Getting to know GTC-2 champion Keagan Masters

"My dream is to get paid as a racing driver but I've made it halfway through"

Keagan Masters is an Audi Sport and VW Motorsport SA motorsport athlete who is proving that the world is his oyster at the young age of 18 years. In 2017, Keagan Masters contested his first motor racing championship outside of his native South Africa. The young racing protege was active in karting for eight years before entering single-seater racing in 2013. There, he immediately won the ‘Rookie of the Year’ ranking. In 2017, Keagan Masters competed in the GTC-2 class of the Sasol GTC Touring Car Championship in South Africa for Volkswagen Motorsport in parallel with the Audi Sport TT Cup and is currently the GTC-2 champion.

We spoke to Masters briefly at the Killarney race track on the weekend of 21 April when the petrolheads headed down to Cape Town after burning some tires back at Kyalami race track in Johannesburg. He chatted to us about his career, behind-the-scenes, sponsorship and where motorsport is headed in South Africa.

The L.A Dosage: Being fairly young in the motorsport fraternity you've done fairly well for yourself despite a few hiccups along the way. How do you deal with the pressures that with the racing and also competing against some of the seasoned pros?

Keagan Masters: Well I have been racing for ten years so I can a little bit of pressure but its a great feeling to know that I am racing alongside some of the top racers in South Africa. Ever since I was in karting, I used to always watch them on the main the main circuit. It doesn't make it too stressful because they are nice people and you can see they're genuinely normal people so its not like you're talking to some superheroes or something (laughs). Johan Fourie, Marko Stephen as well I've known for a while because I've raced against him in karting. It's a good environment so its not too much pressure but if I had to race against them then I think there would be more pressure. I happen to be up against the same people except for Devin Robinson, I haven't raced against him but I know my other competitors, I know how they drive so I just need to bare in mind their strengths and weaknesses to continue opposing them and working around them.

The L.A Dosage: What have been some of the unexpected challenges in your career?

Keagan Masters: Not in main circuit, well not any I can think of from the top of my head. It's mainly been in karting with my height (laughs).

The L.A Dosage: What are some of the preparations that go into these races - physically and mentally?

Keagan Masters: A week before the race I will go on the simulator and do a couple of races online and also visually I would visualise the track before I go out, sometimes I will listen to music on the race stages on the way to the track or whatever. Pre event: Normally I'd go for runs to keep my body in shape, I eat healthy, I watch videos before the time, of the track I'm going to be racing on.

The L.A Dosage: You've done well in Kyalami with some few hiccups along the way and now Killarney here in Cape Town. What are the vast differences with racing in the two circuits and where do you enjoy racing in particular?

Keagan Masters: Well the track here in Killarney is very quick, the air is different, more humid so your engine is way quicker and fuel runs out quicker. It's only one left-hander in this thing really so basically the main difference is that Kyalami is very is more equal corners (left and right) and very technical. This track (Killarney) you have to focus on your right-handers and your average speed is a lot higher. The curbs here are not as visual as Kyalami as Kyalami has bigger curbs.

The L.A Dosage: What goes into a day's racing to ensure that everything goes well for the drivers?

Keagan Masters: The team looks after our meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the morning, I usually have a light warm-up, I tend to not want to get to focused into the session then I think too much so I enjoy chatting to people to get my mind open and not stress my mind about my session. Talking to people keeps me calm, talking to my mechanics who prep my car to make sure that everything is in order before we go out.

The L.A Dosage: What do you think makes your team great and always managing to put up some great performances?

Keagan Masters: Well most of the work is done back home at the shop at Kyalami - its the fine tweaks that we do in order for the car to be good condition when we go out. The team does a solid job at the workshop, in terms of what to do at each track. Everything is always great, I have never had an issue where something is wrong during practice. They haven't made any bad decisions in setup that I end up disliking the car completely. Its years of from Graham Nathan, he's been racing for so many years so he knows what to do for each track so that the car is 'raceable' in the first practice and its just fine tweaks that we had really on the practice day going towards the race day.

The L.A Dosage: In terms of sponsorship in motorsport, do you think its difficult to secure sponsorship and what are the sponsors looking for from drivers?

Keagan Masters: Well its very hard to get a sponsor in South Africa but good marketing for yourself is very crucial -media and the social media. I was very lucky to get sponsored by Volkswagen (VW) Motorsports so its very crucial to have media and making sure you get the results that you need to get in order to approach sponsors with your CV, results and how many people support the sport.

The L.A Dosage: How do you think can be done to improve the motorsport industry in South Africa?

Keagan Masters: It definitely does need improvement, more advertisements on the race day in the areas so that more people attend the races. The main thing we need is more spectators, more people are interested in watching it than doing it (motorsport). Also costs but you can't really take away the costs of motorsport because they'll always be very high. The more spectators we have, the more sponsors will want to invest in the motorsport industry. That's the main concern in terms the growth of motorsport.

The L.A Dosage: Looking back to when you started, how did you see this journey originally taking you and what are your racing goals this year?

Keagan Masters: Well the main dream is more to get paid as a racing driver but I've definitely made it halfway by getting the sponsorship with VW  which is very awesome but the next step is to obviously race overseas in the near future and hopefully race in the bigger class like Germany. In SA, I think I have met my goals, hopefully I will make it into GTC-1 next year but we will see what the team says but I'm definitely happy where I am. I'm proud to be with VW.


We wish Masters all the success with his racing career and we certainly hope to see him on the international circuit in the near future. To stay up to date with his career you can catch him on the following:

KeaganMastersOfficial

From The L.A Dosage team, till next time . . .