With 13 hours of racing remaining and 150 factors nonetheless out there within the 2023 SA Endurance National Championship, the championship desk is crowded as three drivers are tied on the prime of the log, with one other three simply 5 factors adrift, setting the scene for spectacular race at Zwartkops Raceway on 21st October, the place Southern African Endurance Series is providing free entry for spectators as soon as once more.
Tight on the prime of SA Endurance National Championship
The Four-Hour Endurance race needs to be a straight struggle between the Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Xolile Letlaka and Stuart White and Charl Arangies who shares his Stradale Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Clint Weston this time round.
Arangies, partnered with Clint Weston received the opening spherical at Zwartkops again in March whereas the Into Africa crew fought again with a spectacular win final day out at Aldo Scribante in August.
Third within the Championship standings, Hein and Henk Lategan together with Verissimo Tavares have been pressured to miss this spherical as their star driver Henk injured his shoulder after rolling his Toyota Hilux within the SA Rally Raid Championship two weeks in the past.
Arnold Neveling is 2 factors adrift of the BBR Porsche trio however will sit out this spherical as Weston as soon as extra joins the squad, so his place within the standings is safe for now.
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Byron Mitchell and Peter van der Spuy have loved a strong season aboard their Dolphin Racing Juno-Nissan V6 and needs to be a contender for an additional huge factors haul, aiming to match their season finest results of fourth general at Red Star Raceway in April.
The thundering Backdraft Roadster, powered by a 7-litre Chev engine and pushed with gusto by Mike McLoughlin and Steve Clark, is one other open sportscar vying for a prime 5 place and needs to be greater than a match for the Juno.
Rounding out the Class A entry is the intriguing crew, the Mozambique-based Korridas Racing pushed by Marcos Rodrigues and Bruno Campos in a extremely modified Audi RS4.
Heading the Class D battle and sixth general is the manufacturing facility Volkswagen Motorsport Polo GTi SupaCup of Daniel Rowe and Keagan Masters, contemporary from his Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup duties in Europe – the place he completed third within the Rookie standings – who head up the most important Class D area of the yr to this point, however the manufacturing facility squad could have their work reduce out as looming massive within the mirrors, is the same Kalex VW Polo GTi SupaCup of girl racer Karah Hill and Jurie Swart, who bested their rivals within the Eastern Cape final day out.
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That doesn’t imply that the highest two class rivals could have issues all their very own manner as Charl Visser, who was topped CompCare Volkswagen Polo Cup Champion final weekend, groups up with David and Roberto Franco of their Graphix Supply World Polo; Visser can be watched with explicit curiosity as his subsequent profession transfer is probably going to be within the GTC SupaCup sequence subsequent yr.
Bucketlist Racing have entered two Polos for brothers Anthony and Christopher Pretorius – Anthony raced to third within the Polo Cup Championship this yr and is already a seasoned racer. The second entry is for Darren Winterboer, a veteran BMW Car Club racer and Mozambique racer Dylan Pragji.
Fabienne Lanz groups up with Regard van Zyl in her Target Corporate Karting VW Golf; generally known as the Iron Lady, Fabienne is probably the most profitable feminine karting star in South Africa.
The prestigious Index of Performance Champion has become a fairy-tale season for rookies CJ Blackman and Jean-Paul Briner, who’ve raced their Tradecor Steel Backdraft Roadster right into a 14-point lead over Philip Meyer, Dean Wolson and Mark Harvey’s PPLE/Adapt Backdraft.
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In the titanic struggle over Class E honours, which is a championship-within-a-championship, the roles are reversed with the PPLE/Adapt trio holding a slender two level lead of the Tradecor pairing. Not out of the championship struggle by a protracted shot is the present Index and Class E champions of father and son Harm and Barend Pretorius within the Team Pesty Backdraft, who’re three factors away from the highest of the desk.
One level additional again is the Morgenrood trio of Ben, and sons Benjamin and Crisjan Morgenrood of their Morgenrood group Backdraft, who suffered a non-finish within the coastal spherical and can out to make for misplaced factors.
