Michael Stephen in his Team Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8 produced a scintillating performance at a packed Aldo Scribante Raceway on Saturday to extend his formidable lead in the SA GT Series that formed part of the Algoa Motorsport Club’s Winter Festival.
He was pushed hard by Silvio Scribante in his Cemza Cement-sponsored Lamborghini until an uncharacteristic spin from Scribante in the sweep, with just 2 laps to go, ended the chase giving Stephen a comfortable 35-second win over Silvio Scribante in second & Aldo Scribante in the Scribante Concrete Lamborghini in third ensuring that the podium was filled with local heroes. Race 2 results of the GT Series were a carbon copy of race 1 with Stephen also winning the 1-Hour Dash for Cash followed home in second by team mate Roelf Du Plessis in his Team Ultimate Outlaws Mclaren & Sun Moodly in the Bigfoot Express Mercedes Benz AMG GT.
The feature race of the day was the 4 hours Endurance race that formed round 3 of the SA Endurance Series Championship with a star-studded line up of drivers filling the 31 car line-up. Charl Arangies & Arnold Neveling in their Stradale Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 led for the majority of the incident filled race that was peppered with a number of safety car interventions. The last 90 minutes of the race saw the lead change several times between the Stradale AMG & the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini of Xolile Letlaka & sensational young Stuart White. With fuel strategies and team tactics coming into play, it was a spectacular last stint from Stuart White that secured the win for the Into Africa Team with Arangies & Neveling second & James Sweetman, Nick Adcock & Dawie Joubert in their Adjust4Sleep/Rico Barlow Racing Nova Proto LMP claiming a well-deserved third.
Jurie Swart & Karah Hill brought their Kalex-backed VW SupaPolo home to secure the Class D win & CJ Blackman & JP Briner in their Wright Motorsport Backdraft Cobra took the Class E win as well as the sought-after index-of-performance title.
Local karters also excelled at the Motorsport South Africa Rok Nationals in Cape Town on Saturday with Josh Coertze finishing 1st in the KZ2 Class, Josh Moore 1st in the very competitive Mini-Rok Class, Dylan Bezuidenhout 3rd in the Kid-Rok Class & Kyle Bezuidenhout 4th in the Cadet Class.
EP Regional Saloons winners per class –
Class A – Charl Visser (VW Polo SupaCup), Class B – Jaco Scholtz (Mazda Capella), Class C Kelsey Davidson (VW Polo SupaCup), Class D – Steven Phillips (BMW E36), Class E – Kenzo Barnard (VW Golf mK1), Class F- Andrew Boshoff (BMW E36), Class X – Reghardt Roets (VW Polo Supacup).
WPMC GTI Challenge winners per class –
Class A – Clinton Bezuidenhout (VW Polo GTI), Class B – Zaki Hendricks (VW Polo), Class C Dylan van EEden (VW Golf mK1).
Coastal Challenge, Retro & Open Tops winners –
Class A – Derek Boy – (Chevrolet Firenza CanAm), Class C – Darryn Vice (Ford Anglia), Class D – Rob Halgreen – (Ford Escort), Class E – Ron Scott (Ford Escort), Class X – Bradley Rowe. Retro Class – Herman Neethling (Mercedes). Open Tops – Jeandre Marais Nardini
Motorcycle winners per class
Unlimited – Brad Bodsworth (Honda CBR 1000), 600cc Bradley Rehse (Yamaha R6), Powersport – Jayson Bulterman (BMW F800), 300cc Meghan Hall (Honda CBR), CBR 150 Juniors – Dylan Grobler (Honda), CBR 150 Clubmans – Emma Oberholzer (Yamaha R15), CBR 250 – Anthony Lippstreu.
Published by: Brendan Kelly
Picture Caption: Michael Stephen in his Team Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8
Photography by: Adele Bence
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