Three dozen drivers will make their way to Zwartkops Raceway for the opening round of the 2023 Car Care Clinic GT and 111 Sports & Saloons championships on 17 & 18 February.
Image by Paul Bedford
The GT category will have a new champion in 2023, with current titleholder Johan van der Vyver (Devlaw Subaru WRX STI) opting to contest Class A in the 111 category this year. Even with van der Vyver’s absence, picking a winner from the GT contenders is not easy. JP van der Walt showed some serious pace when he debuted his Platinum Wheels Audi A4 towards the end of last season and should be among the front-runners if he can continue that form. He will have 2022 regulars Louis Scholtz (Car Care Clinic VW Golf), Bob Neill (Delmon Mining Ford Focus) and George Economides (Wealth Avenue VW Golf Turbo) to contend with. Lenard Archer will be back in his fast but fragile ACD Welkom Honda Civic, while Louis Cloete will be out in his VW Beetle.
Joining van der Vyver in Class A of the 111 category, Lucas Bezuidenhout (Pretoria Noord Toyota Lexus), Piet Potgieter (Nathan’s Motorsport VW Golf), Wouter Roos (Car Care Clinic VW Golf), Francois Henning (Select Registration VW Polo) and Johan van Heerden (JVH Performance VW Golf) will all be looking for maximum points.
2022 Class B champion Roland Hopkins (Bush n Buck VW Polo) will be back to defend his title. His competition is likely to come from Wayne Lebotschy (Shield VW Golf), Joshua Weyers (Rohlig-Grindrod Opel Corsa) and Charl Weyers (Opel Corsa).
In Class C, the fight should be between Dhiren Ganasen (Trans Africa Racing/ Motul/ Cent parts/ Torch Spark Plugs Honda Civic), Seten Naidoo (Honda Civic) and Chris Smit (Merx Porsche 944), while Class D looks to be a battle between last year’s top three in the class championship, Didi Matjila (VW Polo), Yorick Smith (PREI Instrumentation Mazda MX5) and Michael Grobler (Pest Control VW Polo). They will be joined by Marius Malherbe (M Kruger Auditing Inc Porsche 924), Craig Priestley (Tactical Fluid Ford Laser) and Thishan Govender (Trans Africa Racing Honda Civic). Rob Clark (Containerforce Self Storage Honda Ballade) is the only entrant in Class E at the time of writing.
Class X, for those that have not competed in the category before, has almost a dozen entries. They are led by Wayne Masters (Performance Masters VW Polo), Luigi Ferro (Eco Simply Solar VW Polo) and Mydi Mfana (MDS Consulting Engineers VW Polo). Miguel Dias (Performance Masters VW Polo), Mel Spurr (Car Care Clinic VW Polo), Trevor Stringer (Citrine Designs Peugeot 206), Tony Sazbo (Honda Civic), Tiaan Esterhuizen (Pest Control VW Polo), Roshaan Goodman (Upward Spiral Honda Civic) and Mark du Toit (Trans Africa Racing Honda Civic) will all be on track.
The drivers will have three practice sessions on Friday to eliminate the off-season cobwebs before Saturday morning’s qualifying session, which is scheduled for 10h05. The two 8-lap races are scheduled for 13h35 and 16h40.