In the midst of these unprecedented times, I wanted to take a moment and share my open and honest thoughts with you. Needless to say, this pandemic is something that turned not only karting on its head, but also every facet of our personal lives. For many in the sport, COVID-19 has disrupted not only the thing we love, but our livliehoods and ability to provide for our families. SKUSA has weathered recessionary conditions before, most recently the financial challenges our country faced during the mortgage crisis. While we always planned and strategized for financial downturns, nobody ever envisioned a situation like this.

Responsible for the race track as well as for the Prokart Raceland rental karting centre in Wackersdorf, Bavaria, a distributor of karts and competition equipment, organiser of numerous national and international Competitions, Stephan Fritsch is also a former driver and now a driver's father.

W Series, the international single-seater motor racing championship for female drivers only, is pleased to announce the inauguration of an all-new W Series Esports League for female racing drivers only. Partnering with Logitech G (a global leader in PC and console gaming gear), Beyond Entertainment (a community-driven organisation that specialises in hosting high-calibre tournaments) and iRacing (the leading esports simulation platform), the W Series Esports League will commence its sim racing season in the coming weeks in the current absence of on-track motor racing anywhere in the world. A brand-new initiative, the W Series Esports League aims to inaugurate, publicise, promote and empower a shared commitment to raising female sim racing visibility in order to encourage more women and girls everywhere to take up eracing, thereby opening up a new world of equality and diversity in what has previously been seen as a predominantly male-dominated activity

Even though South Africa has now moved into Level 4 lockdown, the picture is unfortunately no clearer as to when our sport will be able to resume. The only good news is that each day that passes means one day closer to going racing, whenever this may eventually be!

In The Netherlands some of the karttracks did open last week. Now also Karting Genk in Belgium will open soon for free practice in karts. “Finally we have been given the green light from the authorities to open again from Friday, May 8, 2020 for free practice (no kart rental) for drivers with their own kart”, said the statement by Karting Genk. “We are all pleased to hear that the lock down can slowly be reduced and that we can all enjoy our favourite sport again. To make sure that we can continue our beloved activity, we all have to be responsible and we will count on your common sense, with the rules in mind. Unfortunately, we have not yet received permission to restart the rental karts and the brasserie. We will communicate this at a later stage.