26 Oct RACE REVIEW – POWER SERIES #8 CARS – 21 OCTOBER 2023
ACTION-PACKED RACING AS KILLARNEY’S POWER SERIES HOTS UP
Warmer weather and a fresh southeaster added fuel to the Thermo Fires Clubmans races at Round 8 of the Power Series presented by Wingfield Motors and Smile 90.4 FM at Killarney on Saturday 21 October, as Daanyaal Coetzee (A&M Plumbing BMW E46 M3) led the 30-strong file off the line for Race 1 – but that didn’t last long, as father and son Nieyaaz (MIM Carriers/ATM Tuning Audi S4) and Imaad Modack (MIM Carriers/ATM Tuning BMW M4) came up to challenge for the lead.
What followed was eight laps of classic power play as the three jostled for position, swopping places on almost every lap – but it was Imaad Modack who came home just ahead of his father with Coetzee a close third, with all three covered by less than four seconds.
Race 2 was set to be even closer until the Modack Audi went sick on lap four, leaving Coetzee to chase home Imaad Modack while at the same time fending off superb late charge by the vastly experienced Kosie Swanepoel (KSD/D+E Reinforcing Lexus 200IS), who was just 0.116sec adrift at the flag.
Franco Donadio came out for the Laude Classic Cars races to prove a point: that his superbly prepared Ford Escort Mk1 is still a match for anything the heavy-metal V8 pilots can throw at it. And in Race 1 that’s exactly what he did, romping home 14 seconds clear of an epic battle for second between Glen Uytenbogaardt (Ford Granada Perana), the Ford Mustang of Cross Cape Forklift Services team-mate Michael Hitchcock and Arnold Neveling’s Shelby Mustang – who finished in that order covered by less than seven seconds.
Race 2 was a lot closer as first Uytenbogaardt and then Hitchcock took the fight to the little Escort; Donadio and Hitchcock broke away in the closing stages but the result was in doubt right down to the line as Donadio held on to win by just 0.183 sec, while a late charge by Trevor Momberg (M&E Auto/All Scale Capri) secured third place ahead of Ferdi Mouton (Cross Cape Forklift Services Ford Mustang), Charles Arton (Mazda Rotary), and Andrew Honeywill (Porsche 944 Turbo), all of whom finished within less than two seconds.
Kai van Zyl (Origen Oil Polo 6) put in a strong drive to lead across the line in the first Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge race, 2.8 seconds ahead of Summit Racing’s Nathan Victor (Polo GTi), with Clinton Bezuidenhout (Progress Precision Engineering Polo) a very close third. Van Zyl, however, was among four competitors excluded for technical infringements, including fourth-placed Schalk Geldenhuys (G&A Motorsport/Ferroli Polo 6R), which promoted Victor to first, Bezuidenhout to second and a somewhat surprised Dillon Joubert (Euroblitz/TackSteel/Powder Coating World Polo 6R) from fifth on the road to third in the results.
Victor, Marco Busi (Simtech/Goeie Hoop Onderdele Polo 6), Bezuidenhout, Geldenhuys and Joubert then delivered an epic Race 2 with at least one position change on every lap, which eventually saw them finish in that order, covered by less than five seconds.
In the absence of Josh Broome’s Spitfire Furniture Radical SR8, which was entered but didn’t make it to the start line, Dawie Joubert’s Rembrandt Racing/Wild Rose Exige was literally in a class of its own, romping away to win each Wild Rose Gin Sports & GT race by half a lap.
Second in Race 1 came down to a pitched battle between Harp Motorsport team-mates Francis Carruthers (Pilbeam MP84) and Steve Humble in the ex-Colin Plit Juno S53 CN – which ended in Carruthers’ favour by a scant 0.681sec. Fourth was Martin Pugh in the Appleberry Can Am, less than half a second ahead of Maarten Prins’ Motul Porsche GT3 Cup.
A minor mechanical gremlin denied Humble a second battle with the Pilbeam in Race 2, so Carruthers, Prins and Pugh settled matters between them finishing, in that order 30 seconds behind Joubert’s Exige.
The one-make Pirelli V8 Masters more than lived up to their reputation for robust racing and spectacular off-track excursions, but it was the Maestro from Pretoria, former series champion Fabio Tafani, who stayed ahead of the carnage to record two well-judged wins.
Race 1 saw a race-long battle for second between Jason Ibbotson, Sean Moore and Alister Brown, which ended abruptly for Moore on lap six and for Brown a lap later, gifting second to Ibbotson and third to Barry Ingle, just ahead of Marcel Angel, who spun out in the very first corner and posted the fastest lap of the race in a take-no-prisoners charge through the field from last to fourth.
Tafani broke away early in Race 2, while Ingle, Brown, Angel and Ibbotson battled it out for second, eventually finishing in that order, covered by eight seconds.
Dee-Jay Booysen’s Dico/Burner Factory Reynard was the only Class S entry in the Formula Libre field, and he did what was expected of him, powering away to strong wins in both races, while the Class C and Class V drivers provided the drama with two action-packed races featuring Darren Liebenberg (Formula M), Ryno Pentz (Dico 4×4 Accessories & Fitment Omega), Zane Amundsen (Alpha Precision Engineering Lantis), Donovan Ramsay (Kerston Foods Sting), Ricky Anderson (Forza), Luan van Heerden (Omega) and Kelly Fletcher (Dolphin Racing Team Forza).
Thanks to new Killarney photographer Kathryn Odendaal for the great photo.