Team Afrox is back to their winning ways. It’s not that they’d ever not looked competitive, just that the odds had been stacked against the two-wheel drive machinery for most of the season. With the introduction of 18-inch tyres for class A cometitors, the two Team Afrox BMW’s were able to convert fast lap times into an overall win.
The team arrived at Welkom’s Phakisa circuit with drivers Anthony Taylor and Etienne van der Linde confident of a good showing and as has been the norm throughout the season, they were quick from the outset.
Qualifying saw van der Linde second quickest behind Leeroy Poulter in the factory Nissan 350Z with Taylor a mere 0.016 slower but in fourth position, incredibly only 1000th of a second slower than Nissan driver Marco da Cunha.
There was a rolling start for the first race and Poulter judged it well as van der Linde slotted in behind, but there was never more than a centimetre or two between the top five cars.
Shortly after half distance it got even closer as van der Linde nudged the Nissan sideways, but in a rare show of gentlemanly conduct, he backed out of the move and gave Poulter the chance to recover. This allowed Taylor to close up and on lap six he slithered past his teammate to take second place and with van der Linde unsettled, both da Cunha and Audi driver Michael Stephen slipped through to relegate van der Linde to fifth place.
Race two featured a standing start with an inverted grid based on the finishing order of the first race. This resulted in Taylor being towards the back and van der Linde in a midfield position. Early in the race a clash between Stephen and van der Linde saw Taylor briefly get ahead of van der Linde, but the order was soon reversed when the Audi of Melvill Priest retired, van der Linde was then elevated to second place behind Johan Fourie (Audi) with Taylor riding shotgun in third and Poulter waiting for a mistake. There was no mistake and the two BMWs shadowed the Audi across the line with the top four covered by just over a 1.8 seconds.
The overall result for the day which takes the combined times of both races, saw Taylor taking the day ahead of Poulter by a mere 0.118 sec and van der Linde claimed the remaining podium step.
"It’s not that the new 18-inch Bridgestone tyres are faster than the old 17-inch tyres, it’s the fact that they last better which means our tyres remain more constant for the duration of a race," explained Anthony Taylor.
