Late start, but circuit racers will finally burn rubber this weekend
This year’s South African circuit racing season will, at long last, get underway on Saturday, with the Red Star Raceway near Delmas to host the opening round of the 2021 Inland Historic Tour.
Heading up the day’s activities will be two races for Pre-1990 Sports and GT Cars, grouped together with Pre-1980 Saloon Cars.
Veteran Willie Hepburn and his venerable Opel Rekord V8 will doubtlessly be the event’s quickest combination, chased in the sports car category by the Porsche 911 RSR entries of George Avvakoumides, André van der Merwe, Richard de Roos, Peter Bailey and Stefan Snyders.
Johann Smith (JMS Mazda Capella Rotary) should be the man to beat in the saloon car category, with his closest challengers people like Stuart Konig (Northern Bolt VW Scirocco), Alan Green (Ford Escort Mk 1), Rene van Rensburg (SV Tech Escort Mk 11), Ian Killburn (Datsun GX Coupe) and Johann Barnard (Fuchs Ford Capri 3.0).
The day’s biggest entry list will come courtesy of the Lotus Challenge brigade, with 24 drivers to face the starter.
Defending champion Mackie Adlem (Adlem Auto Birkin) will face off against the likes of Jeffrey Kruger (Universal Health Birkin), Thomas Falkiner (Adaptive Resource Taylon), Rudi Barnard (Barney’s Birkin), Jeff Gable (Birkin) and David Coetzee (Alksa Birkin).
Racing together, the Clubmans and Midvaal Historic classes should provide good spectacle.
Top Clubman contenders should be George Economides (Wealth Avenue BMW 328i), Dirk Lawrence (Azoic Honda Ballade), Phillip Emmenis (Uniglide BMW M3), Stefan Snyders (Steton Porsche RSR) and Wayne Lebotschy (Shield Golf GTI).
The Midvaal Historic category will see Travis Jensen (SV Tech Datsun 1200) take on drivers like Deon van Vuuren (Hoosier Mazda R100 Rotary), Peder Jensen (Jensen Towing Datsun 1200), Gavin Lundin (SilverGuard Datsun 1200) and Tony Lundin (SilverGuard Datsun 1200).
The Charlies SuperSpar Pursuit handicap races are difficult to call, but front-runners should include Richard Tudor-Owen (Mercedes-Benz 190E, Rob Clark (Containerforce Citroen GS 1220 Club), Werner Hartzenberg (Aircooled Wonders Porsche 916) and Willem van Niekerk (Marauder MK3).
Pieter Zeelie (Speas RS12) will be the victory favourite in the two races for NSCC Sports Cars. His closest adversaries should include Gerald Wright (Sports 2000), Ian Smith (Shelby CanAm), Dean Wolson (Sports 2000) and Glenton Rebello (Birkin S3).
No spectators will be allowed.