After a slightly disappointing outing last time out, Wouter Roos (Nathan’s Motorsport VW Golf) bounced back to claim two hard-fought wins at the third round of the 2019 Car Care Clinic 111 Sports & Saloons championship which formed part of the Winter Challenge at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday, 29 June. He was followed over the line on both occasions by Bertus van Jaarsveld (TB Racing VW Polo) with Johan Hattingh (Nissan 350Z) and Wayne Masters (Performance Masters VW Polo) sharing the third-place finishes.
In Friday afternoon’s qualifying session van Jaarsveld set the quickest time but, as his time was quicker than the minimum allowed in the 111 rules, he received a 5-place penalty, dropping him to sixth on the grid. The same fate also befell Rudolf de Vos in the Chev Can-Am, dropping him to seventh. This left Roos on pole with Hattingh alongside him. Danie Deysel (Tyre City Honda CRX) headed the second row with Lucas Bezuidenhout (Pretoria Noord Toyota Lexus) in fourth ahead of Robert Neill (Delmon Mining Ford Focus), the first of the Class X competitors.
Phillip Meyer (LSC Group/Imperial Logistics Porsche 924) led the way in Class B from Floris Stopforth (VW Polo) and Louis Scholtz (Car Care Clinic Honda Civic) while Loutjie Verwey (ELF Trans VW Golf) got the better of Gary Gordon (Honda Spares Civic) in Class C with Andre Diedericks (Mini) lining up in third. Almero van Eck (Taurus VW Polo) was the quickest of the Class D brigade closely followed by Chris Smit (Captive/Toptrans Porsche 924) and Richard Hodgson (VW Golf). Mark Gregory (Creative Patterns VW Golf) topped Class E from Marius Lotz (VW Golf) and Francois Taljaard (Loutal Renault Megane).
In the opening race, Roos grabbed an immediate lead with Hattingh and van Jaarsveld in hot pursuit. Deysel led the rest of the chasing pack. Van Jaarsveld moved up to second early in the third lap and the leading trio pulled away from the rest until both Neill and Masters found a way past Deysel. Three at the front then became two as Roos and van Jaarsveld opened up a gap over Hattingh, who had Neill, Masters and Deysel in close proximity. Mechanical issues slowed Deysel and George Economides (Wealth Avenue BMW 328i) joined the fight for third. With a couple of laps to go, Economides got past Masters and followed that with a final corner dive up the inside on the last lap to get past Neill to take fourth place behind Roos, van Jaarsveld and Hattingh. Neill had to settle for fifth overall and first in Class X ahead of Masters and Dirk Lawrence (JDM Tuning/Vaal Timbers Honda Ballade) who rounded out the top six in Class A.
In Class B Meyer’s race came to an end before it started. He pulled into the pits on the warm-up lap which left Scholtz and Veritie-Ann Joubert (Honda Spares Ballade) to fight it out at the front after Stopforth lost a lot of ground due to a spin on the opening lap. Joubert eventually found a way past Scholtz and went on to take a comfortable win. Waldo Swiegers (Waldo Swiegers Photography VW Golf) ended the 8-lap race in third behind Scholtz with Stopforth recovering to take fourth. Verwey had things all his own way in Class C after both Gordon and Diedericks had premature ends to their races, Gordon when he couldn’t avoid a spinning Wayne Lebotschy (Shield VW Golf) and Diedericks due to mechanical maladies.
Smit got the better of van Eck to take victory in Class D with Hodgson joining them on the podium while Lotz took Class E from Mark Kingsmill (VW Golf) and Taljaard.
Race 2 looked like it could be a repeat of the first at the front in the early stages, with Roos leading the way from van Jaarsveld and Hattingh, but a couple of quick laps by Hattingh allowed him to get past both van Jaarsveld and Roos. Although he was the first to take the flag, Hattingh had broken out of the 1’11” lap time limit for the class and the subsequent time penalty dropped him back to fifth. This gave Roos another win with van Jaarsveld again in second with Masters getting the better of Economides to take third. Lawrence crossed the link in sixth. Neil was again the leading Class X driver.
Joubert was able to pull away from Scholtz and Swiegers at the front of the Class B field to take a comfortable win. Swiegers eventually got the better of Scholtz to claim the runners-up spot. Verwey again took Class C.
Van Eck turned the tables on Smit to take Class D with Hodgson again in third while Lotz took his second win of the day in Class E, this time followed over the line by Gregory and Kingsmill.
In the day’s overall standings, Roos took Class A from van Jaarsveld and Hattingh with Class B going the way of Joubert with Scholtz and Swiegers joining her on the podium. Class C went to Verwey with van Eck just getting the better of Smit to take Class D. Hodgson ended the day in third. Lotz claimed another overall Class E win with Kingsmill and Taljaard in second and third. Neill was an easy winner in Class X ahead of Duane Brown (Brown’s Auto Ford Fiesta) and Troy Marais (Dynamic Tyre Solutions BMW Z3).
The fourth round 2019 Car Care Clinic 111 Sports & Saloons championship takes place at Red Star Raceway, just outside Delmas, on Saturday, 20 July.