Motorsport followers are in for an action-packed weekend at Red Star Raceway when 47 vehicles and 75 drivers hit the monitor for the second spherical of the Southern African Endurance Series Autumn Motorsport Festival on 28 and 29 April. An added bonus for spectators is free entry to the racing!
Red Star Raceway Autumn Motorsport Festival
Two races for the SA GT National Championship and the Toys-R-Us Three Hour SA Endurance National Championship take delight of place on the race programme with two Silvercup races offering extra thrilling racing.
Heading the SA Endurance National Championship factors log is Charl Arangies and Clint Weston who will discipline a Stradale Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup automotive within the three-hour endurance occasion as an alternative of their common Mercedes-AMG and can be aiming to make it two out of two to maintain their title momentum on the boil.
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Second positioned Xolile Letlaka and Stuart White are additionally altering their machine for the second spherical, wheeling out their Into Africa Racing McLaren 650S of their quest to take the battle to the Stradale secure.
BBR Racing – third within the title race within the early a part of the season, have regulars Hein Lategan and Verissimo Tavares behind the wheel of their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, bolster their line-up with triple SA Cross Country Champion and Dakar common Henk Lategan of their arsenal.
Dolphin Engineering’s Byron Mitchell and Peter van der Spuy tackle the category A giant weapons of their Juno SS3-Nissan V6, the nimble sports activities automotive greater than able to holding its personal on the twisty Red Star circuit.
Joseph Ellerine has teamed up with SupaCup champion Leyton Fourie in one other MJR Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT4 and the battle between the 2 Audi GT4 groups ought to be a spotlight of the race.
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Volkswagen Motorsport’s Daniel Rowe heads the category D title chase within the factory-backed Polo SupaCup, and with co-driver Keagan Masters racing abroad, he can be joined this time round by a number of manufacturing automotive champion Graeme Nathan.
Karah Hill and Polo Cup racer Jurie Swart will present stiff competitors with their Kalex Volkswagen SupaCup, aiming to enhance on their final outing and shut the category title factors hole to the manufacturing facility crew.
Mike McLoughlin/Steve Clark have their wild Chevvy-powered Backdraft Slingshot at hand and can be searching for a trouble-free run, as improvement points have hampered the crew to date.
Class E is the area of the Backdraft-Lexus roadsters and options their very own championship-within-a-championship, with the lone exception of Andrew Horne/Gerald Buys’ Xena Chemicals Nash-VW. Horne has utterly refurbished the automotive’s suspension to keep away from issues which have brought on a number of current retirements whereas nicely positioned for end result.
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Leading the Class E title chase is the defending class and Index of Performance champions Harm and Barend Pretorius of their Team Pesty Backdraft. With an eye fixed on defending each championships, the Father and Son duo can be pulling out all of the stops.
CJ Blackman, Anthony Hoare and Jean-Paul Briner made their debut in spherical one – and promptly went to the highest of the Index of Performance factors log. The Tradecor Steel/Wright Motorsport Backdraft trio can be watched by their rivals to see if this was “beginner’s luck” or a sustainable season-long problem.
Factory backdraft racers Brian Martin and Trevor Graham are 4 factors behind the Pretorius father and son crew and can be racing arduous to catch up.
Team Qhubani’s Fikile Holomisa and Baphumze Rubuluza suffered a uncommon retirement within the opening spherical and can be burning the midnight oil to engineer their traditional bulletproof reliability again into their Backdraft and get again into title rivalry.
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Benjamin, Crisjan and Ben Morgenrood Sr (Ben Morgenrood Group Backdraft) are out to re-discover their mojo after narrowly lacking out on the title final yr and beginning the yr with a non-finish.
Another crew wanting to get their scorecard ticking over is the PPLE/Adapt Backdraft trio of Phillip Meyer, Mark Harvey and Dean Wolson who retired from the opening spherical with minutes remaining on the clock.
Brandon Dean and Jarryd Wray spherical out the category E entries of their Mad Max-entered Backdraft, wanting to get their first factors of the season on the board.
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The One-Hour Dash Interprovincial Championship runs along with the SA Endurance sequence the place groups run the primary hour of the endurance race earlier than pitting after 60 minutes.
Michael Stephen leads teammate Roelf du Plessis by three factors; Stephen is behind the wheel of an Ultimate Outlaws McLaren MP4-12C whereas du Plessis brings his thrilling Ultimate Outlaws Holden, packing a 6.0 litre Chev V8 motor and ought to be those to beat.
They can be joined by Marius Jackson’s MJR Motorsport/MegaFibre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2, Paul Hill’s wailing V12 Kalex Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Izak Spies’ Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.
SA GT National Championship
Michael Stephen dominated the opening two rounds of the SA GT National Championship final month to take a useful early six level lead in his Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo and can absolutely have a goal on his again heading to rounds three and 4.
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Andrew Culbert had his greatest outings but in his Bigfoot Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a pair of runner-up placings to lie second on the championship log with a 4 level hole to Aldo Scribante (Scribante Concrete Lamborghini Huracan GT3), who at the moment completes the factors podium.
The man with essentially the most work to do is the reigning SA GT Champion Silvio Scribante who had a uncommon mechanical challenge in his Cemza Cement Lamborghini Huracan GT3; his 30 factors leaves him fifth within the ’23 standings and people factors had been solely courtesy of sharing his brother Aldo’s automotive in race two final month. Fit and hungry, the youthful Scribante would be the largest hazard to Stephen at Red Star.
Roelf du Plessis, sixth within the standings, and Izak Spies will discipline a pair of Ultimate Outlaws McLaren MP4-12Cs and can be joined by Marius Jackson, who returns to the sequence in his MJR Motorsport/MegaFibre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2.
Support Races
16 top-tier Silvercup groups will be a part of the SAES race programme for the primary time. Marius Jacobs (AAA Recovery Nissan Tigra) and Karel Stols (Rotrix Racing Mazda RX7) are common winners within the sequence which additionally options Nic Martin (Car Care Clinic Peugeot 207 GTi), Giulio Airaga (Desco Tigra-Mazda) and Chris Cronje’s Dozer Earthmoving Toyota spaceframe.
Race Programme
Track motion will get underway on Friday with 4 free follow classes for the three championships, adopted by SAE Qualifying at 15h30 and SAGT Qualifying at 16h15.
Saturday’s actions begins with a brief warm-up session for every class adopted by Silvercup Qualifying at 08H00.
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The first one-hour SA GT race begins at 08H55 adopted by the primary Silvercup race at 10h15. An hour later, the lights exit for the beginning of the three-hour SA Endurance race at 11h15.
The second Silvercup race begins at 15h05 with the ultimate race of the day, the second SA GT race scheduled to begin at 16h00.
Just an hour’s drive East of Johannesburg and Pretoria, Red Star Raceway is definitely accessible on the N12 freeway.
Published by MotorPress
For extra motoring occasion information together with the SA GT Endurance Championship, comply with our motorsport web page.
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