Wouter Roos (Car Care Clinic VW Golf) and Andre de Lange (Roofsure Ford Focus) shared the wins in the inaugural Car Care Clinic GT Sports & Saloons event at Red Star Raceway on Saturday, 22 February. In the Car Care Clinic 111 Sports and Saloons series, it was Ryan Quan-Chai (Trans Africa Racing BMW Z4) that came out on top.
In Saturday morning’s qualifying session, it was Roos who came out on top in the GT category, just over half a second quicker than de Lange around the 4km circuit. Unfortunately, Lenard Archer didn’t make it out for qualifying after the gearbox in his newly built ACD Hyundai i20 broke in practice on Friday. Quan-Chai was the quickest of the 111 drivers but incurred a 5-place penalty for breaking out of the lap time limit. This left Louis Cloete (AMS Tuning VW Beetle) at the front of the 111 pack ahead of Waldo Swiegers (Waldo Swiegers Photography Honda Ballade), leading Class X contender Piet Potgieter (VW Golf) and Adrian Dalton (Xtra Clothing and Shoes VW Golf). A bit further down the grid Mark Harvey (Adapt Design & Sign Porsche 924) led the way in Class B from Wayne Lebotschy (Shield VW Golf) with Reno van Heerden (VW Polo) heading Class D. Mark Gregory (Creative Patterns VW Golf) was the quickest of the Class E brigade.
In the opening race, it was de Lange who was the early leader but part-way round the second lap his Focus went into limp mode. He was able to cure the problem by turning the car off and restarting it, but by then over half the field had got past him. While he was working his way back through the field, Roos led the way from Cloete at the front of the field until the half-way mark when Cloete moved into the lead. He steadily pulled away to take the flag over five seconds ahead of Roos. Unfortunately for him, he was hit with an 18-second penalty as he had entered the 111 category and lapped quicker than the minimum permitted time. This handed the win to Roos with de Lange, after fighting his way back through the field, promoted to second. Cloete, who after the race move up to the GT Category, was classified in third.
Quan-Chai didn’t let his grid penalty hamper him and soon worked his way through to the front of the 111 category but he again went too quickly and also received an 18-second penalty as did second-placed man Dalton. This gave the overall 111 win to Class X runner Potgieter with Quan-Chai and Dalton having to settle for second and third overall while taking first and second in Class A. Swiegers was next up ahead of Class B winner Harvey. Van Heerden finished comfortably ahead of Chris Smit (Captive Toptrans Porsche 924) to take Class D while in the battle of the Class E Golf Mk1s, Pieter Kirkhoff (Lombard Tyres/Roofsure) got the better of Gregory and Mark Kingsmill (Team Gregory Racing).
Roos was the early leader of the second race but dropped out shortly after half-distance leaving de Lange and Cloete to battle it out for the win. This time, the electronics on the Focus played ball and de Lange was able to take the GT and overall win by almost three seconds.
Potgieter and Quan-Chai had a scrap for the lead of the 111 category for the first half of the race but, once Quan-Chai found a way through, he was able to take the category and Class A win. Potgieter took Class X as consolation. Harvey again led the way in Class B but an Accelerator cable problem brought his race to a premature end and handed the class win to Lebotschy. Van Heerden again finished comfortably ahead of Smit to take Class D with Gregory taking Class E ahead of Kirkhoff and Kingsmill.
In the day’s overall standings, de Lange claimed the GT category win from Cloete and Roos. 111 Class A went to Quan-Chai from Dalton and Swiegers while Lebotschytook Class D. Van Heerden took the Class D winner’s Trophy from Smit while Kirkoff topped Class E with Gregory and Kingsmill joining him on the podium. Class X, for newcomers to the series, went to Potgieter ahead of Mauritz le Roux (111 Plumbers VW Polo) and Joshua Weyers (Rohlig Grindrod Logistics Opel Corsa).
The next outing for both the Car Care Clinic GT Sports and Saloons and 111 Sports and Saloons takes place at Zwartkops Raceway on 3 & 4 April.