The Nissan 350Z piloted by Gary Formato and Anthony Taylor’s BMW 330i were the victors in the latest rounds of the local production car championship, held at East London over the weekend.
The Nissan 350Z piloted by Gary Formato and Anthony Taylor’s BMW 330i were the victors in the latest rounds of the local production car championship, held at East London over the weekend.
The races amounted to all-out war between the Alfa Romeo, Nissan, BMW and Audi factory teams as the first lap saw the early retirement of Duncan Vos (Nissan 350Z) and Hennie Groenewald (BMW 330i). This was after Vos and Morné Jurgens (Alfa 147 GTA) tangled in the esses and Groenewald promptly connected with Vos’ Nissan.
At the restart, Formato powered to the front of the pack in his 350Z and remained as the front for the remainder of the race.
Behind him though, his main rivals were plagued by problems as Etienne van der Linde’s BMW 330i developed electrical faults, Reghardt Roets’ Alfa GTA suffered a broken sideshaft, and Tschops Sipuka’s Audi A4 V6 quattro lost its brakes.
This left Formato to win from Morné Jurgens and Michael Stephen (Audi A4 V6 quattro), with Anthony Taylor and Stephen Morris (both BMW 330i) to pick up the fourth and fifth positions.
Formato was unable to match his earlier performance, despite leading at the start of the second race, and slowed down dramatically from the fourth lap. Roets then slipped into the lead, where he remained until another broken sideshaft on the last lap of the day destroyed what was destined to be a win.
Anthony Taylor then took an easy victory, with Roets in tow, followed by the BMW of Etienne van der Linde. Jurgens finished sixth behind Stephens, in fourth, and Formato in fifth.
In Class T, run solely by the forced-induction petrol-powered Mini Cooper S runners, Shaun van der Linde won both races, while Martin Steyn and Craig Nicholson were left to bring up the rear.
Class B saw Dave Compton win both races, despite driving with a broken windscreen sustained when his bonnet whipped open during the morning’s warm-up session. Compton did manage to secure a new lap record for his efforts, while Brian Martin and Phillip Kekana (both Toyota RunX RSi), and Garth Waberski (Mercedes-Benz C270 CDI) followed him to the line in the first race. The second time round, Kekana, Waberski and Martin completed the round in the top four positions, after Compton.
Eckhardt Schoenknecht won both his Class C outings with his turbodiesel VW Polo TDi. Fiat Palio drivers Theunis Eloff and Trevor Tuck joined him on the podium the first time out. In the second race, Eloff’s Palio was bumped out of the race on the opening lap, and Tuck took second, ahead of Clinton Weston (Ford Ikon) and John Kruger (Ford Fiesta).
