Fabienne Lanz ended 2020 in emphatic style, overturning an 8-point deficit to be crowned KZ2 champion at the ROK Cup South Africa (SA) National Championships, at the Zwartkops International Kart Circuit, on December 12.
Lanz finished second on the day to overtake multiple SA Karting champion and championship leader, Bradley Liebenberg, for the title.
Liebenberg was unable to take to the grid for a restart, after the race was red-flagged after a serious opening heat incident with Lanz.
“I still think the reality of this win has still not fully sunk in yet.”- 2020 KZ2 Champion, Fabienne Lanz
“It comes in drips and drabs of goose flesh excitement and thrills as I go through the events of each heat, recalling each thought and motion whilst pushing the kart to its maximum potential,” said Lanz.
“Now as I have a confirmed broken rib, I am taking a short break to recover physically and enjoy some quality family time at Christmas, and I want to send my best wishes to all my friends and fans around the Globe, their support really helps me push forward,” concluded Lanz.
Lanz recorded ten podiums during the season – of which four were victories – to be crowned the 2020 National KZ2 Champion, and it was touch and go that she was able to race at all.
The karting champ becomes the second female racing driver to win a 6 Speed Shifter National Title, after Tannith Gardner in the 90’s.
“Tannith was and will always be my inspiration,” Lanz explains. “The lady racer in all pink. I will never forget the day she gave me one of her own racing suits, which I still have safeguarded in my trophy room today.”
From Fabienne Lanz’ Newsletter:
“Unfortunately going into turn one on lap 2, Fabienne shoved the nose on the inside line, and a side-by-side dash to turn 2 ensued, however this attempt did not end well for both drivers, resulting in a collision, raising the red flag for the session.
Brad Liebenberg had suffered a roll and was ejected from his kart while Fabienne took a hard knock to the back of her ribs from Brads kart. She managed to continue the race and hold on to finish in 2nd place along with setting the fastest lap which earned her a pole position start for Heat 2.
Despite the onsetting pain from the collision, Fabienne had her mind set on taking heat 2 win in order to score enough points to take over the championship lead.
Having been cleared to race by the medics, Fabienne chose to start the race in safety mode and see how she felt, and try move her way up to second place in the early stages of the race.
In a final lap effort into turn 2, Fabienne lunged her way past the race leader Josh Coertze and into first position, and defended the lead all the way to the checkered flag to secure that much needed win for her National title.
The third heat was almost a similar result as the first heat where Fabienne settled in 2nd place behind Josh Coertze.
Her goal was to at least set a new lap record as she had been doing all day, which she did with a whopping 41.6sec lap time.
Despite all efforts, her injuries from the first heat incident were too physically draining to fight for the overall win for the day. As the Championship was more important, it was a wise choice to settle for 2nd place for the day and sufficient enough to secure the title.”
Photo 1 Caption: Fabienne Lanz has been crowned KZ2 champion at the ROK Cup South Africa (SA) National Championships, at the Zwartkops International Kart Circuit, on December 12. Photo: Supplied
Photo 2 Caption: Lanz overturned an 8-point deficit at the season’s closing event to end 2020 in emphatic style. Photo: Supplied
Photo 3 Caption: Fabienne Lanz becomes the second female racing driver to win a 6 Speed Shifter National Title, after Tannith Gardner in the 90’s. Photo: Supplied
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