ESTEQ Sponsored Kart Racing Day

Bridgestone Zwartkops International Kart Raceway is the newest world class international kart circuit in Africa. That is the whole reason we knew we had to have our sponsored race day here. It is situated on the R55 west of Pretoria in Gauteng, Zwartkops provides an accessible international standard kart racing venue for Pretoria, Johannesburg, East and West Rand competitors. So for the 27^th of March, our team consisting of one of our valued clients from PBMR and some of our own representatives decided on attempting this thrilling challenge for the day.

We started getting rid of the nerves and gearing up for the excitement and the seriousness of the ESTEQ Endurance Race. There were five teams that were getting started on strategizing. They were Team BMW, Team Red Bull, Team Ferrari, Team Subaru and Team Mercedes.

The circuit is just over 1000m long and a minimum of eight meters wide. The start/finish line is on the 180m-long 10m wide main straight, and is 90m before the first corner. The first two corners are 12m wide to reduce first lap congestion. A unique feature of the new circuit is the Bridgestone Flyover, where the circuit actually crosses over itself. The sloping terrain of Zwartkops lent itself to great spectator viewing points and lived up to its promise to the drivers concerning challenging roller coaster twists and turns.

The qualifying lap started at 10H00, the teams burnt some rubber on the take off and every team was driving like real professionals. The overall finishing position for the qualifying lap was Team Ferrari with a best time of 1:04.650 (one minute & four seconds) in lap 21 with their second best lap time of 1:04.842 for lap 13 with the overall best speed of 55.684Kms. The teams that followed in order of best lap time were Team Red Bull in second and Team Mercedes in third.

The teams decided on a short time out to get their strategies tweaked and catch some air to devise the best tactics to come out as the best endurance race kart drivers there. After all the teams got into the groove and feel of the kart and the race track, then the teams kept passing and bettering there last lap time until the last lap came up to reward the winner. The fastest lap was made by Danie Smit with the time of 1:03.389 and the overall winning team was Team Mercedes which consisted of Danie Smit, Michael Schilhauer, Dougan Mckellar and Elton Murison. After the ESTEQ Endurance race, a prize-giving was held for the best performers. Danies Smit was awarded the trophy for the fastest lap and the winning team was awarded.  All these teams gave their best out there and everyone had loads of fun. Thank You for all the competitors that enjoyed the day with us. See you next year!

Have a look at our Team Players...