Slightly overcast and windy conditions at Killarney on October 4 helped the jockeys to keep their cool as they prepared their frisky chargers for the penultimate round of the Bridgestone Production Car championship at the famous Cape Town circuit tomorrow.
With new faces in both class A and class T there were some nerves ahead of the opening session, with both Roman de Beer (BMW E90 335i) and Ryan Cooper (Golf 5 GTi), making their first visit to the popular West Coast circuit. The latter at least managed three laps late on Thursday afternoon, while De Beer was a Killarney virgin when he went out for the first session at 10:40.
As it turned out he was the fastest BMW in the session, the later-generation cars of Etienne van der Linde and Johan Fourie trundling around to get their eye in. Fastest overall was Hennie Groenewald in the Subaru WRX STI, heading up a train of Audi S4s with the Tschops Sipuka car closely followed by team mate Michael Stephen.
Class T pacesetter was Lee Thompson in the Mini Cooper S, with Michael van Rooyen’s Chevrolet Cruze second and Graeme Nathan’s Golf 6 GTI completing the top three.
The second 20 minute session was an all-Audi show, with a quartet of the four-ringed cars out front, Stephen in front and Melvill Priest second and Gennaro Bonafede third and Sipuka bringing up the rear.
Class T went to Mini, Gavin Cronje ahead of Thompson. Van Rooyen rounded out the top three.
With the pace becoming hotter the BMWs started to come good, and in the final session of the day Fourie – a Killarney specialist – had moved to the front. Priest was now the fastest Audi. Missing from the timing sheets was Groenewald, experiencing gearbox problems which had curtailed his running time in the previous session. Another car which had experienced transmission trouble was the older Beemer of Roman de Beer, and whilst slowest of the class A runners in the final session, he was well pleased to get laps under his belt.
In class T there were five different cars in the first five positions: Van Rooyen, Cronje, Nathan, Devin Robertson and Gary Formato, just over half-a-second separating them.
Adding a new dimension to the field was a trio of local racers in older-generation class T cars, experienced campaigner Brennon Green leading the fray. Joining him in a bid to win the class T Privateers Cup are Jaco Lambert, Jacques Gildenhuys, Andre Johnson and Mark Hope. All except Gildenhuys and Lambert are piloting Volkswagen Golf 5s.
