Cockerham Jr sets the pace
INLAND CHAMPIONSHIP: COMPELLING RACING IN THE FIRST ROUND AT MIDVAAL RACEWAY
Top billing belonged to the Big Boss Auto Super Saloons.
The first round of this year’s Inland Championship took place at the Midvaal Raceway on Saturday, with close and competitive racing by a diverse field of categories.
Top billing belonged to the Big Boss Auto Super Saloons category.
Amos Cockerham Junior (Holden) took his first category pole position and followed that by leading the opening race from start to finish.
He was followed by Larry Wilford (Chev Lumina) and Devin Robertson (Chev Corvette).
Robertson snatched the second race lead at the start and hung on to win, aided by an off-road excursion on the part of Cockerham. Second and third places went to Wilford and series debutant Benjamin Morgenrood (Ford Mustang).
JP Nortje (Tigra Spaceframe) and and Manu Athanassiou (Corrado Spaceframe) took the respective GT2 honours, with Jody Vianna (Mazda RX8) winning both the GT3 races.
The Bridgestone BMW Car Club boasted a large field.
Poleman Julian Fameliaris (E36 328i Turbo) won both races overall, ahead of Stefano Martinelli (E36 328i Turbo) and Manny Ribeiro (E46 M3 GTR).
Rick Loureiro (E30 3.2 CSL) took the Class B victories, while Len-Henry Gobey (E36 M3) and Willie Erasmus (E36 M3) took turns to win Class C.
The Yokohama Modified Production Car category produced two close races, with Adrian Dalton (VW Golf Turbo) and George Economides (VW Golf Turbo) fighting tooth and nail on both occasions.
In the end Dalton won from Economides both times, with Dirk Lawrence (Honda Ballade) and Brendon Hall (Honda CRX) taking the final podium places respectively.
The Midvaal Historics category saw the oldest cars on the day putting on a great show.
Poleman Seef Fourie (Datsun 160Y) set the pace in the opening race but stopped with electronic problems.
That left Brendan Parker (Datsun GX Coupe) to win from Johan Coetzer (Datsun SSS) and Deon van Vuuren (Ford Escort).
Parker won again the next time, followed over the finish line by Van Vuuren and Jacques Mostert (Datsun GX Coupe).
As usual the INEX Legends category had three close races with non-stop action.
The first heat saw Willie Erasmus grab an early lead and keep it, finishing ahead of Charl Roux and Anro Stadler.
Stadler grabbed the lead ahead of Jordan Larsson and Erasmus in race two, with the trio crossing the line to finish in that order after eight laps.
Stadler also won the third heat, narrowly ahead of Larsson and Altan Bouw.
Sean Harrington (Formula GTI) won the opening Formula Monoposto race, leading home series newcomer Cameron O’Connor (Formula Ford) and Johan Botha (Formula Vee).
O’Connor won the next time around, followed by Harrington and Michael Kernick (Formula Ford).
The Lotus Challenge joined as a guest category, with Jeffrey Kruger (Birkin 7) winning both times, followed by David Jermy (Birkin 7).
Third and fourth places went to Jeff Gable (Lotus 7) and Sean Hewitt (Birkin 7) respectively.
The next round of the championship will be held at the Red Star Raceway near Delmas on March 11.