Cape Town - The premier SA Production Car series had an action-packed afternoon at Killarney circuit on Saturday 27 September.
And as the sun set, both Johan Fourie and reigning champion Michael Stephen realised that the championship would go down to the wire at Zwartkops on 1 November.
Graeme Nathan was feeling content too, though it was harder work - at least off the circuit. It took a gearbox change between races to get Nathan's Volkswagen Golf GTI back on the grid after a dominant sprint race win from pole position - and as the log leader he started the 12 lap feature race from the back of the grid.
Nathan fought through from the fourth row after a thrilling ding-dong with Ford's Shaun Duminy (and others) to finish second, despite an uncharacteristic off-road excursion at the end of the main straight.
That was enough to clinch yet another Class T title for the towering 45-year-old, and richly-deserved it was. You need to get up very early to beat Nathan and his band of merry men based in a busy little workshop in the shadow of Kyalami's control tower…
Fourie - immensely popular with his home crowd - won the sprint race at a canter in a car that barely needed touching between races; as the log leader he also started from the back of the grid in the feature race.
Class A was a thriller with cars three abreast at times, as a half-dozen of the country's top circuit drivers battled it out.
There was some paint swopped along the way; as before, Fourie's main adversary as he came up through the field was Simon Moss (Audi S4), whose reputation as a hard man is firmly cemented after less than a season in the category.
Needless to say, the only driver who gave Fourie easy passage was Gavin Cronje in the second BMW 335i, also playing hard but fair as he denied Stephen an easy ride to the front.
He too finished second - three seconds behind Stephen - to go to Zwartkops a month hence with an 11 point advantage.
The feature race was nothing like Fourie's easy progress in the earlier seven-lap sprint, as a result of the first corner action which happened astern of his BMW 335i - the Audi S4s of Stephen and Hennie Groenewald tried occupy the same piece of track. By the time they had got themselves disentangled Fourie was untouchable…
Their fracas concertinaed down to the class T cars behind, with Nathan leading the charge and Michael van Rooyen slotting in behind. Or that's how it was supposed to be but all hell broke loose as Charl Smalberger punted Van Rooyen as he turned into the first corner, the Chevrolet Cruze went broadside, and straight off the outside of the corner, taking the luckless Lee Thompson's Mini with him.
That took them both out, while the Chevrolet limped round to the pits and eventually re-joined, to be classified sixth.
The second green and red Mini of Mandla Mdakane had a quiet race by his recent standards, coming home fifth.
A post-meeting review of the incident between Groenewald and Stephen saw their positions reversed, Groenewald demoted to third and Stephen moved to second.
It was the culmination of a tough weekend for the official Audi crew, the highlight of which was a front-row start for Groenewald, who had plugged away on his set-up all Friday to have the car perfect for Saturday morning's qualifying session.
The second works Audi of Gennaro Bonafede, had its qualifying compromised by a slipping clutch, and the rest of the day was just not quite there - though the lean youngster was always in the thick of the action. Groenewald picked up a gearbox gremlin in the feature race and dropped back to be classified last in class.
VOLKSWAGEN CUP
When the dust had settled, Sheldon van der Linde had consolidated his lead, and he will enter the final race day as the championship favourite.
In the Masters category, Mathew Hodges thought he'd ended his championship hopes when he misjudged his pace and rolled in Race ! His rival in the category though, Trevor Bland, had already been removed from the race in lap one in an incident that saw his car at the side of the track just 400 metres away.
This takes the battle for both the overall Engen Volkswagen Cup title and the Masters title to the final round at Zwartkops on Saturday, 1 November.
Race 1 saw a titanic battle between Van der Linde, Daniel Rowe, Dewald Brummer, Hodges and Shaun La Reservée, with Rowe claiming the first race win on the day, Brummer second and championship leader Van der Linde taking third.
Race 2 saw Van der Linde step up to tike win from Brummer and Tasmin Pepper. This second race saw Bland again eliminated from the finishers when brake problems forced him to use engine braking - successfully slowing down but breaking his engine in the process.
With both Hodges and Bland experiencing problems in Race 1, it was up to Juan Gerber to take the overall win for the Masters with second in Race 2.
SINGLE SEATERS
The big news is that the championship is going to a nail-biting finale at Zwartkops with top contenders Nicholas van Weely and Robert Wolk tied on points going into the final round.
Race one saw Wolk take the chequered flag with Van Weely second - Race two had Van Weely winning with Wolk second. Wolk's Formula Volkswagen suffered a puncture during the second race which provided Van Weely with all the opportunity he needed, snatching the race lead in the closing stages of that race.
The pair completed the day with Wolk taking the overall victory and levelling the points table between himself and Van Weely, Setting the series up for a dramatic finale on the first Saturday in November.
Formula 1600 racing saw Scott Temple win race one in an event that saw hard racing for the lead with Bevan Williams and Keegan Campos fighting for their share of the track.
Of the three, it was Campos who was the most successful of the trio, taking the chequered flag in race two with Williams second and Temple third on the podium. Temple still claimed overall victory for the day and enters the final round with a 10 point advantage in the title fight.
JAYDE KRUGER
The British Formula Ford Championship race weekend at Silverstone saw Kruger qualify at the top of the time sheets on Saturday. He started from pole for that first race, Round 25 of the championship, taking the chequered flag to continue with his strong performance for the weekend.
In the Sunday racing he then continued with another strong performance, winning the third of the races for the weekend - and finishing in third place in race two, from a sixth position start.
This race weekend has put Kruger back at the top of the championship standings and he is tied for the lead with Scott Harrison and there is just one race weekend (three races) left in the season.
Kruger races that last round for the season at Brands Hatch on 11 and 12 October.