Kian Spies Shines at African Open with Career-Best Senior MAX Performance
Kian Spies produced his strongest showing to date in the Senior MAX class at this past weekend’s Rotax African Open, delivering a composed and competitive performance that confirmed his status as a front-running threat.
The 21-year-old from Johannesburg, who has been racing in Senior MAX for several seasons with the Xtreme Racing team, showcased his experience and maturity in a stacked field featuring South Africa’s top karting talents.
Kian laid down a competitive 42.320-second lap in the late-afternoon qualifying session to secure P8. Just half a second off the front row, the time placed him on the cleaner outside line for Pre-Final 1 and hinted at the pace to come. A well-timed launch saw him immediately begin climbing the order. His racecraft and consistency were on full display as he worked his way to fourth by the flag, just over a second behind the winner.
In Pre-Final 2, starting from row two, Kian snatched the lead on lap two and held the position through the opening stages before engaging in a thrilling three-way fight with Charl Visser and Kent Swartz. He crossed the line in third and posted one of his best laps of the weekend (42.227).
The result earned him a spot on the second row for the all-important final.
From third on the grid, Kian stayed within striking distance of the leaders for much of the final. But a mid-race incident while fighting for a podium shuffled him down the order. Despite a spirited recovery and personal best lap of 42.093 seconds, he had to settle for twelfth at the flag, a result that didn’t reflect the level of performance shown throughout the weekend.
Just two weeks prior, Kian made his debut in South Africa’s premier single-seater series, the Investchem MSA4 Championship, a platform designed to bridge young talent into global formula racing. His step into formula cars reflects a growing ambition to take his motorsport journey beyond karting and ultimately race abroad.
“It was a heartbreaking end to an otherwise amazing event. It’s always a shame to come so close to winning a race this big, but at least we put ourselves in the position to win, and sometimes that’s all you can do. Still, so many positives to take away from it. And the kindness and respect so many people showed me after the final was really special,” said Kian after the race.
With confidence high and momentum building, Kian will now shift his focus to Round 2 of the MSA4 championship in East London before engaging in another Senior MAX battle at the final SARMC National at Zwartkops in August.
