Durban street circuit takes its toll

Durban's round of the WesBank Super Series - held on a 2km street circuit lined with unforgiving walls as part of the Top Gear Festival, turned into a survival of the intelligent.

A 'green' track meant there wasn't much grip off the racing line and this caught out a number of competitors - including some of the top drivers - during Friday's brief practice sessions.

PRODUCTION CARS

Race-day drama for the Production Car brigade started just two laps into qualifying when a three-car pile-up eliminated Mish-Al Sing (BMW), Johan Fourie (Audi S4) and Graeme Nathan (VW Golf GTI).

Michael Stephen (Audi S4) started from pole and was ahead when Ford driver Shaun Duminy and the Mini of Lee Thompson clashed at Turn 1 and the Mini went backwards into the wall.

There was no choice but to stop the race and result was declared after eight laps.

At that point Etienne van der Linde (BMW) and Melvill Priest (Audi S4) were second and third respectively but neither looked likely to threaten the black Audi.

It was a day of firsts for Jacques Joubert (VW Golf GTI) in class T. He started from his first pole position and went on to score a popular win ahead of Gennaro Bonafede's VW Golf 6, with Gary Formato third in a Ford Focus.

SUNDAY

There was qualifying again on Sunday morning for Production Cars and this time it was Van der Linde who had the advantage in class A while Bonafede had the edge in class T.

Van der Linde held the advantage throughout the incident-free 12 lap race, opening a vital gap early on before relaxing his pace to win fairly comfortably from Stephen who in turn had the edge over Priest. Van der Linde's masterful early laps gave him enough of a gap to claim the overall result.

It got a bit hectic in class T. Bonafede kept his starting advantage with Joubert not too far behind. As the race wore on Joubert came under attack from Formato who mounted a desperate challenge for second place two laps from the end.

Joubert fended off the challenge but both lost ground which gave Bonafede enough of a margin to scoop the overall win.

VW CUP

There were different winners in the hard-fought Volkswagen Cup races. The first race saw 15-year old Kelvin van der Linde put in a superbly aggressive drive to win from Kyle Barnes and Mathew Hodges.

In Race 2, however, Barnes got the lead from the start and held off a succession of determined challenges from Van der Linde to bag the win by less than a car-length.

Third was Devin Robertson, but aggregate race times meant it was Van der Linde who took the overall win.

FORMULA VW

The tight street circuit meant whoever started from pole position had an immediate advantage and Simon Moss took full advantage of his position at the head of the Formula VW grid.

From pole to flag he never put a foot wrong and aced each race ahead of Jayde Kruger with a controlled display of aggressive, yet precision driving. Third in Race 1 was Ernie van der Walt while Nic Chapman took the final podium position in Race 2.

Moss closed the gap to championship leader Kruger, but the Edenvale youngster still has a handy lead.

The Formula 1600 race also produced a double winner with Werner Scholtz (Mygale) narrowly ahead of Jason Campos (Mygale) each time, while defending champion Mathew Merton (Mygale) finished third in each race to extend his championship advantage.

RESULTS - PRODUCTION CARS - RACE 1

1 Michael Stephen (Audi)

2 Etienne van der Linde (BMW)

3 Anthony Taylor (BMW)

4 Melvill Priest (Audi)

5 Tschops Sipuka (Audi).

CLASS T

1 Jacques Joubert (Golf)

2 Gennaro Bonafede (Golf)

3 Gary Formato (Ford).

RACE 2

1 Etienne van der Linde (BMW)

2 Michael Stephen (Audi)

3 Melvill Priest (Audi)

4 Darryn Lobb (BMW)

5 Tschops Sipuka (Audi).

Class T

1 Gennaro Bonafede (Golf)

2 Jacques Joubert (Golf)

3 Gary Formato (Ford).

VW CUP - RACE 1

1 Kelvin Van der Linde

2 Kyle Barnes

3 Mathew Hodges

4 Kosie Weyers

5 Devin Robertson

RACE 2

1 Kyle Barnes

2 Kelvin Van der Linde

FORMULA VW - RACE 1

1 Simon Moss

2 Jayde Kruger

3 Ernie van der Walt

4 Nic Chapman

5 Tato Carello

RACE 2

1 Simon Moss

2 Jayde Kruger

3 Nic Chapman

4 Ernie van der Walt

5 Nicholas van Weely

FORMULA 1600 - RACE 1

1 Werner Scholtz (Mygale)

2 Jason Campos (Mygale)

3 Mathew Merton (Mygale)

FORMULA 1600 - RACE 2

1 Werner Scholtz (Mygale)

2 Jason Campos (Mygale)

3 Mathew Merton (Mygale)

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