Veteran racer Hennie Groenewald from Alberton has multiple South African titles in several different classes on his CV, but he will seldom have been more satisfied than after Saturday's clean sweep of wins in the Production Car races at Round 4 of the WesBank Super Series at Zwartkop.
Groenewald and the works Subaru went to Zwartkops with a slender points lead over reigning champion Michael Stephen's Audi S4, but wins in all three races gave his championship challenge a welcome boost.
Groenewald simply pulverised the rest of the field in a flawless display, although two seconds and a third enabled Stephen to do some damage control. Nevertheless, the 14 lap feature race that followed two back to back sprint races carried double points, and will have given Groenewald a little breathing space at the top of the Class A standings.
There were also trips to the podium for former champion Anthony Taylor (BMW F30) and Tschops Sipuka in the second factory Audi. The day, however, belonged to the super-consistent Groenewald.
Not far behind Groenewald was former champion Graeme Nathan (VW Golf6) who took two wins and a second in Class T, to stretch his championship lead over arch-rival Gary Formato (Ford Focus) who also did some damage limitation with a win, a second and a third.
Gennaro Bonafede (VW Golf6), Michael van Rooyen (Hunt Opel OPC) and Shaun Duminy, in the second works Focus) also made it to the podium. It was a disappointing outing, however, for the two Mini, making their competition debut in the hands of Lee Thompson and Gavin Cronje - they clearly have some development work ahead of them.
SUPERBIKES
In another standout performance Clint Seller on a works Honda tightened his hold on the SA Supersport championship with a pair of hard earned-wins. Kawasaki riders have, however, interfered with the team's plans in recent races and this time it was Nicolas Kershaw who made a nuisance of himself.
Kershaw slotted in ahead of Cam Petersen and veteran Lance Isaacs to rob the works Honda riders team of a podium clean sweep. In Race 2 it was Ivan Torlage who looked like spoiling the party and it took a huge last-lap effort from Petersen to pip Torlage for third place behind Honda team mates Seller and Brent Harran.
Superbike fans who were keenly anticipating another two supercharged clashes between Dave 'McFlash' McFadden on his privateer Kawasaki and defending champion Greg Gildenhuys on the mighty works BMW were disappointed when fuel-starvation ruled McFadden out of Race 1.
Geldenhuys, not unexpectedly, led home a BMW clean sweep ahead of Nicolas Grobler and Ryans Ottens.
McFlash is also a gifted tuner, and he was back for Race 2 with the Kawasaki back in full cry, as he and Gildenhuys delivered the action now expected from these two every time they race. Both riders broke the lap record before McFadden clinched another narrow win, with the ever-improving Grobler in third place.
V8 SUPERCARS
The withdrawal from the series earlier in the week of the four-car Auby team left the GT1 field a little depleted but two good races saw Jaco Correia (Corvette) and Franco di Matteo (Jaguar) take a win apiece.
Correia took Race 1 ahead of veteran championship leader Ben Morgenrood (Ford Falcon) and Di Matteo, with Danie Correia fourth in a second Corvette. The second race was run from the usual reverse grid with a late flurry taking Di Matteo to the win, ahead of Correia and Morgenrood who, with the disappearance of the Aubys, improved his championship status.
The GT2 category wins were shared by championship leader Patrick Seddon (Lumina) and Ray Wilford (Corvette) who produced his best result of the season. Seddon faded in the second race and a second for closest championship challenger Des Gutzeit (Ford Falcon) kept the title race wide open.
VW CUP
The VW Cup brigade have also adopted the back-to-back two-sprints-and-a-feature-race format - with all three legs producing different winners and plenty of action from a huge field. Kyle Barnes took the first race, Kosie Weyers the second and teenage championship leader Kelvin van der Linde romped away with the feature race.
FORMULA VW
a trio of young drivers in reigning champion Jayde Kruger, Simon Moss and Robert Wolk have done all the winning so far this season and the trend continued at Zwartkop as a fired-up Moss took the first race ahead of Kruger and Wolk.
Race 2 producing plenty of drama as Moss and Wolk, who have a history of clashing this season, went at it again. This time the confrontation saw Moss out of the race with Wolk dropping down the field.
That left Kruger to score a comfortable win ahead of Tasmin Pepper and Nicolas van Weely, in his best performance since moving from Formula 1600 into the Formula VW ranks.
FORMULA 1600
Werner Scholtz (Mygale) and reigning champion Mathew Merton, also in a Mygale, shared the Formula Midas 1600 wins. Jason Campos (Mygale) took the final podium spot in Race 1 and was joined by brother Keegan after the second leg.
RESULTS
PRODUCTION CARS - RACE 1 - Class A
1 H Groenewald (Subaru)
2 M Stephen (Audi S4)
3 T Sipuka (Audi S4)
Class T:
1 G Nathan (VW Golf6)
2 G Bonafede (VW Golf6)
3 G Formato (Ford Focus)
RACE 2 - Class A
1 H Groenewald (Subaru)
2 A Taylor (BMW F30)
3 M Stephen (Audi S4)
Class T:
1 G Formato (Ford Focus)
2 G Nathan (VW Golf6)
3 M van Rooyen (Opel OPC)
RACE 3 - Class A
1 H Groenewald (Subaru)
2 M Stephen (Audi S4)
3 T Sipuka (Audi S4)
Class T:
1 G Nathan (VW Golf6)
2 G Formato (Ford Focus)
3 S Duminy (Ford Focus)
V8 SUPERCARS - RACE 1 - GT1
J Correia (Corvette)
2 B Morgenrood (Ford Falcon)
3 F di Matteo (Jaguar)
GT2
1 P Seddon (Lumina)
2 R du Plessis (Jaguar)
3 S Herbst (Corvette).
RACE 2 - GT1
1 F di Matteo (Jaguar)
2 J Correia (Corvette)
3 B Morgenrood (Ford Falcon)
GT2
1 R Wilford (Corvette)
2 D Gutzeit (Ford Falcon)
3 R du Plessis (Jaguar).
SA SUPERBIKES - RACE 1
1 G Gildenhuys (BMW)
2 N Grobler (BMW)
3 R Ottens (BMW)
RACE 2
1 D McFadden (Kawasaki)
2 G Gildenhuys (BMW)
3 N Grobler (BMW)
SA SUPERSPORT - RACE 1
1 C Seller (Honda)
2 N Kershaw (Kawasaki)
3 C Petersen (Honda)
RACE 2
1 C Seller (Honda)
2 B Harran (Honda)
3 C Petersen (Honda)
VW CUP - RACE 1
1 K Barnes (VW Polo)
2 M Silverwood (VW Polo)
3 J Pepper (VW Polo)
RACE 2
1 K Weyers (VW Polo)
2 K van der Linde (VW Polo)
3 D Robertson (VW Polo)
RACE 3
1 K van der Linde (VW Polo)
2 M Silverwood (VW Polo)
3 K Weyers (VW Polo)
FORMULA VW - RACE 1
1 S Moss (FVW)
2 J Kruger (FVW)
3 R Wolk (FVW)
RACE 2
1 J Kruger (FVW)
2 T Pepper (FVW)
3 N van Weely (FVW)
FORMULA 1600 - RACE 1
1 W Scholtz (Mygale)
2 M Merton (Mygale)
3 J Campos (Mygale)
RACE 2
1 M Merton (Mygale)
2 J Campos (Mygale)
3 K Campos (Mygale)