The Car Care Clinic 111 Sports & Saloons competitors make their way to Phakisa Freeway, just outside the Free State mining town of Welkom, for the second round of their 2018 championship which takes place on Saturday, 14 April.
In the absence of class A championship leader Neil Lobb, the fight for class honours looks like it will be the battle of the Volkswagens, Gerhard Henning in his Toyota Replacement Parts Polo, Wouter Roos in his Strata Drilling Golf and Louis Cloete in the SV Tech Beetle.
Veritie-Anne Joubert (Honda Spares Ballade) won’t have things all her own way in class B. Paul Saayman (Intercity Auto Movers VW Caddy) is aiming for victory in his first outing in the class.
It is far harder to predict a winner in class C. At the opening round at Zwartkops Mark Harvey (Adapt Design and Sign Porsche 924) and Danie Deysel (Solly’s Tyres and Mags Honda Civic) shared the class wins and should be at the front around the 4.24km long circuit. Gawie Marais (Titan Product Polo) had a podium finish in the second race at Zwartkops and will be looking to build on that as will Phillip Meyer (LSC Group Porsche 924) who had two third-place finishes at the opening round. Ishmael Baloyi (Trans Africa Racing Honda Ballade), Mark Ellis (Porsche 924) and Louis Scholtz (Car Care Clinic Honda Civic) are among those who could also challenge for podium positions at Phakisa as is Michael Frade (Mazda).
Almero van Eck (Taurus VW Polo) and Craig Botha (Moto West VW Golf) are likely to resume their class D battle. Van Eck took both race wins at Zwartkops and will be out to repeat that performance in the Free State. Reno van Heerden (Remington VW Polo), Linda Henning (Toyota Replacement Parts VW Golf) and Chris Smit (Captive Porsche 924) will be among those challenging them as will the Devlaw Subaru WRX piloted by Johan van der Vyver.
Class E has the makings of a two-way fight between Mark Gregory in the Creative Patterns VW Golf and Marius Lotz (LJ’s Auto / Team Gregory VW Golf).
Class X, for first-time competitors in 111 Sports & Saloons, is wide open with a number of drivers capable of challenging for the win. Mel Spurr (G&H Transport / Wealth Avenue VW Polo) will be joined by Mario Hattingh (VW Golf), Giles Darroch (GRD Motorsport VW Golf) and Franco Di Matteo (Deltech Ford Laser).
Qualifying gets underway at 09h00 on Saturday morning with the first 8-lap race scheduled to start at 11h30. Race 2, which is a 10-lap affair, should get underway at 14h45.