New era dawns in motorsport
Aldo Scribante to kick off Global Touring Car series
JUNE 4 will be a red-letter day in South African Motorsport history when a brand new racing series, the Global Touring Cars, (GTC) hits the circuits. And, the good news for motorsport fans in the Bay, is that the first race of the GTC Africa series, will be run at the iconic Aldo Scribante Race Circuit.
The race will kick off a seven-round championship, taking in Aldo Scribante Race track, Kyalami and Zwartkops Raceway in Gauteng (twice), Killarney Race Track in Cape Town and the East London GP Circuit too.
Six of the cars under construction have been formally announced so far, including the two works Volkswagen Jetta GTCs, two Golf GTIs and Terry Moss Racing Audi A3 GTCs.
Gugu Zulu and Graeme Nathan will compete for Volkswagen Motorsport in the Volkswagen Jetta GTC cars, while Mathew Hodges and Mandla Mdakane will pilot the Volkswagen Golf GTIs.
Both the Jetta, Golf GTI and Audi will make use of Volkswagen's 2.0 turbocharged engine for competition in the series. The Audi A3 GTCs will be piloted by Michael Stephen and Simon Moss.
“Volkswagen Motorsport will continue with Engen Volkswagen Cup and the very successful relationship with Engen that has existed since the start of the series,” Volkswagen Motorsport head, Mike Rowe says.
“This year we celebrate 20 years of Engen Volkswagen Cup with Engen and our other motorsport partners in the series. “Now we add the GTC (Global Touring Cars) championship to our circuit racing involvement – supporting four entries in this series, but there is much more to the programme going forward,” Rowe adds.
“The seat that Mathew has in the GTC Volkswagen Golf GTI this year is reserved for the Engen Volkswagen Cup champion going forward,” Rowe says.
“Since 2015 champion Sheldon van der Linde competes in the 2016 Audi Sport TT Cup in Europe this season, Mathew drives this year and the 2016 champion will take over next season.”
Apart from VW and Audi, at least two other teams will be taking part in the exciting series.
The smart money says that it will be BMW and Ford. There has also been talk that Mercedes-Benz were also looking seriously at the new series.
Additionally, top line drivers Johan Fourie, Hennie Groenewald, Gennaro Bonafede and Michael van Rooyen have been announced too, with details of their cars and teams expected shortly.
GTC Africa says for the first time it will be announcing at least one more motor manufacturer, who will take to the start line of the inaugural GTC Africa race at the Extreme Festival Aldo Scribante race meeting.
GTC will also shortly be announcing a series title sponsor and a television broadcast package.
All GTC Cars will be powered by 300kW 2l-Turbo engines, but they will not be a common engine as was once speculated.
Each manufacturer will provide their own engines.
The power will be transferred to the rear wheels via a six-speed transaxle Albins gearbox, the identical unit used in the globally popular, Australian V8 Super- car series.
The inaugural seven round calendar, is as follows:
ý June 4 – Aldo Scribante Race Track, Port Elizabeth;
ý June 16 or 18 – Kyalami (Thursday or Saturday); ý July 9 – East London GP Circuit ý August 9 – Zwartkops Raceway (Sasol Raceday - National Women’s Day – Tuesday);
ý September 24 – Killarney Race Track, Cape Town; ý October 22 - Kyalami; and ý November 26 – Zwartkops Raceway – Endurance Race (double championship points).