After giving it his all and raising as much hell as possible, NAGURA fought himself into a
TENTH PLACE finish, ending his year off as a proverbial lightning bolt in a storm of brilliant drivers.
Well, driven kid. Your growth has been astounding and we all look forward to seeing you back in the MINI kart next year.
Published by: Deborah Leigh Jovanovic
Photography by: zeppelin media
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