DEON JOUBERT 1992 WESBANK MODIFIED CHAMPION
Joubert is probably more familiar to CAR readers as the man who does hot laps for the magazine when we require his expert driving talent for performance-car shootouts and tests. In a successful career that started in the 1980s, he has won National Championships in karting, Formula Ford and the Wesbank Modified Series. “I am in awe of the job Nick has done in restoring these two 535is. They look better than when they were new racecars back in the early ’90s, and they are so historically correct. What I remember most about the 535i was its wonderful XTRAC gearbox; you could just bang it into gear and it never gave trouble.
“I think I was probably at the peak of my driving career speed-wise in the early ‘90s, in my mid-to-late 20s, and I was generally just a touch quicker than Tony, who was in his late forties. But Tony was extremely focused and tenacious and he had a never-say-die approach to racing. I remember one race at Kyalami, I was catching him at the rate of about two seconds a lap and breezed past him. And suddenly, there he was on my tail. He had upped his pace, and the next thing I knew, he beat me to the line. He simply never gave up. That first full season in 1991 with the 535is, we were still sorting out teething troubles. Yet, by 1992, we were a full two seconds a lap quicker than the other Class B competitors, led by the Nissan Skylines of Johan Coetzee.
“During the 1992 season, competitors scored points for both their class positions and their overall positions. Often our BMWS would finish high up the roster if some of the faster Class A cars struck trouble. I ended up pipping Terry Moss in the Class A Audi quattro for the overall championship. That BMW 535i, built at Owen Ashley’s workshops at Killarney, was a great car.”
After Deon’s Wesbank championship year in 1992, BWW concentrated on the new Touring Car series. Deon was again very quick and ended runner-up for BMW in the 1995 SA Touring Car Championship. Sadly, Tony Viana would succumb to cancer in late 1993.