5 July 2008 - Production Car Racing at Kyalami

Gideon went along with the Opel Owners Club of SA to support the OPC race team that was taking part in the Class T races at Kyalami. The car clubs that attended supported their hero's with a parade lap or two. He took a lot of pictures, have a look.

From http://www.productioncars.co.za:

HEAT 2 KYALAMI
- Posted 5 July 2008

The standing start for the partially reversed grid for race 2 looked ominous, four-wheel drive cars blocking out the first 5 positions on the grid. The grid read: Stephen, Olivier, Fourie, Watson-Smith, Priest were followed by Taylor da Cunha, van der Linde, Sipuka, Lobb and Poulter. The lights went out and the expected blast off from Olivier never happened. The Subaru bogged down and was passed by the entire class A field. By the end of lap 1 Stephen led from Fourie, Watson-Smith, Taylor and a flying Poulter in fifth from the back of the grid.

Although there was a lot of mid-field jostling for position, nothing much happened until lap 5 when the second Safety Car of the day was returned to the pits. The Safety Car was deployed when Gary Formato went off the track on turn 2, went sideways into the sand and barrell rolled the Ford ST.

Things then started happening very quickly, the 2 BMW's seemed to disappear with one of them (Taylor) appearing in the middle of the class T pack. This left Stephen in first, Fourie second, Watson-Smith Third, Poulter fourth and da Cunha fifth. Before anyone could fathom where the BMW's were, Watson-Smith went AWOL moving Poulter up to third. The incident started with Watson-Smith and Taylor touching in the ultra fast Sunset sweep. Taylor went off and in correcting the wayward BMW came back on to the track and collected his hapless team-mate, destroying the front suspension of van der Linde's car. On the last lap Johan Fourie made a great move on Michael Stephen, literally stealing the race victory. Poulter finished third, da Cunha fourth, Priest and Sipuka completed the top 6.

Class T saw a popular win from Iain Pepper, the ever determined GTI driver leading from lights to flag. He was initially troubled by Gary Formato who, as mentioned earlier, rolled his steed in turn 2. The battle was then taken up by Reghard Roets who managed to keep off the determined advances of Graeme Nathan for second place. Curt Alchin had a great drive to clinch fourth ahead of his perennial sparring partner, Graham Donker. Shaun Duminy completed the top 6.

Class B was strange, to say the least. Unsighted by the lights, Morgenrood watched Kosie Swanepoel. Unfortunately Kosie jumped the start, taking Ben with him. The two then pulled over to the side of the track and sportingly waited for the real start, when they slotted in behind the pack.

Van Niekerk led in what seemed an unassailable first place until the racing gods frowned on him and his gearbox, retiring the likeable young man instantly. Ben and Kosie had an entertaining race which was settled in Ben's favour. Pike finished third.

HEAT 1 KYALAMI
- Posted 5 July 2008

A cool but sunny Highveld winter's day greeted race fans at the Midrand circuit for round six of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship. Front row man, Leeroy Poulter sat alongside polesitter, Etienne van der Linde as the grid moved off for the rolling start. As they came around again though, Poulter was missing apparently stranded at the side of the circuit with a loose battery. Leeroy had gone off during warm up and damaged the rear of his Nissan which is where the battery is situated. Etienne van der Linde led the pack, closely followed by Marco da Cunha and Anthony Taylor. Melvill Priest was next up, marginally ahead of Shaun Watson-Smith and Johan Fourie. Subaru's Dawie Olivier did a great job to be seventh ahead of Michael Stephen.

No sooner had the leaders settled into a rythm, when the safety car was deployed. An accident had occured in class T and the Marshalls were on the scene, which required the field to slow and hold station. The safety Car came in on lap 5 and the field remained pretty constant until the end.

Tschops Sipuka and Michael Stephen had a race long battle which was entertaining to watch as was Marco da Cunha. I thought Marco had his best showing to date, holding off the attention of Anthony Taylor, which is no mean feat.

For the record van der Linde won from da Cunha, Taylor third with a hard charging Priest all over him. Fifth was Watson-Smith with Fourie sixth. Seventh, eighth and ninth went to Olivier, Stephen and Sipuka with Lobb finishing tenth, ahead of a recovering Poulter.

Class T polesitter, Reghard Roets led the field away ahead of Gary Formato with hard charging Nathan slipping past Pepper for third. Shaun Duminy did well to hold fifth leading the highly experienced pairing of Alchin and Prinsloo. The mid field dice was split up when Peet Visagie lost traction through sunset, and struck the wall, bringing out the safety car.

When the dust had settled, Roets continued his dominance until lap 7 when the Opel slowed and eased into the pits. The collective gasp among the hundreds of Opel fans was audible as their hero retired from a certain debut win. Nathan by this time had squeezed past Formato to inherit the lead, a lead he held to the end. Formato spent the rest of the race waiting for cruel luck to end his race once again but he was pleasantly surprised when no such affliction bothered him, taking a well deserved second place. Iain Pepper drove his usual hard race, finishing third but well ahead of the other GTI runners. Alchin finished fourth, Bose fifth in the Mazda with Donker rounding out the top 6. Gary van Heerden drove well, after giving up equipment to Reghard, to finish seventh ahead of Duminy who had an off in the bowl and suffered from terminal understeer when he returned.

Lee Thompson retired with a broken engine, Roets lost a turbo boost pipe and Prinsloo had an electrical problem, causing a misfire.

Class B was entertaining with Morgenrood earning his place the hard way and being kept honest by van Niekerk. Swanepoel held on gamely for third, well ahead of Pike.