RACE CENTRE – all the South African weekend action home and away
It was a busy weekend in South African motorsport. Three major national events went down as champions were crowned in SA karting and Cross Countryd. And South Africans once again starred in international action. It’s all here on the Auto Race Centre powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing.
MOTO3: DARRYN BINDER SECOND AT BRILLIANT ARAGON
South Africa’s Darryn Binder ended second in a hard-fought and as always brilliant Moto3 race at Motorland Aragon in SPain on Sunday. Binder started 11th and was soon involved in a splendid eight-bike battle for the lead. He duked it out for most of the race with a group including Jaimie Masia, Raul Fernandez, Romano Fenati and Jamie McPhee. Sitting fifth at the start of the final tour, CIP Green KTM rider Darryn muscled his way to second at the line. He only just missed out on stealing the lead back from delighted race winner Masia. Brother Brad came in a close 11th and best of the KTMs in the MotoGP . It was a day that clearly did not suit the Austrian machines. Alex Rins held off a charging Alex Marquez’ Honda to win. Rins’ third placed Suzuki teammate Joan Mir moved into the world championship lead.
WORLD SUPERSPORT: ODENDAAL STARS AT ESTORIL
Another South African two-wheel hero Steven Odendaal crowned a fine debut world Supersport season aboard his EAB Ten Kate Racing Yamaha. Er ended hard-fought fourth at Estoril’s finale. Steven was within a second of race winner Lucas Mahias behind Andrea Locatelli and Raffaele de Rosa. Odendaal was fifth on Saturday’s first race and ended up fifth in his rookie championship season. Also at Esoril, Jonathan Rea wrapped up his sixth consecutive World Superbike title for Kawasaki. Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu won both races.
SA RALLY: BOTTERILL’S DOMINANT DOUBLE
Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle’s Gazoo Toyota Etios totally dominated Satuday’s NTT Delmas SA National Rally. Theuns Joubert and Carl Peskin’s Toyota Yaris and Chris Coertse and Greg Godrich in a Hyundai I20 were next up. NRC2 leaders AC Potgieter ans Rikus Fourie’s VW Polo and JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit’s Ford Fiesta followed. Teenage former world karting champion Jayden Els and Armand du Toit did the NRC3 double in their VW Polo Cup.
Botterill and Lyle also took a second and a half a kilometre out of their closest rivals to take a commanding win on Friday. The first round of the weekends double header counted as a championship rally in its own right. Coertse and Godrich and Johan Strauss and Elzaan Venter’s Subaru Impreza STi were next home. JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit took NRC 2 in their Fiesta. Els and du Toit’s VW Polo took NRC 3 and regional honours.
ROTAX MAX: LOCALS DEMOLISH OPPOSITION IN CAPE NATIONAL
The 2020 South African National Rotax Max Challenge karting championship wrapped up at Killarney in Cape Town on Saturday. Local drivers did the Cape proud with a dominant display at their home circuit.
Jurie Swart won three DD2 heats to take the day from fellow Capetonians Sebastian Boyd and race 2 winner Jason Coetzee, and KZN star Rob Whiting. Boyd did enough to clinch the South African championship from Whiting. Both drivers earnined a ticket to the Rotax Max Grand Finals in Portugal in January.
Pretoria driver Nicholas Verheul had already wrapped up the over-30s DD2 Masters title. That did not prevent him from taking three heat wins to clinch the Cape victory too. He beat local lads, heat 1 winner Conor Hughes and Jason Greyling. Verheul’s efforts earned him the Masters ticket to Portugal.
Local lads Tate Bishop and Charl Visser shared out the Senior Max wins with KZN driver Shrien Naidoo on the day, with three more locals, Andrew Rackstraw, Storm Lanfear and Jason Coetzee. Double winner on the day Bishop did enough to wrap up the SA title in the process. He also takes the Senior tickets to Portugal’s ‘Olympics of Karting’.
JUNIOR JOSTLING
There was a turn-up for the books, when Cape Town’s 2019 SA champion Troy Dolinschek turned up at his first national of the season. He proceeded to take a dominant, but hard-earned four-win under-15 Junior Max victory for the day. That was never going to be enough to stop Jozi lad Muhammad Wally from taking the title with four straight seconds. KZN kid Troy Snyman was third each time, while Andre le Riche ended fourth for the day from Dhivyen Naidoo and Kyle le Riche.
