The Sasol Spring Race Day attracted a large crowd who watched a full programme of exciting national championship racing in warm and sunny conditions.
Leeroy Poulter (Sasol Nissan 350Z), attempting to become the first driver to win back-to-back overall production car championships since Shaun van der Linde in 2002, was only able to score five points in race one and slipped to third in the title chase behind the Audi A4 Quattro’s of Johan Fourier and Shaun Watson-Smith.
Jaffer leads 1987 production car champion Ben Morgenrood (Mazda RX-8) by four points with three rounds remaining. Morgenrood won both races on Saturday after out-qualifying Jaffer by just under half a second.
Both started race one from the back of the class B grid after failing to take their cars to park farmer after qualifying on Friday. However, they were quickly contesting the class lead when Jaffer dived down the inside of the Mazda in the hairpin (turn two) on lap 4 and took the lead from Morgenrood.
The two cars bumped wheels in the process, upsetting the balance of the Sasol Toyota. Morgenrood retook the lead on lap 5 and went on to take the class win by just over a second…
Despite being slowed by gearbox problems in race two (“I only had third and fourth gears for most of the second half of the race.”). Jaffer finished less than two tenths of a second behind Morgenrood at the end of the 12-lap race. He scored a valuable bonus point for fastest lap of the race.
Hector North sat out the Zwartkops round as a result of health problems he picked up following his collision with Paulo da Cunha on the finish line at Kyalami in July (he had just claimed a hard-earned third ahead of the Fiat Stilo driver on the finishing line when he was bumped off the circuit by Da Cunha and crashed heavily into the concrete wall).
This presented Sasol Toyota team manager Rod Hering of Race Prep with the opportunity to try out a promising young driver and it was 24-year-old former top Formula Ford contender David Veringa who took maximum advantage of his good fortune.
An impressive test at Welkom’s Phakisa Freeway was followed by competitive practice times on Friday before the Sasol Toyota’s engine blew up. The Race Prep team worked through the night to fit a new engine and have the car ready for Veringa to race on Saturday. He started from the back of the grid after missing qualifying and had made up several places when he was forced to park the Toyota on lap 5 with engine problems.
“We still have a good chance of taking the class B title,” said team boss Hering. “Ben has closed the gap to Riyad in recent races, but we’ll be working hard to regain the advantage at the next round in Port Elizabeth at the end of September.”
Reigning class B champion Dave Compton qualified fourth in the class T Sasol Toyota RunX, his best qualifying result in the supercharged Toyota, which is still under development. He was sixth in race one after his car sustained damage in an early incident. “I went wide at turn 5 on the opening lap and got passed by Garth Waberski (Mini Cooper S). Robert Wolk (Mini Cooper S) dived me on the inside of turn 6 and made contact, damaging my rear suspension.”
“We fixed the car between races and I was enjoying a good dice with Iain Pepper (VW Golf GTi) for third place in race two when the Toyota’s engine started misfiring,” said Compton. “We decided not to risk losing the engine and I retired on lap five.”
On a circuit that had recently been resurfaced and was extremely slippery off the racing line, it was the four wheel drive class A Audis and Subarus that benefited from the conditions. Subaru technical guru Dawie Olivier took his first two production car wins with ease from the Audi Quattro of Johan Fourie, who was second in both races.
The three works Sasol Nissan 350Zs of Poulter, Gary Formato and Tschops Sipuka battled with the conditions and, in the case of Poulter and Formato, also with considerable extra weight imposed as a result of their recent successes.
Poulter (carrying maximum weight – 60 kg over the Nissan’s base weight) was fifth in race one and 12th in race two, after he slowed with an engine that tightened up. He now trails Johan Fourie by six points and Shaun Watson-Smith by four points in the championship.
Formato, carrying 45 kg ‘success weight’, was 10th and 9th in the two 12-lap races, while Sipuka, who led at Killarney a month ago until he was punted off the circuit in an ambitious overtaking manoeuvre, scored an 8th and an 11th.
“It was a four wheel drive benefit today,” said Glyn Hall, Nissan Motorsport’s general manager. “With Leeroy on maximum weight and Gary also carrying extra weight, we were no match for the all wheel drive cars. Consequently we were uncompetitive in qualifying and, without a decent grid position, there’s not much chance of a good race result.’
A philosophical Poulter commented: “It was a tough day, for sure. We did our best under the circumstances. When the engine tightened up towards the end of race two, I slowed to limit the damage.”