11 Feb 2024

Botswana Motors Sport (BMS) through Maverick Motor Club will send a trio of youngsters to the Africa Motor Sport Go Kart Challenge in Zwatkorp, South Africa this week.

The trio of 15-year-olds; Ofentse Kgosana and Mohammed Ahmed as well as 13-year-old Hamza Mohammed will participate in the challenge, which will run from February 15 to 17 with a stake in the European Championships in mind.

According to Joseph Khengera of Maverick club, the invitation was forwarded to clubs courtesy of the BMS, whereupon his club managed to identify the three youngsters to represent the country there.

“We are blessed to represent the country and we have confidence in the three youngsters that they will bring back some medals home. It might seem like a tall order especially that we have not been having such competitions in a while, but we are confident in the talent of the country. We want to send the boys out to more challenges.

As Maverick we want to kick start the Botswana Go-Kart challenge,” he said.
Africa Motorsport vice president, Simon Modisaemang said the challenge came at a time when the status of BMS had been a concern.

“There has been a lot of internal fighting in the federation and we need to sit down and iron out our differences because this affects productivity. We should seize this opportunity and use it as a chance to smoke a peace pipe,” he said.

Modisaemang also said the motorsport had lost a lot because of such internal fights, hence an urgent need to reflect and forget about the past and come up with a solid solution to take motorsport forth.

He also urged the local federation to take the Go-Kart category seriously as it was the grassroots development for bigger international races.

Modisaemang also applauded parents of the kids for forking out of their pockets to sponsor the children, saying that it was a necessary sacrifice looking at the fact that BMS was still financially challenged.

He said as the federation, they would try by all to meet such efforts halfway by availing any opportunities for the children to gain more experience.

The local Go-Kart veteran, Peter Kernick also reiterated the need to start the sport at grassroots for it was more affordable at that level.

Kernick indicated that the Go-Kart category was in fact the breeding ground for some of the greatest racers of international meets, such as the Dakar Rally and even the Formula One.

He said like any other sport, motorsport also required commitment from individuals. He also raised the need to seek sponsorship for participants since the sport could be costly.

For their part, the three flag-bearers also indicated their readiness for the challenges, saying that they had been training hard for the event and that they were hoping to bring home some medals. ENDS