Amongst some scintillating motorcycle and four-wheel action at Saturday’s round 2 of the Vodacom Power Tour at Killarney Raceway, Cape Town, Sasol Steam Team Supervan Racing hotshots, Johan Fourie and Shaun Watson-Smith warmed the wet 15 000 spectators with a win and a 2nd apiece in the respective WesBank SAMCAR heats. –
– Phillip Kekana too had an improved, actually quite impressive, second-time-out behind the wheel of the Sasol DualFuel Polo in the Engen Volkswagen Cup, the number 13 re-occurring as his finishing spot in the 8 and (later) 12-lap events. –
– Going into the “monkey wedding-type” Saturday, the talking point in the WesBank series was the closeness (like only seen a decade ago) of the grid – Larry Wilford (Fuchs Mustang) 0.154 of a second ahead of Fourie’s Sasol DualFuel Astra, which was 0.004 clear of the MAN/Sasol Astra of Watson-Smith, with Melvill Priest (Mad Buzz Energy Mustang) placing all three Supervan cars in the top four, a mere 0.072 of a “click” adrift. –
– The mouth-watering prospect of a “thriller” was sadly dampened in race one when the heavens could no longer contain themselves. –
– Nor could many of the eager competitors, slipping and sliding off at regular intervals. Both Priest and Watson-Smith succumbed, the latter only temporarily though, (re) charging from the back of the 16-car pack to claim 4th behind Franco de Matteo (SABAT Mustang), Mackie Adlem (Shaw Cellular Mustang) and the victorious Fourie’s DualFuel “dynamite”. The reigning champ, had none of the spray to contend with, driving maturely as ever to cross the line a massive 30 seconds clear. –
– The sun shone on the survivors and Watson-Smith in the afternoon 12-lapper. Capitalising on a minute mistake by Fourie on the first lap, he drove with his renowned coolness, keeping his team-mate at bay by 1.4 of a second at the flag. Wilford took 3rd, ten seconds down, and accounting student Priest impressed his potential new sponsors with a solid 4th. –
– In the final analysis, Fourie leads “Mr.Smith” by a solitary point now. De Matteo is 3rd overall, 14 points back. –
– Phillip “Township Tornado” Kekana was buoyant going into the weekend after competing, in his Sasol DualFuel Polo, in a regional saloon car race at Aldo Scribante the Sunday before. He had put the mechanical woes of round one at A.A. Kyalami (broken accelerator cable/flat tyre) behind him, intent on showing his worth against the experience of the top runners in this most-competitive saloon car series in South Africa. –
– Qualifying 14th for race one and 11th for the longer 2nd outing, Kekana was within half a second of pole man Silvio Scribante (BELL Polo). –
– He moved up one position come the fall of the flag in the 8-lapper, but dropped to 13th in the later race when Graham Nathan (Autozone Polo) could not get off the start line properly, blocking Kekana’s path forward and making him fight back five positions over the 12 laps. –
– Endorsing the closeness of the racing in the class, the Sasol DualFuel driver was only 16 and 13 seconds behind double race winner, Scribante, in the respective heats. –
– Scott Bricknell (Volkswagen Sure Polo) and Hennie Groenewald (Kay Eddie Polo) took turns to chase the victor home, with the latter 3rd in race one and Michael Stephen (Engen Polo) filling that spot in the afternoon race. The reigning champion, Tschops Sipuka (Engen Polo) slipped up in terms of his standards, taking 15th and 5th, respectively. –
– In another good meeting for Sasol DualFuel-backed privateers in Production Cars, Clint Weston took the new 1600cc Ford Ikon to a brace of wins in Class D, while Craig Nicholson (SABAT Honda) came home second, behind Lawrence Boshoff (Honda), in both class C events. –
– The Sasol Steam Team are in action again at the Aldo Scribante Raceway on 12 April. Port Elizabeth is the home turf testing ground for all, so expectations for success are high. –
– The worthy winner of the Sasol SAGMJ “Top Gun of the Day” award went to Shaun Whyte who won his first ever national Superbike race, on his First Technology Yamaha, beating Russel Wood (Autopage Yamaha) by a hairs breath in race 2. –
– Highlights of the Killarney action will be broadcast on Supersport’s “Vodacom on Track” from 18h00 over the next few Thursday evenings. –
– Read all the news about Sasol’s motorsport drivers, teams, events and series at www.sasolmotorspot.co.za or www.cartoday.com. –
– For further news and results call the Sasol Race & Rally Hotline on 08 22 33 4321.