Team Qhubani’s Baphumze Rubuluza and Fikile Holomisa, often a mannequin of reliability and consistency, have endured a torrid season to date with only one end from three begins and can be aiming to flip their season round.
An thrilling entry into the category E Backdraft battle that might set the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons is the Mobil 1 V8 pairing of freshly topped champion Julian Familiaris and buddy and rival Franco di Matteo, who understand how to pedal big-engined vehicles in a short time.
Gavin Rooke and Mark Owens return for an additional tilt at some Class E factors having been absent from the sequence for a while.
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SAGT National Championship
Whatever occurs in rounds seven and eight of the SAGT National Championship, the title will stay in Gqeberha. With 5 victories from six rounds, Michael Stephen has his first alternative to win an unprecedented 19th National motorsport championship, whereas Team Ultimate Outlaws is on monitor to declare their first Team’s Championship given
The Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8 GT3 has solely been overwhelmed by the reigning SAGT National Champion Silvio Scribante as soon as this yr; the often Swiss-clock-reliable Cemza Cement Lamborghini Huracan GT3 has faltered twice this yr leaving Silvio with an 11-point mountain to climb to shut the hole to fellow Gqeberha racer Stephen.
Brother Aldo Scribante has powered his Scribante Concrete Lamborghini to six consecutive podiums and can be wanting to keep his type to hold his brother behind him within the standings as he pursues the Class A title.
Stuart White can be behind the wheel of the Into Africa Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and is greater than able to mixing it with the general leaders, as demonstrated final weekend when he set an outright GT lap document across the 2.4km Zwartkops circuit in a time of 58.132 seconds!
In the ProfessionalAm class, Roelf du Plessis has a chance to take the category title lead adopted intently by crew proprietor Izak Spies, the pair of Ultimate Outlaws McLaren 650s evenly matched over a race distance with Du Plessis holding the higher hand over ‘the boss’ by 14 factors. The class chief, Andrew Culbert will lose his three level lead as he has prior preparations and received’t be competing.
Xolile Letlaka is third within the ProfessionalAm class and placed on an awesome exhibiting in his Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan GT3 within the dash sequence final weekend.
Sun Moodley has an exquisite alternative to take the Am Class lead if he can replicate his Gqeberha efficiency in his Bigfoot Express Mercedes-AM GT3, the place he added 51 factors to his tally.
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Support races
The SAES programme provides spectators two extra race classes to take pleasure in with a bumper 31 automobile entry within the Silvercup sequence and a spherical of the model new VW Rookie Cup, the place tomorrow’s stars study their craft.
Chris Cronje leads the championship standings in his Dozer Earthmoving Toyota Spaceframe by a cushty 57 factors from Giles Darroch’s very fast GRD Motorsport VW Golf Mk 1 who is barely three factors forward of Karel Stolts’ Mazda RX7, who in flip is tied with Wayne Perreira’s fast VW Golf Mk.1
The all-new Volkswagen Rookie Cup is a brand new initiative to bridge the hole between karting and VW’s profitable Polo Cup one-make sequence. It is designed to carry kids aged between 14 and 16 into circuit racing and relies on the 1.0 litre VW Polo Vivo GT.
The winner of the VW Rookie Cup receives a full funded season in Polo Cup for the next season.
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Timetable
The SAES Raceday can be livestreamed https://bit.ly/SAES_Round4
Friday’s action covers 4 free apply periods per class earlier than the clocks begin in earnest as official qualifying will get underway. SAGT will get the ball rolling at 15h30, adopted by the VW Rookie Cup at 15h55. The SAE qualifying session is break up into two 20-minute periods beginning at 16h20
Saturday sees an early begin for the youngsters who’ve their first race at 08h10 adopted by Silvercup qualifying at 08h25.
09h45 sees the primary SAGT race get underway adopted by the primary Silvercup race and two VW Rookie Cup races, break up by a lunch break with the Silvercup vehicles taking to the monitor at 12h50 for his or her second race.
The foremost occasion, the SAE 4-Hour race begins at 14h00 with the SAGT vehicles racing their second spherical of the day over the primary hour of the endurance race.
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Published by Motorpress
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