THRILLS AND SPILLS
Excitement reigns at East London Grand Prix track
IT WAS a thrilling day out at the East London Grand Prix Circuit as motor racing fanatics turned out in their numbers to see the fourth round of the annual South African Extreme Festival National Circuit Racing Championship on Saturday.
Fantastic racing was on show the entire day to enthral the packed crowd that came out to support the occasion.
The headlining Sasol Global Touring Cars race lived up to the billing, putting on a superb show that ended with Gennaro Bonafede (Sasol BMW GTC) the big winner on the day as he took the overall championship lead.
Pre-race series leader Simon Moss (Engen Audi GTC) had a horror weekend as a crash in qualifying, after he had set what proved to be the quickest time, left him with problems with his car.
So despite starting on pole in both races, with the second race a reverse grid, he was no match for the other cars.
Bonafede, who started the weekend third on the log took full advantage to move to the top of the overall standings.
He put in a superb performance in the first race to take the win ahead of the hard chasing defending champ Michael Stephen (Engen Audi GTC) less than a second back and Michael van Rooyen (RSC BMW GTC) in third and then finished fourth in the second race to take a four point lead over Stephen who moved into second.
“It was a good day out, qualifying third wasn’t great, we wanted to be ahead of the Audis, but we had great pace in race one and I was really happy with that win,” said Bonafede.
“Leading the championship now is great, the last two years it has been myself and Michael and this year Simon is driving really well, so I have no doubt it is going to be between us three and it is going down to the wire.”
In race two it was Johan Fourie who drove an almost perfect race to claim his first win of the season.
Fourie fought his way to the front early and then established a good enough gap to stay comfortably ahead of the chasing pack and claim an impressive win.
“I am very happy to get my first win of the season, it was a really good weekend overall and hopefully we can kick on from here,” said Fourie, adding he hoped his bad luck was now a thing of the past as this was the first problem-free weekend this season.
The new push to pass system, which added excitement to the race, was also launched with most drivers seeming to enjoy the new addition.
In GTC 2 Devin Robertson and Keagan Masters switched places, Robertson winning race one with Masters second and then Masters ahead of Robertson in race two, while Trevor Bland in race one and Adrian Wood in race two, took third place.
In the Investchem Formula 1 600 race Nicolas van Weely dominated the weekend, qualifying at the front and then claiming wire to wire victories in both races to move to the top of the overall standings.
Scott Temple took the runner-up position in both races and former series leader Stuart White finished third in both.
The Engen Polo Cup race then belonged to Jonathan Mogotsi as he claimed the win in both races, while Clinton Bezuidenhout finished third in both.
The runner-up in race one was Tasmin Pepper, while Jason Campos took that honour in race two.
In the V8 Supercars, Benjamin Morgenrood took the win in race one, before Mackie Adlam powered to the win in race two.
The Kawasaki ZX10 Masters Cup is always a popular race and puts on an entertaining show and saw Jason Lamb triumph in race one while Graeme van Breda took the honours in race two.
The 11 Sports and Saloons race then saw Michael Radloff and Thys Geyser claim victories in race one and two respectively, while Willie Hepburn was the champ in the BMSC Regional Saloons, claiming the win in both races.