The Bridgestone Super Production Car circus visits Cape Town this weekend, and the city’s motorsport fans can look forward to a trio of action-packed races on Saturday March 16.
Latest news from the pitlane is that the Ford Racing team will be campaigning their old-spec Focus STs, having been unable to cure some issues with the Cosworth-supplied engine management systems. This is sad news for local lass Andrea Bate, who was scheduled to drive one of the old cars while Shaun Duminy and Gary Formato would debut the four-cylinder, 2.0-litre versions. Instead, the two regular pilots will continue with the 2.5-litre, 5-cylinder cars which were initially expected to have their swansong at Round One of the series.
Other news from Class T is that the MINIs will not be using the new double VANOS engine.
Explains race engineer Freddie Pretorius: “We had hoped to have brand new N18B engines for the Mini John Cooper Works for Cape Town, but these arrived too late for us to prepare properly. They have double Vanos variable cam timing, and will afford us the opportunity to increase bottom end power and reduce turbo lag.”
Both Ford and MINI say their latest specification cars will definitely be ready in time for Port Elizabeth on April 6.
Production Car qualifying session gets underway at 09h30, with the first of two seven-lap sprints scheduled to start at 13h50. The 14-lap feature race – in which double points are scored – starts at 16h10.
