Engen Xtreme Team aim to win GTC title
PORT Elizabeth’s Michael Stephen’s sheer dominance of the inaugural Sasol GTC Africa has seen the Engen Xtreme Team driver win every race of the season so far.
Heading into Round Three at Killarney this weekend, the locally-based driver holds a mammoth 159 points lead in the race for the championship.
Yet despite this healthy point’s differential, the Engen Xtreme Team are not sitting about kicking their heels waiting for their rivals to play catch-up, Stephen said.
“The Engen Xtreme Team has one goal for this year – to win the first GTC championship title,” said the 35-year-old.
“The process of preparing for the GTC series has been intense, requiring late nights and a great deal of work for the whole team.
“That work has clearly paid off and the results speak for themselves. But we cannot become complacent. The hard work continues and we are determined to be even quicker at Killarney.”
Fellow Engen Xtreme Team driver Simon Moss made a good impression at Round Two of the GTC championship in Port Elizabeth.
He qualified as the third-fastest GTC competitor on the day and was running second during the wet first race before spinning and finishing fifth.
The talented 24-year-old appeared on the podium in the second race, taking an excellent second place behind his teammate.
He was again running in second during the final race of the day when technical issues prevented him from appearing on the podium for a second time.
“From a really difficult first round where I completed almost no laps, to a second-place finish in Race Two at Scribante is great progress,” Moss said.
“I’m optimistic about Cape Town, both because I have a podium finish and also because my qualifying and lap times were close to those of Michael at Scribante.
“The pace is there, the results are showing improvement and I have a feeling that all of this will come together for a good result in Cape Town.”
The short gap between Rounds Two and Three of the Sasol GTC Africa will have teams scrambling to prepare their cars in time; all undoubtedly with the same focus – trying to close the gap on the Engen Xtreme Team.
With two rounds completed, the Volkswagen Jetta GTC entries of Mathew Hodges and Graeme Nathan are back-to-back in third and fourth place overall, with the pair staying amongst the leaders while working on adapting from front-wheel to rear-wheel drive.
“The first two rounds of the championship could not have been more different,” Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport said.
“This has served to leap the development of the Volkswagen Jetta GTC forward and round three should be even more competitive.
In the GTC Production category, Daniel Rowe has extended his lead on his rivals by making the most of the Volkswagen GTI GTC's handling in the wet at the PE round.
Two races wins out of three podium positions has clearly made him the man to beat and another successful race day in Cape Town is going to give him a distinct advantage from mid-season and he will be difficult to beat in the later rounds.