13 Apr RACE REVIEW – POWER SERIES rND 2 – CARS RACE REPORT 9 aPRIL 2022
DRAMA AND DUST AT POWER SERIES THRILLER
Round 2 of the 2022 Power Series presented by Wingfield Motors on Saturday 9 April kept Killarney’s marshals on their toes with some of the most dramatic crashes and fiery blow-ups of the year so far – as well as superb racing in all the categories.
The Thermo Fires Clubmans Saloons, however, produced two enthralling races, each of which went the full distance with the result in doubt until the very last corner, as Joshua Dolinschek in the 608 BMW E90 chased Shane du Toit’s giant-killing Skilpadvlei Wine Farm Golf MK1 all the way home. The winning margin in Race 1 was just 0.395sec, with Du Toit eking out a tenuous 1.432 second advantage in Race 2.
Class C hero Steven Heydenrych (Auto/FAT Racing Jetta Mk3) ran third during the early part of Race 1 but had to give best to oval track veteran Jess Huggett (Philwest/Rico Barlow Racing Jetta II) on lap four, while Shane Smith was the first Class B competitor home in the Truckport Logistics BMW E46.
Nieyaaz Modack took over the thundering V8 MIM Autos Lumina from his son Imaad for Race 2 and was running a strong second when the car went sick on lap three, forcing him out of the game and handing the position to Dolinschek.
Huggett finished third again, almost unchallenged, while Smith grabbed fourth when Heydenrych dropped back in the closing laps to finish sixth behind Paul Munnik’s Class B Audi VW Auto Clinic Golf.
Rotary legend Dave Kopke and his equally notorious Mazda R100 rotary proved they had lost none of their fire in the Laude Classic Cars races, taking the fight to class leader Franco Donadio’s all-conquering Ford Escort from lights to flag in Race 1. The two swopped the lead three times, but it was Kopke who was ahead when it counted, while Donadio was pushed down to third on the final lap by a late charge from Charles Arton and his indecently quick Datsun 240Z.
Ferdi Mouton (Cross Cape Forklift Services Mustang) was the first Class B driver home in 10th overall, directly ahead of Class C leader Trevor in the HSC Racing Scirocco 1.8L.
Race 2 was another thriller as Donadio led off the line and swopped the lead with Kopke twice in the first three laps, only for both of them to be blitzed by Arton and on lap five. Donadio fought back hard, grabbing the lead again briefly on lap six but in the end had to give best to the little Datsun, while Kopke dropped back a little in the closing stages to finish a comfortable third.
Mouton improved his position at the top of Class B to 10th overall, while Jared Thomson (CJ Supplies Ford Racing Cortina 3) led Class C in 12th overall.
Arch-rivals Jurie ‘Umpie’ Swart in the Summit Polo 6 and Marco Busi (Automan Polo) continued their domination of the Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge, taking a win and a second apiece, although Charl Visser (Charl Engineering Polo) gave them something to think about with a late charge in Race 1 that saw him finish 1.008 seconds behind Busi and less than half a second behind Swart.
Kyle Wiltshire (Volkswagen Polo) headed Class B in sixth overall, and Dylan Van Eden (Volkswagen Citi Golf) took Class C honours.
Swart took his revenge with an emphatic win in Race 2, leading Busi over the line by more than three seconds, with Visser a distant third. Teen hotshot Tate Bishop, fired up after having been excluded from Race 1 for a technical infringement, put in a strong drive in the Angri Racing Academy Golf to lead Class B in fifth overall, less than a quarter of a second ahead of reigning champion Eden Thompson (Mad Performance/Somerset Refrigeration/TCL Polo 6R), while Alfie van Zyl (NDT Racing Golf 2) topped Class C.
Sean Moore pulled a superb start to lead the opening laps of the first V8 Masters race, with reigning champion Fabio Tafani all over him like a cheap suit, and Marcel Angel and Alister Brown battling to stay with the two leaders.
Tafani muscled his way through into the lead on the inside of Quarry Corner on lap three but seconds later the two came together exiting the Kink and Moore spun into the tyre wall, his car shedding fibreglass body panels in all directions. Angel and Brown (just) avoided the carnage but Richard Schreuder and Mark Ridgway collided trying to avoid the flying debris, by which time the red flags were out and the marshals were moving into action.
The race was restarted with Schreuder’s car running minus bonnet and with its front end held together with cable ties and duct tape – but that didn’t seem to slow him down as he chased Tafani all the way to the line, followed home by Carl Nel, who took third by just 0.399sec from Marcel Angel and Menno Parsons after a race-long battle.
