18 Sep RACE REVIEW – EXTREME FESTIVAL – 9 SEPTEMBER 2023
LOCAL HEROES THRILL KILLARNEY FANS AT EXTREME FESTIVAL
Local drivers turned home-track advantage into superb race wins and 2023’s first National Champion at the Extreme Festival powered by the City of Cape Town and Smile 90.4 FM at Killarney on Saturday 9 September.
Troy Dolinschek in the SuJean Property/Investchem Mygale took two masterful lights-to-flag wins in the Investchem F1600 races to wrap up the title with one round still to go – but the minor positions were not so clear-cut, as Gerard Geldenhuys (Abacus Divisions Mygale) came home a hard-earned second in Race 1, while Jason Coetzee (Mint Wrapworks/Fuchs Lubricants Mygale) beat Nicholas van Weely into third by just 0.066sec, with all three covered by less than 1.6 seconds after a race-long battle.
Race 2 saw Dolinschek increase his advantage to 3.839 seconds but behind him it was open warfare as Coetzee, Geldenhuys, Alex Vos (Investchem /DV Building Supplies Mygale), Andrew Schofield (InvestChem/Safair Mygale), Siyabonga Mankonkwana (Investchem Mygale) and Antwan Geldenhuys (Abacus Divisions Mygale) swopped places on almost every lap before finishing in that order within just 2.1 seconds after the race of a lifetime.
And even then the drama wasn’t over as Gerard Geldenhuys was hit with a 30 second penalty for jumping the start, dropping him to ninth and promoting each of his rivals one position up.
The G&H Transport Extreme Supercars fielded the biggest entry of the day – despite the disappointment of losing hot favourite Franco Scribante’s Porsche 997 to gearbox gremlins (this after flying in a replacement fuel pump from Dubai on the Thursday!)
Stuart White in the Into Africa Aston Martin Vantage posted a blistering 1min07.087 qualifying lap, just 0.342sec outside his own ultimate lap record for this circuit, set in March 2019 in Craig Jarvis’ all-conquering Ginetta G57 LMP2 car. He then proceeded to dominate all three races, followed home every time by Jonathan du Toit (Trans Africa Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO) and Charl Arangies (Stradale Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO).
Even a 30 second jump-start penalty in Race 3 only dropped him to third!
It’s worth noting that the Scribante Porsche was only 0.32sec off White’s astonishing time in qualifying, lending a strong sense of ‘might have been’ to the atmosphere in the Scribante pit.
Local hero Andrew Rackstraw (Sparco RDSA Golf GTi) showed reigning champion Robert Wolk’s Chemical Logistics GTC BMW the way home in the first headline Global Touring Car/SupaCup race. Saood Variawa (Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla) held third for the first four laps, then got it all wrong on lap five and finished stone last, two laps down, while his team-mate Nathi Msimanga kept up the pressure, closing to within half a second of Wolk by the end to take a well-deserved third, two seconds clear of Julian van der Watt’s Investchem Corolla.