What South African Touring Cars Round 5 2024 Report
Where East London Grand Prix Circuit
When Saturday 27 July 2024
Community South African National Championship
Robert wins to take charge in South African Touring Cars
Chemical Logistics Racing BMW South African Touring Cars drivers Robert Wolk and Andy Schofield came home smiling after taking a splendid 1-3 at the East London Grand Prix Circuit’s Extreme Festival on Sunday. It was especially sweet for Wolk, who has moved into a dominant championship position after his title rivals, including teammate Julian van der Watt, suffered weekends to forget.
“I have been praying for one, good, clean weekend for a while now, and finally it came!” Robert Wolk confessed. “My Chemical Logistics WTC Engineering BMW 128ti TC was on rails throughout to allow me to put it on pole, control the first race and then bring it home a safe fourth in the reverse grid race 2 for the overall win. Best of all is that we are now over 20 points clear in the championship chase with four races still to come, but let’s not count any chickens yet! Thank you team for a special car this weekend.”
“While his ultimate pace may not be crushing, South African Touring Cars rookie Andrew Schofield’s consistency certainly is paying dividends in his FlySafair Chemical Logistics WCT BMW 128ti TC. “Another third overall and another decent points haul in East London,” Andy smiled. “It’s a pity I was forced to miss a round to attend to family business earlier in the season, otherwise we’d be right in the middle of that tight fight developing for third in the championship chase. Still, I’m pretty happy with another steady weekend and a strong result for the team.”
It was however a weekend to forget for the team’s third driver Julian van der Watt and his Investchem WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI TC: “I ended up off the track on the second lap of the opening race, my car clipped the tyre wall and flipped over,” Julian rued. “That was my weekend. The team did an incredible job to try get the car ready for race 2, but that was also not to be as there was hidden damage and I had to stop. So a dismal zero-points weekend to drop me right down the championship log. The only positive is that I suppose it can only go better from here.”
“As Robert explained, we have been pining for a good, clean weekend and when it came, we delivered,” Chemical Logistics WCT Engineering team manager Stuart Thompson admitted. “It’s also good to have a lean sweep of poles and race 1 wins between Rob and Julian this year. Andy continues to impress through sheer consistency as he just keeps on picking up the pieces, and that’s starting to build into a decent title push. “Robert is now in a great position, but as we saw with poor Julian this weekend, that can all disappear in an instant. So we keep or heads down and focus fully on that aim of yet another Chemical Logistics WCT Racing South African Touring Cars title.”
“Now that’s the way we like it!” team boss Ian Schofield concluded. “Well done to Robert, Andy and the entire team on a really special weekend. Sorry for Julian – that was a tough break, but this is racing and he will be back. It’s Cape Town next, which is a circuit, and a meeting we have traditionally starred, so here’s to another one of those. See you at Killarney 21 September!”
Issued on behalf of Chemical Logistics Racing
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