Two’s company, three’s a crowd…and there was a crowd of Audis at the sharp end of the field after the first race for Bridgestone Production Cars in Durban on June 15, and they look like firm favourites for Race Two which starts at 12h15 today. That will bring the curtain down on Round Five of the series, which has marked its halfway point with a visit to a custom-made street circuit in Durban.
Held in the shadow of Moses Mabhida stadium, Saturday’s eight-lap sprint saw most competitors start cautiously, nerves still jangling after an accident in qualifying which left Subaru driver Richard Pinard hospitalised with a broken leg, also bringing an end to the session, which was subsequently abandoned.
After an initial decision to base the start grid on championship positions so far, the field eventually setting out according to fastest laps from Friday’s three practice sessions, which meant Michael Stephen’s Audi S4 led the field away. The similar cars of Melvill Priest and Gennaro Bonafede were in hot pursuit from a rolling start.
The BMW 335s of Etienne van der Linde and Johan Fourie fell off the pace steadily, running nose to tail in fourth and fifth. Next up was Tjchops Sipuka in the second ‘works’ entry, with Chris Budnik’s previous-generation BMW 335i completing the class A order. Subaru made a decision to withdraw the second STI, and Hennie Groenewald didn’t make the start.
Stephen made it look easy as he opened a gap to second, leaving Priest to fend off Bonafede. But with Stephen kept his foot down, coming perilously close to disaster by scrapping the right front corner of the Audi down the wall, fortunately with cosmetic damage only.
“I thought I should have a go at setting fastest lap, and ended up kissing the wall,” grinned the PE-based engineer, who was indeed quickest, as it turned out.
Class T was an all-Mini affair, as it had promised to be on Friday. Lee Thompson started from pole position in his Castrol example, team mate (and log leader) Cronje alongside. They looked set to finish in that order, until Thompson slowed and let Cronje through, sportingly taking one for the team.
“Our goal is to win the championship for the Mini brand,” explained Cronje, “and while he was quicker than me today, this is a team sport and I’m already quite far ahead in terms of overall points.”
Best of the rest was teenager Jacques Joubert, bringing his Indyoil Golf GTI home third – but not without running the left side of it down a wall and detaching the rear bumper while attempting a lap which would stand him in good stead on Sunday. His team mate Graeme Nathan was a subdued fourth, the second Indyoil driver deciding discretion was the better part of vapour after having his own – more minor – tussle with the unyielding concrete.
Michael van Rooyen in the Williams Hunt Chevrolet Cruze fended off Gary Formato’s Focus ST Ecoboost for fifth, neither car able to deliver the kind of pace that their drivers had hoped for at this stage of the season.
Full results of Race One are available on the Bridgestone Production Car website: www.spcc.co.za/race-results.