Jozi lad Ghazi Motlekar had already wrapped up the under-13 Mini Max title. Saturday was however all about Cape kid Joaquin de Oliveira. He stormed to four straight wins over KZN lad Troy Snyman and Reza Levy each time. Erich Heystek ended fourth from Ntiyiso Mabunda and Ethan Deacon. Motlekar picked up his ticket to Portugal.
Local lad Reese Koorzen came out on top of a close three way fight to take under 11 Micro Max for the day. He beat Jozi visitors Mohammed Moerat and Caleb Odendaal. That was not enough to prevent Odendall from swiping the championship to claim that ticket to Portugal. Keagan Beaumont ended fourth from Joshua Smit and Jordon Wadeley.
Jack Moore won two brilliant races in a magnificent day of baby Bambino racing to take the day from race 3 winner Rafael da Silva and final heat victor MJ Thekiso. Caleb Moss ended up third from Mattao Mason, Frade Santiago and Kai van Rensburg. That was good enough for the latest scion of the Moss racing dynasty to take SA’s youngest 2020 racing championship.
ROK KART: ALIBHAI STARS IN WORLD FINALS
Three South Africans meanwhile raced in Saturday’s Rok Kart World Finals in Italy. Aqui Alibhai starred, making up eight places to an excellent eighth in the Senior Rok Final. KC Ensor-Smith ended 28th and Luviwe Sambudla 30th in the Mini Rok Final. Nik Roos ended fifth in the Junior Rok Trophy consolation race, while Ethan Lennon retired from the the Mini Trophy.
SACC MOTO: SWANEPOEL TAKES 2020 TITLE
KZN local Brett Swanepoel delivered a stunning double victory to take the 2020 put SA Cross Country Motorcycle Championship at Mid-Illovo over the weekend. He took overall victory in Saturday before repeating the feat on Sunday. The Pepson Plastics Husqvarna 250cc OR2 rider came home a minute and a half of KZN compatriot Bradley Cox’s 200cc OR3 Brother Leader Tread KTM On Saturday. Another OR2 lad Davin Cocker was third on his Pepson Husqvarna. Charan Moore took Moto1 honours on a KTM, Matthew Wilson’s Husqvarna took High School. Wade Blaauw took Seniors and Wayne Farmer Masters honours.
Sunday’s finale counted as a separate national round. Swanepoel upped the ante to take overall victory from OR2 rival Jarryd Coetzee by over two minutes. OR3 winner Bradley Cox was third to wrap up that class title ahead of open class OR1 winner Calvin Hume. OR3 runner-up Cocker was next home from OR2 trio Ian Rall, Taki Bogiages and Gareth Cole. Charan Moore followed next, he was second in class to wrap up the OR1 title. Matthew Wilson once again took High School, as dis Wade Blaauw Seniors and Wayne Farmer Masters honours. Brett Swanepoel took the overall title from Jarryd Coetzee. Bradley Cox, Charan Moore and Davin Cocker.
ADAC GT: TOUGH WEEKEND FOR KELVIN, JORDAN
South African Kelvin van der Linde and Patric Niederhauser’s came from 24th to eighth to score vital ADAC GT Masters points in Austria on Saturday. That kept the Audi R8 LMS duo in the championship lead in a race won by Henric Skoog and Nick Yelloly’s BMW. Kelvin and Patric ended eighth again in the second race. They however slipped to a close title second behind Porsche pair Michael Ammermüller and Christian Engelhart. They ended second behind race 2 winners Erik Johansson and Jens Klingmann’s BMW. Jordan Pepper and rookie Constantin Schöll ended 20th in race 1. Their HRT Bentley Continental GT3 was taken out of race 2 in an early incident.
DTM: mixed RESULTS FOR ABERDEIN, SHELDON
Jonathan Aberdein was the top BMW finisher in Saturday’s Zolder DTM race in a fine fourth. Aberdein was once again in five early in race 2, but retired after colliding with the Audis of Fabio Scherer Robin Frijns. Sheldon van der Linde ended 14th after a troubled first race, after a drive-through penalty. He then came home seventh in the second race. Audi driver Rene Rast won race 1 to take the championship lead. He then cemented his newfound advantage with a dominant win in Sunday’s double safety car crash fest.
WORLD RX: KRISTOFFERSON IN A HANSEN SANDWICH
Peugeot star Timmy Hansen won Sunday’s Catalan World Rallycross . He held off VW’s championship leader Johan Kristoffersson to become the fourth 2020 World RX winner. Kevin Hansen was third in another Peugeot as Kristoffersson extended his title lead.