The Volkswagen Cup racing action at Phakisa Freeway near Welkom on Saturday produced the type of racing this series has become well-known for over the past 17 years. Door-to-door and wheel-to-wheel action from the start to the finish of each race.
What did happen differently this time around, is that each race had a winner new to the top step of the podium. In a season that has seen the championship leader, Kosie Weyers, dominant in the category, the winds of change were blowing at Phakisa this weekend.
Tasmin Pepper was the first of the new race winners to show her skills. A qualifying time good enough to put her fourth overall turned into a second-place start on the grid thanks to the Top Six draw, a feature of the Engen Volkswagen Cup series.
A good start saw Pepper claim the lead and then, with a fight for second brewing between Weyers and Mathew Hodges, showed the pack a clean pair of heels as she dashed for the finish line. A convincing win later and she improved on her previous best, a third place finish at Killarney in March this year.
Dewald Brummer put in a really good showing at Kyalami, the first round this season, when he claimed second place in race two, having finished in third place in the first race of the day. He again came very close with two second place finishes at Aldo Scribante Raceway in April and in East London in June he once more claimed a second place finish.
The top step of the podium has, however, eluded the second-place man in the championship… until Phakisa. The last race for the Volkswagen Cup field on Saturday saw Brummer triumph, adding his first race victory to his tally for the season thus far.
Volkswagen Cup heads to Zwartkops Raceway for the next round of their championship on Saturday, August 31. Weyers still leads, but he now has to contend with at least four potential race winners, Pepper and Brummer from Phakisa, Jeffrey Kruger who won the opening race at Kyalami and Mark Silverwood who claimed three consecutive victories, two at Zwartkops Raceway and one at the East London Grand Prix Circuit.
