Over 40 drivers have entered the opening round of the 2019 Car Care Clinic 111 Sports & Saloons championship which takes place at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday, 8 March. While many of the regulars are back after the summer break, including 2018 champion George Bezuidenhout (Accolade / CES Forklift Nissan Primera), there are a host of new faces, and cars, that will be out on the 2.4km circuit west of Pretoria.
Bezuidenhout is likely to face some stiff competition at the head of the field this year with Wouter Roos (Nathan’s Motorsport VW Golf) and Gerhard Henning (www.allmotospares.co.za VW Polo) likely to be among the serious challengers. Both of them claimed race wins last season and are certainly capable of doing so again. George Economides (Wealth Avenue BMW 328i) and Rory Eland (Dialogic Management VW Polo) are also capable of running close to the head of the field.
Assuming they don’t break out and get pushed up to Class A, Veritie-Anne Joubert (Honda Spares Ballade), Johan van der Vyver (Devlaw Subaru WRX), Wayne Masters (Performance Masters VW Polo) and Adrian Dalton (Xtra Clothing and Shoes VW Golf) should be among those competing for Class B honours.
Gawie Marais (Titan Tools VW Polo), Keagan Pottas (AIPM Alfa GTV) and Andre Diedericks (Elftrans Mini Cooper S) should be in the Class C mix while Chris Smith (Captive/Toptrans Porsche 924) and Ishmael Baloyi (TAR Honda Civic) are likely Class D contenders. Mark Gregory (Creative Patterns VW Golf) and Marius Lotz (VW Golf) will resume their Class E battle.
Class X, for newcomers to the series, has a host of entries, the quickest of whom should include Dirk Lawrence (JDM Tuning Honda Balade) and Danie Deysel in his new Tyre City Honda CRX.
Qualifying gets underway at 09h40 on Saturday morning with the first of the two 8-lap races at 13h05. The second race should get underway at 16h15.