Karting’s rising star Naomi Schiff is looking to stamp her authority on the 2009 Rotax Max Challenge karting series at the Zwartkops Kart Raceway on Sunday, July 19.
The 15-year-old Sandton driver is leading the highly-competitive Junior Max category, holding a slender points lead over highly-talented Aston Hare and Raoul Owens. Sunday’s meeting is a vital regional points scoring round that counts towards a place in the Rotax Max World Finals in Egypt in December, and the boys will be going all-out to displace the petite girl-racer from the top of the points standings.
“She’s shown she has undoubted talent,” says father David Schiff. “But the idea is to enjoy her racing as much as possible right now, and I include myself in that, working with my daughter at the circuit.
“The fact that she’s a girl, and a black girl at that, definitely focuses extra attention on her, and my job right now is not to let expectations get too high.”
The Junior Max class is for drivers up to the age of 16 and is an all-important feeder class for the “big league” formula in the Rotax series, the Max Challenge.
South African drivers have always shone in this important world-wide series and in fact six South Africans, Gavin Cronje, Claudio Piazza Musso, Mark Cronje, Chris Morgado, Wesley Orr and Leeroy Poulter have won world titles in Max Challenge, in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 amd 2008.
Heading up the Max Challenge quest for glory in Egypt is Sean Frost, who holds a slender four-point lead over another rising black star in the sport, Shau Mafuna. And chasing these two all the way is Duke Ridgway, just 0,4 points behind Mafuna.
The 2009 season has seen the Rotax classes once again being established as the most competitive series in South African karting. The low maintenance costs of the mechanically-identical water-cooled 125 cc engines has been a key factor in keeping the grids full despite the economic pinch.
“We are looking at grids of 15 karts-and -over in all the major Max Challenge classes on Sunday,” says series co-ordinator Jennifer Verheul. A former kart racer herself, Jennifer (better known under her maiden name of Murray) is proof that karting leads to bigger things for the female drivers in the sport. She parlayed her Rotax karting successes into becoming a top three contender in the South African Formula Ford championship a few seasons back and last year won two rounds in the potent V6-engined Shelby Can Am series.
“The trick to karting success is smoothness, a quality that Naomi definitely has, and Zwartkops rewards a smooth driving style, particularly in the tight hairpins,” says Jennifer.
“The girl drivers initially lack the aggression of the males, but they make up for this with a delicacy of touch, and after a few years in the sport they learn the aggressive side of it too, and can mix it with boys.”
Sunday’s meeting will also host the potent twin-speed Rotax DD2 Challenge, currently headed up by Red Bull-backed Caleb Williams, who will be there to defend his narrow 1,6 point lead in the series from relative karting new-comer Ian Young.
The top-line DD2 class has proven the surprise package in karting over the past two seasons. Despite being more expensive than the basic single-gear Max classes, the two-speed formula has attracted top fields recently, and Sunday’s round, which counts towards a place in the World finals in Egypt, will be no exception.
In the other classes, Raoul Hyman is leading the Mini Max class (for drivers up to 13 years of age), while Harpal Shayur is heading up the tiddler GP junior class, for drivers whose crash helmets seem bigger than their entire bodies!
The 1 km-long Zwartkops International Kart Raceway is situated in the Zwartkops Raceway main racing circuit complex, on the R55, the main road leading from Kyalami to Laudium. Racing starts at 11h30, with practice starting from 8 am. Admission price for spectators is free.