The Bridgestone Production Car Championship headed to Cape Town for round three of this year’s championship battle. Team Ford Racing did superbly on the Killarney circuit, romping home with victory in Class T.
The Nando’s sponsored Focus ST’s of Gary Formato and Shaun Duminy were in top form at Killarney, but the team did face their fair share of challenges over the course of the weekend. A major accident during Friday’s practice session nearly spelled the end of the weekend for Formato after his car was damaged beyond repair.
After much deliberation team mate Duminy offered his car to Formato. “We decided it was best to let Gary go for the points. We had such a good package in the Focus ST this weekend and Gary was confident he could challenge for top honours. In the end it definitely proved to be the right decision,” explained Duminy.
Formato qualified third during Saturday morning’s qualifying session as he worked to set Duminy’s car up to his specifications. During the first race Formato made short work of his challengers taking the lead on lap four and holding on until the chequered flag.
Race 2 saw the grid reversed but once again Formato sliced through the field. A hard charge from the back of the grid saw for Formato fight his way to the front of the field, holding off attacks from Graeme Nathan, in his Golf and Heinz Bose in his Mazda3 to take a double for the day.
“We’re ecstatic with the win. The team has worked really hard and this result is just what we’ve been working towards. It’s unfortunate that we were only one car on the grid as I am sure Shaun would have had a great day too. Shaun is such a team player and I am extremely grateful to him for letting me use his car this weekend. I was really happy to be able to repay him with a win for the team,” But we now head to the next round with a lot of confidence and hopefully we’ll be able to put on another strong show in East London.” added Formato after the race.
Round four of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship takes place in East London on 6 June 2009.
