Silver lining for Jayden in final race of karting championships
The defending champion showed his class to win the day’s ultimate race.
Boksburg’s karting star Jayden Els recovered from a rough day at the tracks to produce a come from behind win in the final race of the Northern Regions Junior Max Karting Championships at Vereeniging’s Laserfiche Raceway on April 14.
The 2016 world Mini Max karting champion finished first during his qualifier before being disqualified in his first race due to a technical infringement.
This was followed by him being involved in a crash in his second race of the day but the silver lining finally arrived when the defending champion showed his class to win the day’s ultimate race.
“Wow! That was a wild weekend!” Jayden admitted after his surprise final race win.
“We tried something for qualifying that did not work, but we were not expecting to be so far back on the grid – that just shows how competitive this Junior Max class really is.
“Anyway, I had fought back to third when Aqil Alibhai and I collided as I tried to pass him and we were both out — I bent my kart’s axle, so I had to start race two from the back.
“Unfortunately I could not avoid two karts that crashed in front of me and I ended up with a bent chassis and had to fight really hard to get back to seventh, but the final was much better.
“We worked hard to fix it between races and the kart was good so I could fight back and I eventually managed to get to the front and we won the race.”
The defending champion added: “If bad luck comes in threes, I hope we are finished with ours now because it’s been three races in a row with drama.
“We have the national next here at Vereeniging and I think we are in a good place for that. Hopefully, we can get in front of the drama and clear off. Bring it on!” – @SabeloBoksburg
