Lap records tumble at Kyalami
WITH the circuit owner a leading contender in one of the headline classes, everybody at Kyalami pulled out all the stops to make the second round of the Extreme Festival national series on Saturday a slick and well-organised day’s racing.
In the first Sasol GTC outing, early leader Michael Stephen’s Audi suddenly slowed with a mechanical gremlin and Gennaro Bonafede (BMW) went on to take the win from Simon Moss (Audi) and Johan Fourie (BMW) in third. Keagan Masters lead home Mandla Mdakane and Trevor Bland in the GTC2 class from front-wheel drive cars.
Stephen then won race two from Mathew Hodges (VW Jetta) and Moss, but only after Fourie crashed and Daniel Rowe (Jetta) and Robert Wolk (BMW) retired. Mdakane took the GTC2 honours from Charl Smalberger and Masters in another all GTI podium.
In the G&H Extreme Supercars, circuit owner Toby Venter blasted his Porsche 911 GTR into the lead after just half a lap of Race 1, and held it to the end, setting a (temporary) 1m45.980s lap record in the process. He was followed home by similarly mounted Johan Engelbrecht, and Charl Arangies in a Ferrari F430. Venter took line honours in race two as well, followed home by Engelbrecht, and Franco Scribantein another F430.
Jaguar driver Mackie Adlem won the first V8 Supercars race, while 17-year-old hot-rod racer Lonika Maartens (Chevy Lumina) and Franco di Matteo (Jaguar) finished second and third. In a race within a race for the one-make V8 Masters Mustangs, Fabio Tafani took the honours, ahead of Carl Nel and Charles Arton.
Adlem took another hard-fought win in Race 2, followed home this time by teenager Benjamin Morgenrood (son of Ben) in a Ford Mustang and Terry Wilford in a Fuchs Jaguar, while Tafani, Nel and Arton reprised their earlier result for the Masters.
With championship leader Shaun La Reservee and top contender Tasmin Pepper both away at a wedding (he was the groom, she was maid of honour) the Polo Cup races were wide open – until former Polo Cup star Lee Thompson made a one-off return to the series in La Reservee’s car and showed the current crop of youngsters which way was up.
He qualified on pole, nearly a second clear of the field, and romped away to win race one from Devin Robertson – but the real fight was for third, where 16-yearold Clinton Bezuidenhout got the better of a race-long dice with Juan Gerber and Dewald Brummer, who was standing in for Pepper. Brummer then won race two, with Gerber, Robertson and Bezuidenhout rounding out the top four.
Julian van der Watt took both single seater races, while Jason Campos took an easy win in the inaugural race for the new National Sportscars category in a Shelby V8. Brian Algar and Michael Jensen, each in a Shelby CanAm, came second and third respectively. Campos was again unapproachable in the second outing, setting a new overall Kyalami lap record, while Algar and Jensen battled it out for second and third, finishing in that order.