Exciting opening round at Kyalami
The Bridgestone Production Car Championship opened with a bang at Kyalami this past weekend with close racing across the field.
Anthony Taylor and Afrox BMW team mate Melvill Priest made their intentions evident, topping the timesheets in all three of Friday's
practice sessions. Taylor went on to claim pole position ahead of Priest.
Fans were disappointed that the Engen team was unable to have its Audi S4s ready in time and had to bring out the A4s. Despite using
their old cars, Michael Stephen qualified third.
The newly-liveried Sasol Subarus were flying with Hennie Groenewald and Richard Pinard fourth and fifth on the grid.
Tschops Sipuka (Engen Audi) and Johan Fourie (Indy Oil Audi A4) were next up, ahead of the Nissan 350Z duo of Marco and Paulo da Cunha.
Graeme Nathan (Indy Oil VW GTI) and Gary Formato (BP Ford Focus ST) shared the front row of the grid in Class T, ahead of promising
youngsters Gennaro Bonafede (Ferodo VW GTI) and Kieren Quarmby (Interfile VW GTI).
Michael van Rooyen (Williams Hunt Opel) put his car into fifth place, with former teammate Shaun Duminy (BP Ford Focus ST) lining up
alongside him. Ebrahim Levy (Levy VW GTI) and Mishal Sing (LiquiMoly BMW 120d) were the final runners.
As per the new race format, Taylor elected to have a rolling start for the first race. The race got under way cleanly with Sipuka
launching himself up to fourth place. There seemed to be some confusion between teammates however and a lap later Sipuka and Stephen
touched, allowing Groenewald and Fourie through. Taylor went on to take the win from Priest, Groenewald and Fourie. Sipuka recovered to
fifth place ahead of Stephen, Pinard, Marco and Paulo da Cunha.
Class T race saw the old rivalry between Nathan / Formato, VW / Ford revived. Nathan had a good start, holding onto the race lead,
closely followed by Bonafede who got the jump on Formato. By the next lap, Formato was back up to second and chasing down Nathan. A lap
later, the arch-rivals came onto the pit straight side by side. Whilst the cars looked evenly matched, Formato just managed to snap up the
lead and race win from Nathan. Bonafede went on to take third, ahead of Kieren Quarmby who was finally having some good luck. Levy took a
solid fifth, with Sing close behind. Both Duminy and van Rooyen retired with technical maladies.
Excitement built as the new procedure was put into place for the second race. The competitors lined up on the pit straight while
Bridgestone's motorsport manager, Jan Maritz made the draw for the number of cars to be inverted. The number drawn was six. A siren was
sounded and team technicians were given five minutes to make repairs to the vehicles. With frantic wheel changes and body repairs complete,
the second race got under way.
Stephen led out the Class A field, but it didn't take long before Groenewald and Taylor were at the front end of the pack. Groenewald
went on to take the race win, but things weren't quite as clear cut behind him.
Taylor retired on lap four with a broken turbo, leaving Stephen and Sipuka to fight it out for second. Stephen took the position and
Sipuka retired on the penultimate lap, while Priest managed to work his way up to third position. Pinard had a great race, keeping Fourie at
bay to claim fourth place. Marco da Cunha was the final finisher after his brother ploughed into the wall at Clubhouse corner early in the
race.
Sing took his first Class T pole position, but the pressure seemed to get to him. By the end of the first lap, the entire field had
passed him and the "big" four (Quarmby, Formato, Nathan and Bonafede) were back in control at the front of the pack. Formato and
Bonafede had a huge tussle for second: the two rubbed wheels which resulted in the tyre valve on Bonafede's car being damaged. Bonafede had
to pit for a tyre change, while Formato went on to challenge Quarmby for the lead. Formato achieved his goal, taking his second win of the
day. Quarmby kept Nathan in check to claim second from Nathan. Levy and Sing took fourth and fifth respectively with Bonafede crossing the
line a lap down.
After a sizeable interval, the third race got under way with a grid based on the fastest lap times from the first race.
Taylor led the race from lights to flag and was never in any real danger of losing the position. However, his teammate was not lucky
enough to have a clear run. Priest and Groenewald had an altercation on the first lap which resulted in Priest spinning off the circuit.
While he managed to finish the race, he lost too much time to challenge for any of the top positions.
Groenewald took second place, but it was teammate Pinard who really impressed. Pinard drove brilliantly to pass and stay ahead of
multiple champions Fourie, Stephen and Sipuka to take his first Bridgestone Production Car podium finish. Sipuka had another good race to
finish fourth ahead of Stephen, Fourie and Marco da Cunha.
Formato had a good start to the third race, passing Nathan for the lead. The duo went on to hold these positions to the flag. Bonafede
put in another solid performance in third. Van Rooyen was holding his own in fourth place, when he had an ABS malfunction going into WesBank
corner on the last lap. Unable to slow the car down, he hit the wall at speed causing extensive damage to the front end of his new Opel.
Quarmby took up fourth position. Behind him, Duminy, Levy and Sing had a ding-dong tussle for fifth. After swopping some paint and
damaging some body panels, the position eventually went to Levy, from Duminy and Sing.
An eight-position reversal was selected for the fourth race grid which placed Priest on pole. The start of the final race was absolute
mayhem. Taylor, Sipuka and Fourie ran out of track going into turn one and a huge accident ensued. Taylor and Sipuka retired, whilst Fourie
managed to complete the race, albeit with a poorly-handling car. A little further on, Groenewald and Stephen had a coming-together which
eventually lead to Stephen's retirement and the race was red-flagged.
Priest took an unchallenged win while Pinard put in another great performance to secure second place ahead of da Cunha. Fourie and
Groenewald were the final runners across the line.
Luckily, pole-sitter Sing saw the Class A drama unfold in front of him and slowed the Class T field and effectively prevented further
demolition. Nathan had a great restart and was up to first place by the end of the first lap. There was a four-way tussle between Nathan,
Formato, Bonafede and Quarmby for this position, but things quickly simmered down. Nathan took the win with Formato and Bonafede in tow.
Quarmby was the last competitor across the line in a seriously-depleted field. Duminy, Sing and Levy all retired with technical problems.
The next instalment of Bridgestone Production Car racing will take place in Cape Town on 2 April.