Gazoo Racing Juniors’ Winning Debut as Porsche Breaks Electric Duck
It was a quiet weekend of racing. Overseas action was quiet, with just a week or three before the real season stands up. Local fans were however treated to top regional action in Toyota Gazoo Racing Week 6 of 2022. Perhaps the best of that was at Zwartkops, where monster grids lit up the Gauteng Regional Rotax Max Challenge. On the day that Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa’s crack new Junior Karting Academy team made its racing debut.
GAZOO ACADEMY WON ON DEBUT
Olerato Sekudu celebrated the Gazoo Academy’s arrival with a Senior Max win. Jayden Goosen took the Junior day without winning a heat as Academy lad KC Ensor-Smith starred. Jamie Smith dominated in DD2, only for a technical issue to hand the day to race 2 winner Nicolas Spanoyannis. Justin Allison won DD2 Masters and Philippe Chapat the new Vets class. Triple winners, Caleb Odendaal won Mini, Rafael De Micro Max and Noah Cronje Bambino. You may recognise his surname. Remember his name!
An enthusiastic crowd returned to Killarney to witness splendid racing as the Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge topped the bill. Jurie Swart won the day after sharing class A wins with Marco Busi’s similar Polo. Double winner Eden Thompson’s Polo took Class B from Kyle Wiltshire’s Polo . Race 1 winner Chase Herholdt took Class C from Schalk Geldenhuys and race 1 winner Rasleigh Harris’ Mk. 1 GTis. Shane du Toit’s Golf led Jess Huggett’s Jetta and Joshua Dolinschek’s BMW to Clubmans honours.
Steve Humble’s Mallock won the Sports & GTs from Francis Carruthers’ Pilbeam and Gary Kieswetter’s Porsche 911 GT3. Dee-Jay Booysen and James Beaumont’s Formula VWs edged Haydn Ellwood’s Swift GTi in Formula Libre. Franco Donadio’s Escort led Eric van der Merwe’s Porsche 944 and Michael Hitchcock’s Mustang in the Classic Cars. Sean Moore beat Mark Ridgway and Menno Parsons in the V8 Masters. And Ryan Kat took the Opel SC race from Yaseen Damon and Glen Phillips.
PORSCHE BREAKS ELECTRIC DUCK
On two wheels, Kawasaki duo Trevor Westman’s Kawasakis took the South Superbikes. Jamie Hall’s Yamaha won Clubmans bikes and Slade van Niekerk’s Kawasaki Stocks. And in the opening Border regional races at the East London Grand Prix Circuit, Darron Gudmanz’s Skyline GT-R won two races to BMW man Steve Farley’s one in the Border Modifieds. Mike Forsyth did the Classic double in his Backdraft Roadster.
There was a smattering of international action too. Pascal Wehrlein led teammate Andre Lotterer home in a 1-2 in a thrilling Mexico City E-Prix. They finally broke Porsche electric Formula E duck. DS Techeetah duo Jean-Eric and Antonio Felix da Costa came home second and third.
And South Africans starred in the Asian Le Mans Series Dubai 4 Hour double header. Ligier Nissan trio Ben Hanley, Matt Bell and Rodrigo Sales did the double to win both races. SA-based duo, Brit Nic Adcock and Dane Michael Jensen took Saturday LMP3 honours and ended third Sunday in an Oreca. And David Perel sharing his Ferrari 488 with Rino Mastronardi and Davide Rigon, ended second and sixth in GT. McLaren trio Ben Barnicoat, Ollie Millroy and Brendan Iribe won.
