Kyalami’s opening Vodacom Power Tour action on Saturday saw a huge crowd enjoying some great racing – not least from the all-new Engen VW Cup, which had no less than 28 brand new VW Polos taking to the track in anger for the first time. –
– The cars, which were built in record time by the VW Racing crew, who forfeited most of their annual leave to finish the mammoth job of completing the Polos in time, proved popular with the crowd as the colourful field produced some of the day’s best racing… –
– Overall, it was Graeme Nathan who won both heats. The Midrand garage owner drove his FAG/Autozone Polo to a dominant heat 1 win from Engen racer Michael Stephen. Stephen had qualified in pole position but missed a couple of gears at the start and fought back from fifth position to end up second ahead of Polo stalwarts Iain Pepper and Silvio Scribante. –
– Heat 2 saw Nathan fight off a tighter duel, with Stephen ending second again ahead of Hennie Groenewald, but the new Polos drew much appreciation from a crowd used to the action provided by the older cars in previous years. –
– Another new aspect of the Engen VW Cup this season is the inclusion of the Continental tyres Press Polo and it was the duty of Cars in Action and Motorsport Africa publisher Michele Lupini to race it for the first time on Saturday. Lupini, who like many of his press peers is an experienced race and rally driver acquitted himself well with a car he admitted to be struggling with to end up 18th in heat 1 and 21st in heat 2 in a 29-car field. –
– “It was a big effort to try and find a set-up on the daunting Kyalami in just a few sessions and not having driven on the racetrack for well over a year,” Lupini admitted. “But I had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed two action-packed races!” –
– In the first heat, Michele had a fraught two opening laps as he passed four cars and was passed by two more as the field settled down, but he drove a lonely race from there as he kept Franco Scribante far enough behind and chased the bunch ahead in vain. –
– The second race was a horse of another colour for Lupini though, when he quickly dropped to the back of the pack. “I couldn’t understand why the car was suddenly so slow,” he said. “But just before the end of the lap, I had checked most other things, only to find that I’d left the handbrake up! –
– So after the minor adjustment to rectify that, Michele drove hard to catch Andrew Vreyenhoek and Jonathan Roborg-Sondergaard and became embroiled in a huge dice with them. “It was a great race, both Andrew and Jonathan made it difficult for me to pass, but after four or five laps of good, clean fighting, I managed to get ahead and recover some dignity after a real rookie mistake!” –
– The ‘Press Polo’ will be shared between several motoring journalists throughout the year, each of who will relate their experiences in their various magazines or papers. Lupini’s story will be published in the first monthly issue of Motorsport Africa in May, as well as on www.motoring.iafrica.com later this week. –
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