information supplied by: WesBank - Super Series 17 June 2012
Street Racing Festival

Durban’s round of the WesBank Super Series turned into a survival of the intelligent as an unforgiving wall lined 2km track put paid to a number of top line drivers’ chances. A ‘green’ track meant there wasn’t much grip off the racing line and this caught out a number of competitors during Friday’s brief practice sessions.

Held over two days in ideal weather there was a festive atmosphere as the event formed part of the Top Gear Festival.

The nature of the tight street circuit meant whoever started from pole position had an immediate advantage and Simon Moss (Tsogo Sun F/GTI) took full advantage of his position at the head of the Formula VW grid.

From pole he never put a foot wrong and aced each race ahead of Jayde Kruger (First Freight F/GTI) with a controlled display of aggressive, yet precision driving. Third in race one was Ernie van der Walt (Ferodo F/GTI) while Nic Chapman got the position in race two. 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 as Werner Scholtz (Motorvia Mygale) was narrowly ahead of Jason Campos (Etana Mygale) each time and current champion Mathew Merton (Matsam Mygale) finished third both times to extend his championship advantage.

There were different winners in the hard fought Engen Volkswagen Cup races. The first heat saw 15-year old Kelvin van der Linde (Ferodo VW Polo) put in a superbly aggressive drive to win from Kyle Barnes (Gold Liberations Polo) and Mathew Hodges (ITR Polo). In race two Barnes got the lead from the start and resisted numerous determined to charges from vd Linde to bag the win by less than a car length.

Third was Devin Robertson (Big Boss Polo) but aggregate race times meant it was vd Linde who took the overall win.

There was action from the beginning of qualifying in the Bridgestone Production Car event as a lap two accident eliminated Mish-Al Sing (Pirtek BMW), Johan Fourie (EPS Audi S4) and Graeme Nathan (Indy Oil Golf GTI).

Michael Stephen (Engen Extreme Audi S4) started from pole position and was ahead when Castrol Ford driver Shaun Duminy and the Castrol Mini of Lee Thompson clashed at turn one and the Mini hit the wall backwards. There was no choice but to stop the race and result was declared after eight laps.

Behind Stephen was Etienne van der Linde (BMW) and Melvill Priest, but neither looked likely to threaten the black Audi.

It was a day of firsts for Jacques Joubert (Indy Oil Golf GTI) in class T. He started from his first pole position and went on to score a popular win ahead of Gennaro Bonafede in the Ferodo backed Golf 6 as Gary Formato was third in the Castrol Ford Focus.

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

Vd Linde held the advantage throughout the incident free 12-laps and he opened up a 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.

Results:
Bridgestone Production Cars
Heat 1. Michael Stephen (Audi); 2. Etienne van der Linde (BMW); 3. Anthony Taylor (BMW); 4. Melvill Priest (Audi); 5. Tschops Sipuka (Audi).
Heat 2. 1 vd Linde; 2. Stephen; 3. Priest, 4. Darryn Lobb (BMW); 5. Sipuka.
Class T: 1. Jacques Joubert (Golf); 2. Gennaro Bonafede (Golf); 3. Gary Formato (Ford).
Heat 2.
Class T: 1. Bonafede; 2. Joubert; 3. Formato.

Engen VW Cup
Heat 1. 1 Kelvin vd Linde (VW Polo); 2. Kyle Barnes (VW Polo); 3. Mathew Hodges (VW Polo); 4. Kosie Weyers (VW Polo); 5; Devin Rebertson (VW Polo).
Heat 2. 1 Barnes; 2. vd Linde; 3.

SA Single Seaters
Heat 1. 1. Simon Moss (F/VW); 2. Jayde Kruger (F/VW); 3. Ernie van der Walt (F/VW); 4. Nic Chapman (F/VW); 5. Tato Carello (F/VW);
Formula 1600: 1. Werner Scholtz (Mygale); 2. Jason Campos (Mygale) 3. Mathew Merton (Mygale)
Heat 2. 1. Moss; 2. Kruger; 3. Chapman; 4. vd Walt; 5. Nicholas van Weely (F/VW).
Formula 1600: 1. Scholtz; 2. Campos; 3. Merton. Street Racing Festival.doc (27kB)

Complete Release: Street Racing Festival.zip (2,597kB)