This past weekend, Red Star Raceway hosted the fourth and final national round of the ROK Cup Kart Championships. Brandon van der Walt achieved an impressive fourth place overall in the highly competitive OK-N class.

Despite encountering mixed practice results on Friday that puzzled the team, extensive efforts were made to pinpoint the issue, albeit without success. As a result, Brandon was compelled to navigate around the problem during Qualifying. Although his efforts were not entirely fruitful, Brandon managed to secure the fifth-quickest lap time before the first of four heats.

The pace was intense in a typical OK-N race, resulting in collisions among some of the karts. Brandon capitalised on the turmoil ahead by effectively managing his pace and secured a fourth-place finish. Subsequently, a post-race penalty imposed on a competitor ahead provided the Pretoria teenager with the opportunity to advance one more position, culminating in his attainment of the third national podium placement.

During the race, amidst several retirements, the WORR Motorsport driver missed securing a podium finish in Heat 2, ultimately crossing the finish line in fourth place. Following this, in Heat 3, Brandon incurred a nose-cone penalty, resulting in an eighth-place classification. However, in the final heat, Brandon achieved his fastest weekend lap, finishing in fourth place, thus concluding a commendable weekend performance despite the apparent lack of pace.

"Heading into the weekend, I felt confident after a solid performance at Red Star a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, my pace wasn't as strong as I had hoped, and the team and I were confused. Even after making changes there was no significant improvement. Despite showing some consistency in the heats, we were still trailing somewhat so to walk away with a fourth overall isn't too disappointing," said Brandon.

With the national ROK season over, Brandon will head to Zwartkops Kart Raceway this weekend for the final national round of the South African Rotax MAX Challenge, where he will compete in the closely contested Senior MAX class.