The passenger vehicle racing discipline entertained a large crowd in spectacular style during an action packed WesBank Super Series round at the Pretoria circuit.
Friday’s official qualifying sessions predicted close racing, when the times of the quickest eight Class A competitors were covered by a second.
To the delight of their team sponsor, which also acted as umbrella sponser for the raceday, Afrox BMW 330i drivers Anthony Taylor and Etienne van der Linde filled the front row of the grid.
They followed through by dominating Saturday’s opening race.
Taylor won, setting a new overall Bridgestone Production Car lap record at Zwartkops, with Van der Linde solidly second ahead of Sasol Nissan 350Z pilots Tschops Sipuka and Leeroy Poulter, Melvill Priest (Lenovo MiKar Audi) and Johan Fourie (Indy Oil Audi).
Race two, which started from a partially inverted grid, produced more spectacle.
Johan Fourie’s Audi and Leeroy Poulter’s Nissan clashed coming into the pit straight on lap two, leading to Fourie’s immediate retirement, while Shaun Watson-Smith parked his Engen Xtreme Audi with transmission bothers a lap later.
Etienne van der Linde’s BMW and Tschops Sipuka’s Nissan banged fenders in the Table Top section on two separate occasions, sending both drivers farming, both times.
That left Michael Stephen (Engen Xtreme Audi) to win, leading home Melvill Priest, Anthony Taylor, Darryn Lobb (Tubular Tech Nissan 350Z), plus Tschops Sipuka and Etienne van der Linde in their battered cars.
Class T, racing separately from the rest, provided a full soap opera of drama, heartbreak and damaged vehicles.
Starting from pole position, Gary Formato (Ford Racing Focus ST) led the opening race for three laps, before a broken turbo pipe forced him to pit.
Iain Pepper (PG Glass VW Golf GTI) slotted into the lead and stayed there to win, setting a new class lap record en route.
He led home Graeme Nathan (SEAT Leon Cupra) and Gary van Heerden, who gave the Opel Astra OPC an impressive South African motorsport debut in Webcom colours.
Shaun Duminy (Ford Racing Focus ST), Michael van Rooyen (RSC Golf GTI) and Graham Donker (Mini Maxi Golf GTI) filled the rest of the top six places.
The drama came in race two, started from an inverted grid.
Pole starter Phillip Kekana (SEAT Leon Cupra) was tagged in the first corner and went grass tracking for some 50 metres.
On rejoining the tarmac he clouted Iain Pepper’s Golf, which retired with a broken wheel, while Graeme Nathan’s SEAT slowed drastically with electrical bothers.
Gary van Heerden emerged as race leader in the new Opel, but that ended dramatically when he was challenged by a charging Gary Formato on the Table Top two laps later.
The Ford and the Opel first traded paint and then clashed properly.
The subsequent damage sent both drivers to the pits, where unkind words were exchanged.
Then Michael van Rooyen’s Golf and Philip Kekana’s SEAT tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac on the Table Top, with Van Rooyen ending up in the kitty litter.
The final two laps saw Kekana and Graham Donker fighting a no holds barred, panel crunching war for the lead, leaving both cars the worse for wear.
Kekana finally won from Donker, with Shaun Duminy, Peet Visagie (Time Mining Golf GTI), Mark Silverwood (OKI MINI Cooper S) and Graeme Nathan rounding out the top six.
Ben Morgenrood (Agip Mazda RX8) won both Class B races from Riyad Jaffer (Sasol Toyota RunX RSi), with Dave Compton (Sasol Toyota) and Kosie Swanepoel (Barnett’s Toyota) taking the respective third places.
Gary van Heerden’s debut performance in the Opel Astra OPC saw him chosen as CAR Magazine’s Rookie of the Day.
The next round of the 2008 Bridgestone Production Car championship will be held at the East London Grand Prix circuit on Saturday, June 7.