Day of mixed results at the office for karting ace Jayden Els
The winner of the Junior Max African Open earns a place in the South African team which will race at the 2018 Rotax Max International Finals in Brazil.
Boksburg’s 2016 Rotax Mini Max karting world champion Jayden Els will have to win the championship to qualify for this year’s high school world finals.
This is after he experienced a tough day at the office in the Junior Max African Open at the Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria over the month-end weekend.
Els, however, managed to win his Junior Max Northern Regions races despite a setback in the first heat on Saturday, June 30.
Els was perfectly poised for the final when he was pulled into an accident between Joseph Oelz and Jarrod Waberski and ended up heavily in the tyre wall.
He said: “That cost us in the end as we did not have enough pace to get to the front in the final.
“We started fifth and fought back to third, which is the best we could expect in the circumstances.
“We had a far better day on Saturday. I won the second and third heats to take the Northern Regions Junior win to make up some good ground in the championship
“I was leading the first race when I was taken out by an out of town driver who had no reason to do that as he has nothing to do with our championship and that cost me the win.
“I never made the mistake of letting him near in the other two races, but it was really good to taste victory again.
“We need to put our best foot forward in the last two nationals – we have good pace at the moment so let’s hope we can turn that into results and get into the World Finals through the front door.”
• Information from the Motorsport South Africa website.
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