Astonishingly, Richard Quixley’s very professional V8 Masters crew got Moore’s battered car ready for Race 2, but he drove a conservative race to come home 10th while Angel, Tafani, Nel, and a late-charging Rob Warrington made the running at the front to finish in that order.
The Formula Libre races for single seaters were once again a Byron Mitchell benefit as he romped away in Race 1 to lap the entire field in his Dolphin Engineering Formula VW. Second, a lap down, was Storm Lanfear (Investchem/RSDA/Circle of Life FVW), just 0.949sec ahead of Dee-Jay Booysen’s Dico Racing/Burner Factory Reynard.
The real race was in midfield, however, where Kelly Fletcher (Dolphin Engineering Forza) got the best of a four-way dice with team-mate Elroy Vice, Ryno Pentz (Dico 4×4 Accessories Omega) and Donovan Ramsay (Kerston Foods Sting) to take Formula Vee line honours. Ramsay dropped back a little in the closing stages but Fletcher, Vice and Pentz took it all the way to the line to finish in that order covered by just 1.531 seconds.
Mitchell got fistfuls of wheelspin getting off the line at the start of Race 2 and it was Booysen who led into Hoal’s Hook but by Quarry Corner normal service had been resumed as Mitchell began to pull away from Booysen and Lanfear. Sadly, the Formula Vee bunfight was cut short on lap three when Fletcher and Vice collided coming out of Hoal’s Hook and slid off the circuit, locked together. Fletcher managed to get going again, finishing ninth overall, two laps down, but Vice’s Forza was too bent to boogie and it was left to Pentz and Ramsay to share the Formula Vee honours in sixth and seventh overall respectively.
Andrew Moffit, Glen Phillips and Ryan Kat revved up the crowd – and the 4481 fans watching from all over the world – in the first combined Formula Supercars and Bejo Trustees Fine Cars races, with all three taking a turn to lead in the first three laps. In the end, however, Moffitt got the best of a thrilling three-way battle as they finished in that order covered by less than 1.5 seconds.
Michael Reynolds (BMW E36) took the honours in the Bejo Trustees Fine Cars category, well clear of Theo Claassens’ Yesterday’s Heroes Skyline and the BMW E36 of Gunther Appelgryn, who finished just half a second apart after a race-long dice.
Their second outing became a race of attrition when first Hume and then Phillips went out before half distance, leaving Moffit and Kat to bring it home, five seconds apart, while Reynolds and Appelgryn led the Fine Cars ahead of the Volkswagen Jetta CLi of Natasha Tischendorf, back on track after a long lay-off due to injury and taking a well-deserved third overall for the day.
The fourth running of the Ons Huisie 100 over 31 laps for the Spitfire Furniture Sports & GT Cars delivered 45 minutes of mayhem, ending up with the Safety Car – a little Kia hatchback – leading the survivors sedately past the chequered flag after only 29 of the planned 31 laps.
Almost from the start, the expected battle between three long-standing rivals – Steve Humble in the Harp Motorsport/Ravenol Opel Mallock Mk14B, his team-mate Francis Carruthers’ Pilbeam MP84 and Gary Kieswetter’s Advanced Packaging Technology Porsche GT3 Cup – erupted as Kieswetter made up for a poor start to move into third on lap four behind the Harp Motorsport team-mates.
By lap six Carruthers and Humble had pulled away, while Kieswetter came under attack from the Porsche GT3 Cup of Maarten Prins – until Prins went straight into the tyre wall at Interceptor corner on lap seven, bringing out the Safety Car.
It took six laps of cruising behind the Kia to drag the GT3 to a position of safety; as soon as racing resumed, Humble began to reel in the Pilbeam and the battle between the team-mates on, with Kieswetter almost a lap down and out of contention for the lead. Then, at the start of lap 17 the Nissan 350Z of Emile Botha burst into flames as he went into Hoal’s Hook; Botha was able to park the Zee well off the circuit, however, and the Safety Car stayed parked on pit lane.
But not for long; on lap 23 Humble’s Mallock lost its left rear wheel and slithered to a stop in the run-off area outside of Interceptor Corner; the wheel then overtook it, rebounded off the tyre wall and hit Humble on the head! The Mallock was still there and the Safety Car was still leading when the allotted 45 minutes ran out and the chequered flag came out at the end of lap 29. That gave Carruthers the win from Kieswetter, with Fine Cars regular Jaco Lambert third, two laps further down, in Jonathan Gunn’s Volkswagen-powered Nardini Swift. Louis de Jager took Class C honours in his Lola T212, 2.2 seconds ahead of Class D leader Hennie Trollip’s Lotus.