22 Apr RACE REPORT – CARS 10 April 2021 Power Series #2
RAPSON SETTLES ACCOUNTS AT KILLARNEY SUPERBIKES
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RED FLAGS GALORE AT KILLARNEY POWER SERIES
The people who will most vividly recall the Power Series racing presented by Wingfield Motors and Kfm 94.5 at Killarney on Saturday 10 April are the marshals, who were kept busy all day clearing the circuit after crashes brought out a near-record number of red flags.
The first Mikes Place Clubmans Saloons race was a real ding-dong between Nieyaas Modack’s MIM Carriers/NSI Racing BMW E46 M3, Mansoor Parker (Armien Levy Motorsport BMW E30), Danie van Niekerk in the Wingfield Motors BMW E36, Sulaiman Effendi’s nimble little Jimmy Motorsport/MCHD BMW E30 and Cody Alberts (Stylesy/JVT/GT Graphics BMW E46 330i).
Modack was leading at the start of lap seven when Van Niekerk in second and Parker in third were slowed by a minor collision with a back marker. Before anybody else could take advantage of the resulting confusion, however, Effendi spun in Fastron Corner and came to rest across the track, bringing out the red flags.
The result was taken as at the end of lap six, with Modack, Van Niekerk, Parker, Raaziegh Harris in the Class B Panic Plumbers Golf Mk1 (who’d sliced through the field from ninth on lap one to join the battle for the lead), Alberts and Effendi classified in that order, all covered by less than five seconds.
Harris, of course, led Class B, Dylan Nel (Sentraal Bakwerke BMW E36) took class C in eighth overall, John Kirsten (G&A Motorsport Polo Vivo) topped Class D in 14th overall, Ryan Large (Akwasol Citi Golf) led Class E in 18th overall and Jan Tischendorff took Class F honours in his Opel Monza.
Race 2 was stopped on lap five after a backmarker dropped a lot of oil in Kfm Corner with Van Niekerk leading from Alberts, Imaad Modack (MIM Carriers/NSI Racing BMW M3) and Jesse Huggett’s Rico Barlow/Philwest Jetta 2L.
Nieyaas Modack got the hole-shot at the restart but had to give best to his son Imaad on lap two. They were followed home by Harris, Alberts, Shane Smith (Truckport Logistics BMW E46),
Effendi, Parker and Anwar Levy (Armien Levy Motorsport BMW E30) – all of whom finished within five seconds of the leader after five intense laps.
Bruce Meyer (Industrial Flooring Polo) headed Class C in 9th overall, with Gary Smith at the top of Class D in the second Truckport Logistics BMW 3 Series in 15th overall. Tristan Vercuiel (All Scale Golf Mk1 2L) took Class E honours in 19th overall while veteran Willie Gouws (Thermo Fires/E.Gas Jetta 3) led home the Class F pack in 25th overall.
Marco Busi (Automan Polo) and Jurie ‘Umpie’ Swart (Alpine Autohaus Polo) fought it out for eight epic laps in the first Cheaper Cars GTi Challenge, finishing in that order just 0.198sec apart after swopping places at least twice, with Colin Meder (International Tube Technology Polo) a valiant third, half a second ahead of Mario Roux (Automan Jetta 2L).
Eden Thompson (Mad Performance/Somerset Refrigeration Polo) took Class B and Alfie van Zyl (VW Golf) was the leader in Class C.
Sadly, Swart’s Polo failed on lap three of Race 2, leaving Busi to cruise home four seconds clear of a three-way fight for second between Meder, Jason Coetzee (Mint Wrapworks/CK Coachworks Polo 6) and Roux, who finished in that order covered by less than half a second.
Giordano Lupini, out for the first time in the brand new Bullion IT/Banhoek Cilli Oil Jetta, led Class B home, while Kyle Wiltshire (VW Golf Mk1 1.8L) took Class C honours.
Franco Donadio, as expected, dominated proceedings in the SDC Classic and Bejo Trustees Fine Cars races – but he didn’t have it all his own way, with Bruce Avern-Taplin and his Toyota Corolla leading two of the nine laps and finishing only three tenths of a second adrift in Race 1.
Jan Koekemoer (Mazda RX7) led the Fine Cars home in seventh overall, followed by Robert Toscano in the Technoparts MX5, Gunther Appelgryn’s BMW E36 and Melani Cook in her father’s BMW 325.
Race 2 was a lot more clear-cut, however, with Donadio taking the lead on lap five and pulling away to win by 12 seconds from the Toyota. Koekemoer and Toscano settled the Fine Cars debate between them, followed home by Appelgryn and Natascha Tischendorff (VW Jetta CLI 1.8 L) after Ms Cook was unceremoniously taken out by a wildly spinning Bradley Rowe’s Veldt Reared BMW 328i.
Reigning champion Fabio Tafani led every lap of the first combined V8 Masters and Makita Formula Supercar race, finishing a hard-earned five seconds ahead of Sean Moore and Paolo Cavalieri, while Ryan McCarthy and Nian du Toit came home less than a second apart at the top of the Formula Supercar timesheets.
Race 2 was red-flagged at the start of lap two when Formula Supercar drivers Kellen de Bruijn and Cedric LeBon tangled in Kfm Corner and landed in the kitty litter right next to the track. De Bruijn’s car was too damaged to continue but LeBon was back for the restart, only to spin out again on lap five, this time taking Glen Phillips with him on Car Care Clinic Sweep and bringing out the red flags for a second time.
At which point the officials called a halt to the carnage; the result was taken as at the end of lap four, with Cavalieri leading from Moore, Tafani and Rui Campos, while McCarthy and hot rookie Hilton Pieters took the Formula Supercar honours.
Class S rivals Andrew Rackstraw in the VW Reynard 2L and Byron Mitchell’s Dolphin Engineering Formula VW shared the wins in the Formula Libre category, with Dee-Jay Booysen in the Dico/Burner Factory Reynard third in both outings.
The big excitement, as always, was in midfield where Elroy Vice (Dolphin Engineering Forza) Bertus Engelbrecht (CS Cleaning/TRUSC RM08), Graham Knight (Eloff Transformers/Claw Security Reynard), Zane Amundsen (Lantis), veteran Cyril Somerville (Dolphin Engineering Sting 1.4L), and singer Kelly Fletcher (Dolphin Engineering Forza) battled it out for sixth overall, all five finishing in that order covered by less than 2.5 seconds.
Race 2 was more fragmented, with the closest finished being that for seventh overall and first in Class C, with Vice pipping Amundsen to the line by half a second.