PE’s Rowe on premier GTC highway
YOUNG Port Elizabeth racing driver Danie Rowe has been rewarded for his excellent form this year.
Rowe, who participated in the Volkswagen Motorsport Junior Team, will be promoted to the premier GTC class next year, driving a Jetta.
He dominated proceedings in the GTC Production Series, winning 11 out of 14 races and placing on the podium in the remaining three races.
He will be teammate to Mathew Hodges, who won in East London this month.
Hodges and Rowe are old sparring partners from Engen Volkswagen Cup days, so will push each other and the team to achieve great things next year.
“This is a dream come true,” Rowe said when told he would be promoted to the top class.
“I have worked really hard on my personal preparation and am really looking forward to the new challenge.”
Meanwhile Motorsport South Africa has confirmed the 2017 racing calendar, in which the Sasol GTC Championship will feature an expanded nine-round season.
Starting in March at Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town, the championship will again visit Aldo Scribante racetrack, East London Grand Prix Circuit, the newly upgraded Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and will finish at Zwartkops Raceway at the end of November after racing approximately once per month throughout the extended season.
Signature Motorsport and Federal-Mogul Motorparts have also joined forces with MINI South Africa to race a pair of new MINI John Cooper Works cars in the GTC.
The successful VW Cup team has retained the services of their newly crowned champion Chris Shorter, who will race under the Champion umbrella, while championship runner-up Brad Liebenberg will compete in a Ferodo-backed MINI John Cooper Works.
The engineering talents of Shaun and Etienne van der Linde will design and build the cars in their Gauteng workshop.
GTC Production car class is a conduit for young drivers to migrate from the junior ranks into the top-echelon GTC class.
The Ferodo Young Driver Programme started in 2008 and has seen several graduates moving up the ladder.
Gennaro Bonafede was the first beneficiary, with Ferodo backing him all the way to production car racing and maintaining their relationship until the series ended last year.
The programme’s most famous graduate is Kelvin van der Linde who went on to race – and win – in the European sports car series.
Sheldon van der Linde followed in his brother’s footsteps and is also racing in Europe.
The Champion brand is 109 years old and has a strong pedigree in racing, with more than 400 Grand Prix victories.
MINI has a long tradition of success in rallying dating back to their win in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, a feat repeated in 1965 and 1967.
On the circuit, the MINI was successful from the time it hit the tracks of Europe, winning the British Saloon Car Championship in 1961 just two years after the car was launched.
Shorter, 20, is delighted to remain with Signature Motorsport as they enter the exciting new GTC Production category.
“The series looks very competitive and there are several new entrants rumoured for 2017.
“Our rivals have a year’s head start on us, but I have no doubt we will be right up there fighting for wins within half a season,” Shorter said.
“It is an honour to represent the re-entry of a prestigious brand like MINI into local motorsport. It will be a challenge for me to adapt to the car and for the team to set it up to extract the maximum from our package. I’m really looking forward to working with the Champion brand,” Shorter said.
Brad Liebenberg, the 17-yearold runner-up in the VW Cup championship, is thrilled to be included in Signature Motorsport’s new racing programme.
“I’m really happy to continue my association with Ferodo and hope to be able to continue delivering results out on the track.
“GTC is a new and growing category and there has been some tremendously close racing in the production car class. Chris and I have the best team behind us and we all work well together.
“I know Signature Motorsport will engineer a great car and I can’t wait to get out on track to start testing,” Liebenberg said.