- Rookie champion Judd earns 2025 Astron Energy Polo Cup drive
Judd Bertholdt is Volkswagen’s 2024 Rookie Cup champion. The young Johannesburg race driver claimed the title after a stellar performance at the Zwartkops Extreme Festival Rookie Cup season finale on Saturday.
“Congratulations to Judd Bertholdt on clinching the second Volkswagen Rookie Cup at Zwartkops on Saturday,” Volkswagen Head of Motorsport Mike Rowe confirmed. “We now welcome Judd into the Volkswagen Motorsport Rookie Polo Cup for 2025, where we are confident that the training and experience gained in this Volkswagen Motorsport initiative puts him in a good position to compete.”
Durban lad Uzair Khan started his weekend on the front foot by taking pole position in his TSS Rookie Polo. He pipped Johannesburg youngster Judd Bertholdt’s identical Sizanani Plastics car in the Friday afternoon session. Dhivyen Naidoo, also from Durban, lined up third in his Production X Polo from Gqeberha lad Josh Moore’s Fleet Dynamics machine.
Championship leader Bertholdt however made a great start to take the lead from the get-go as he drove away into the distance. Khan went the other way off the start and dropped back to fourth. He had to fight back, swapping some paint with Moore and then make a move on Naidoo for second. But Judd Bertholdt took a dominant win to lay one hand on the title. Uzair Khan followed from Dhivyen Naidoo and Josh Moore.
Bertholdt was however only third on the grid for the championship decider behind Naidoo and Khan, and ahead of Moore. Khan led Naidoo at the start as Bertholdt initially tussled with Moore, before settling down to take the fourth place points to secure his title. Up front, Dhivyen Naidoo made a move on Uzair Khan for the win as Josh Moore followed them home, with Bertholdt content with fourth.
All of which means that Judd Bertholdt is the 2024 Volkswagen Rookie Cup champion, following a full season of racing, hill climbing, learning and growing as a driver within the series.
“Volkswagen Motorsport salutes all our Rookies in this year’s Cup. They came to us as wet behind the ears karters and leave equipped and ready to progress in their respective future racing careers, for which we wish each of them the very best,” Mike Rowe concluded. “Rookie Cup now looks forward to commencing its third season with a fresh batch of youngsters for 2025. Anyone keen, should not hesitate to contact Volkswagen Motorsport now to secure a seat.”
Open to young karters looking for the ideal step up to the main circuit, the Volkswagen Rookie Cup academy trains its racing recruits in every aspect of racing in a real-world hands-on raceday realm. The syllabus covers everything from driver fitness to physical and mental preparation, teamwork, data analysis, collaborating with the team and dealing with the media and every other aspect of a racing career.
