A 10-year-old boy from Sonstraal in Durbanville is taking the junior motorsport world in the Western Cape by storm.
Liam Wharton, a Grade 4 learner at Eversdal Primary School, is currently leading the WP Regional Championship in the Micro Max category. If he manages to win the championship this year, he will receive his Western Province colours in this sport.
Each round of the competition consists of one warm-up session, one qualifying session and three races.
Full house of points
The sixth round (of eight rounds) in this competition, that was held at Killarney International Raceway on 14 September, saw Liam being fastest in the warm-up session, in the qualifying pole for the first race, and winning all three his races of the day – securing him a full house of points towards his championship goal.
Liam took part in the seventh round at Killarney this past weekend, where he came second on the first and second race, and won the third race. He is now leading the Western Province Regional Championship by 27 points.
The final round is on 9 November, also at the Western Province Motor Club. He is also the current lap record holder of the club’s kart circuit in his category.
Following in footsteps
Liam started motorsport following in the footsteps of both his parents, Stefanie and Ashley Wharton, who took part in the sport for many years.
Stefanie was the Western Province champion in karting in her category at 15 years of age.
“Liam grew up in a motorsport family and he showed an almost immediate interest in anything racing related,” she says.
He got his first kart when he was four, five years old and took part in his first race in February 2020 at only five years of age, she says.
Liam came sixth in the bambino class in the 2020 Western Province Regional Championship. In 2021 he came second in the same competition and was awarded Bambino Rookie of the Year.
He then already started to compete on the next level, the Micro Max class, and came ninth in this category at the same competition.
Driver of the Year
In 2022 he became the Western Province regional champion in the bambino class. He also came fourth in the Micro Max class at the same competition and was awarded Bambino Driver of the Year.
In 2023 he came second in the Micro Max class of the Western Province regional championship and was awarded the Micro Max Driver of the Year.
This year Liam also came fourth in the Micro Max category of the South African Rotax Max Challenge National Championship.
