Melville Priest’s Audi A4 3,2 quattro upstaged Production Car Championship frontrunners BMW, Nissan and Alfa Romeo to claim double victories on the tight Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday.
Melville Priest’s Audi A4 3,2 quattro upstaged Production Car Championship frontrunners BMW, Nissan and Alfa Romeo to claim double victories on the tight Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday.
Audi, which recently joined the Class A championship, also set the day’s quickest Production Car lap time. It was expected that the Pretoria circuit’s twisty layout would favour front-wheel drive cars (such as the Alfa 147 GTA), but Audi’s all-wheel drive system gave Team VMP Motorsport a decisive advantage at the standing starts of each of the two races (Rounds 13 and 14 of the series).
In the day’s first race, Johannesburg-based Priest blasted his Audi into the first corner ahead of overall championship leader Anthony Taylor’s Castrol BMW 330i. They pair were closely followed by Michael Stephen (Engen Audi A4 3,2 V6), Gary Formato (Sasol AE Nissan 350Z), Hennie Groenewald (CastrolBMW 330i), Morne Jurgens (Samsung Alfa Romeo 147 GTA) and Duncan Vos (Sasol AE Nissan 350Z).
“Quattro eliminates wheelspin almost completely and allows for quick, clean starts,” Audi team owner (and F1 TV personality) Vic Maharaj said: “We’ve tested the A4 at Reef altitudes and managed to get a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 5,1 seconds”.
Tschops Sipuka’s Engen Audi 3,2 V6 didn’t fare as well as Priest’s car, however. Sipuka was eliminated from the race after he collided with Reghardt Roets (Samsung Alfa 147 GTA) at approximately 160 km/h. Roets’ battered Alfa rejoined at the back of the field.
Four laps later, Groenewald pitted his BMW with damaged suspension after being barged into the rough infield, while Steven Morris’ Vortec BMW 330i and Marc Auby’s Samsung Alfa 147 GTA both retired due to mechanical problems.
Meanwhile, Priest scored Audi’s first Sahara production Car Championship victory. He finished ahead of Taylor’s BMW, Jurgens’ Alfa Romeo, Formato’s Nissan, Etienne van der Linde’s Castrol BMW 330i and Michael Stephen’s Audi.
Race two saw a relentless victory battle between Priest and Taylor – the Audi and BMW swopped the lead on three occasions.
Priest crossed the finish line less than a second ahead of Taylor’s BMW, with Formato’s Nissan a further second adrift. Fourth – surviving a full-scale car war – was Roets in his Alfa, leading Van der Linde’s BMW, Jurgens’ Alfa and Groenewald’s BMW.
This time, the frenetic pace saw Duncan Vos’s Nissan thumped off the circuit and into retirement, Michael Stephens’ Audi stopping with engine damage, and Tschops Sipuka’s Audi dragging destroyed bodywork after various robust confrontations.
In Class T, for forced-injection petrol – engined cars, pre-event favourite Shaun van der Linde’s Castrol Mini Cooper S suffered a puncture and retired from the opening race.
Martin Steyn (Bosal Cooper S) went on to win, beating the similar Sabat-liveried Mini of Craig Nicholson. Van der Linde returned to win the second race, followed by Steyn and Nicholson.
Dave Compton (Sasol Toyota RunX RSi) won both of the Class B encounters to extend his already comfortable title points lead in the category.
In Round 13, he finished ahead of Marco dos Santos (Tubular Tech Fiat Stilo Abarth), Angus Thompson (Topcar Fiat Stilo Abarth) and Brian Martin in his Havoline Toyota RunX RSi. Initially second on the track, Phillip Kekana was docked 30 seconds for jumping the start in his Sasol Toyota RunX RSi, and dropped to fifth.
Kekana made no mistakes in Round 14 and finished less than a second behind his victorious Sasol Toyota team-mate. Angus Thompson scored another third place with his Fiat, leading home Brian Martin’s Toyota and the Fiat of Marco dos Santos.
Eckhardt Schoenknecht drove his turbodiesel VW Polo TDi to a comfortable Class C victory in the first race, ahead of Motorola Fiat Palio works drivers Theunis Eloff and Trevor Tuck, and John Kruger’s Steamsure Ford Fiesta.
Virtually all the Class C front-runners went off the road to avoid a spinning Class B car early in Round 14… Trevor Tuck avoided the chaos, took an unassailable lead and went on to win ahead of Schoenknecht, Clint Weston (M&R Ford Ikon) and Kruger.
Tuck’s efforts also netted him the CAR Magazine Rookie of the Day award. The next rounds of the championship will be held at the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit on September 24.
