Final showdown at Zwartkop Nationals

Published Nov 28, 2011

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The curtain came down on a South African motorsport era and a fair bit of unfinished championship business was taken care of at the final WesBank Super Series meeting of the year at Zwartkop on Saturday.

V8 SUPERCARS

The honour of winning the final two races in the WesBank V8 Supercar championship went to veteran former champion Ben Morgenrood and Danie Correia respectively, as the day signalled the end of a 28-year partnership between WesBank and the V8 series, and also saw Jimmy Auby (Ford Falcon) succeed younger brother Brandon, in a similar car, as champion in the premier Super GT Class.

The elder of the Aubys arrived at Zwartkop with a comfortable points cushion over his brother. A third for big brother Jimmy in the opening race relegated fifth placed Brandon to former champion status.

Morgenrood took the first race ahead of Marc Auby, the third of three brothers in the race, with Jaco Correia (Corvette) fourth. The race was stopped when Correia's brother Danie spun on the last lap, blocking the circuit.

Early argy-argy,which compromised Jimmy Auby and Franco di Matteo (Jaguar) saw the first half of Race 2 run under safety-car conditions. This time around Correia kept it all together and led home Brandon Auby with a high attrition rate among the Super GT runners lifting GT Class leader Patrick Seddon into third overall in his Chev Lumina.

The GT Class title was also settled in Race 1 when championship leader Des Gutzeit (Ford Falcon) and Seddon had a coming together. That sidelined Gutzeit, the defending champion, for the day and handed the title to Larry Wilford in another Ford Falcon.

Veteran Wilford took Race 1 ahead of Seddon and Ray Wilford, also in a Falcon. Seddon took Race 2 ahead of the Wilfords with Ray leading home uncle Larry.

PRODUCTION CARS

What started out as the closest championship battle of the day soon developed into a walkover. Former champion Johan Fourie (Audi S4) went to Zwartkops with a one-point lead over Michael Stephen's identical car in Class A of the Production Car championship.

Fourie then endured one of those days mothers warn their sons about, as nothing went right for the lanky Capetonian. By contrast Stephen was on top of his game, romping home to three wins and a second in the four eight-lap sprint races and taking the championship at a trot.

The other win went to BMW 335 pilot Melvill Priest with Stephen's team mate Tschops Sipuka, Anthony Taylor in the second BMW and Subaru pair of Hennie Groenewald and Richard Pinard also making trips to the podium.

It was much the same scenario in Class T, although championship leader Gary Formato (Ford Focus) started the day with a 20-point advantage over arch rival and reigning champion Graeme Nathan and his VW Golf6.

Nathan took Race 1 ahead of Formato but than things went pear-shaped for the VW driver as Formato won two consecutive races and finished second behind team mate Shaun Duminy in the last lag to wrap up the title - with Nathan's only other worthwhile contribution a second in Race 2.

FORMULA VW

It didn't take Jayde Kruger Long to clinch the Formula VW series; he needed only a single point from the day to settle matters and third place in heat one did the trick.

The new champion was third in both heats behind Robert Wolk and outgoing champion Simon Moss, who never recovered from a horrendous start to the season with Wolk faltering in the latter stages.

Another title was quickly wrapped up when Mathew Merton (Mygale) settled for fourth place behind Nicholas van Weely (Van Diemen), Werner Scholtz (Mygale) and Jason Campos (Mygale) in the first of the two Formula Midas 1600 races heats. Merton then signed off in style by winning the second race ahead of Campos and James Temple's Mygale.

VW CUP

Cape driver Kosie Weyers took a pair of wins in the Engen VW Cup to finish second to champion Devin Robertson who had already wrapped up the title. Weyers took Race 1 ahead of Kyle Barnes and Jeffrey Kruger, with Robertson and Barnes also on the podium in Race 2.

Both wins in the Masters category for drivers over 27 went to local star Lee Thompson, who'd also arrived at Zwartkop with the title already in the bag.

RESULTS

V8 SUPERCARS - RACE 1 - SUPER GT

1 B Morgenrood (Ford Falcon)

2 M Auby (Ford Falvon)

3 J Auby (Ford Falcon).

GT CLASS

1 L Wilford (Ford Falcon)

2 P Seddon (Lumina)

3 R Wilford (Ford Falcon).

RACE 2 - SUPER GT

1 D Correia (Corvette)

2 B Auby (Ford Falcon)

3 C Uys (Corvette.

GT CLASS

1 P Seddon (Lumina)

2 R Wilford (Ford Falcon)

3 L Wilford (Ford Falcon).

PRODUCTION CARS - RACE 1 - CLASS A

1 M Stephen (Audi S4)

2 T Sipuka (Audi S4)

3 H Groenewald (Subaru).

CLASS T

1 G Nathan (VW Golf6)

2 G Formato (Ford Focus)

3 R Roets (VW Golf6).

RACE 2 - CLASS A

1 M Stephen (Audi S4)

2 R Pinard (Subaru)

3 H Groenewald (Subaru)

CLASS T

1 G Formato (Ford Focus)

2 G Nathan (VW Golf6)

3 R Roets (VW Golf6).

RACE 3 - CLASS A

1 M Priest (BMW)

2 M Stephen (Audi S4)

3 A Taylor (BMW)

CLASS T

1 G Formato (Ford Focus)

2 J Duminy (Ford Focus)

3 G Bonafede (VW Golf GTi)

RACE 4 - CLASS A

1 M Stephen (Audi S4)

2 M Priest (BMW)

3 H Groenewald (Subaru)

CLASS T

1 J Duminy (Ford Focus)

2 G Formato (Ford Focus)

3 G Bonafede (VW Golf GTi).

VW CUP - RACE 1

1 K Weyers (VW Polo)

2 K Barnes (VW Polo)

3 J Kruger VW Polo)

MASTERS

L Thompson (VW Polo).

RACE 2

K Weyers (VW Polo)

2 D Robertson (VW Polo)

3 K Barnes (VW Polo)

MASTERS

L Thompson (VW Polo).

FORMULA VW - RACE 1

1 R Wolk (FVW)

2 S Moss (FVW)

3 J Kruger (FVW)

RACE 2

1 R Wolk (FVW)

2 S Moss (FVW)

3 J Kruger (FVW)

FORMULA 1600

RACE 1

N Von Weely (Van Diemen)

2 W Scholtz (Mygale)

3 J Campos (Mygale)

RACE 2

1 M Merton (Mygale)

2 J Campos (Mygale)

3 J Temple (Mygale)

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