Audi Racing History in South Africa Part 10: The S4 supercharged arrival

Audi Racing History in South Africa Part 10 of 10 
The S4 supercharged arrival 

By Johan Laubscher

The Audi A4 B7 had been a dominant force in the national South African motorsport scene, but its dominance had come to an end. The new generation of force inducted Class A Production cars literally rendered the older cars, including the Audi A4, obsolete overnight. A new car was needed from the Audi teams, and they answered this call with the new Audi S4 B8.

2011

Production Car Championship: Both teams of the 2011 season were in a race against time at the beginning of the year. Terry Moss Racing and Johan Fourie Racing had committed to building new race cars. Their weapon of choice: the new Audi S4 (B8). The new cars were not ready for the opening round and the teams raced with the old B7 A4 cars until their respective S4 race cars were ready later in the season. By round two at Killarney the first S4 was ready and the game was about to change. Michael Stephen used the S4 for Terry Moss Racing at Killarney with a debut pole position and a flag to flag victory. The second Terry Moss Racing S4 joined at round three of the series, the car for Tschops Sipuka. Johan Fourie debuted his S4 at Phakisa during round 4 and took a win in the 2-hour endurance event on its debut. The regular drivers were joined by second drivers for the two endurance events during the season. Johan Fourie shared with Kosie Swanepoel and Tschops Sipuka shared with Simon Moss (son of Terry Moss). Michael Stephen shared with Terry Moss during the first endurance event and shared with Shaun Watson-Smith for the second event later in the year. Nieyaaz Modack purchased the ex-Fourie A4 and competed once with the car in the Production Car Championship at Killarney. The 2011 season developed into a Fourie S4 vs Stephen S4 championship battle. The title fight went down to the final round with Michael Stephen emerging champion.

2011 Michael Stephen A4 (MP)

2011 Michael Stephen S4 (MP)

2011 Tschops Sipuka A4 (MP)

2011 Tschops Sipuka S4 (MP)

2011 Johan Fourie A4 (MP)

2011 Johan Fourie S4 (MP)

2011 Nieyaaz Modack A4 (MP)

2011 Fourie & Swanepoel (Enduro events) (MP)

2011 Stephen & Shaun Watson-Smith (Enduros) (MP) 

2011 Stephen & Terry Moss (Enduros) (MP)

2011 Sipuka & Simon Moss (Enduros) (MP)

Footage of the entire 2011 season can be found HERE. 

Cape Town Regionals: The ex-Fourie and ex-Sipuka B7 A4 race cars ended up in private hands in the Killarney based Midas Clubmans Championship. Nieyaaz Modack first purchased the Sipuka car and later replaced it with the Fourie car. Iftehaar Dada now owned the Sipuka car. These two Audi A4 cars were joined in the series by the privately built turbo charged A4 B7 of Andre Johnson.

The Sports and GT category which is also based at Killarney had one Audi taking part during the year. A silver first generation Audi TT driven by Keith Fourie. A number of old Audis also took part in the Fine Cars/Classic Cars series which is based in Cape Town for older vehicles.

2011 Andre Johnson A4 (RG)

2011 Nieyaaz Modack (ex-Sipuka A4) (RG)

2011 Nieyaaz Modack (ex-Fourie A4) (VH)

2011 Iftehaar Dada (ex-Sipuka A4) (VH)

2011 Keith Fourie TT (RG)

Various Audis in Fine/Classic Cars (VH)

Eastern Cape Regionals: During July of 2011 Terry Moss Racing entered one of their new Audi S4 cars in the Eastern Cape Saloon Car Championship held at Aldo Scribante. Michael Stephen drove the Audi S4 to two race victories on the day.  

2011 Michael Stephen S4 (MSK)

2012

Production Car Championship: The 2012 Bridgestone Production Car Championship was once again one of consistency for the reigning champion, Michael Stephen. Four Audi S4 cars were ready for the start of the season with the two Terry Moss Racing cars, and the third from Johan Fourie Raing being joined by a fourth from VMP Motorsport. The VMP team made their long-awaited return to the Audi brand during 2012. Johan Fourie faced an uphill battle with sponsorship as he missed the opening round and then only competed at some of the events. The JFR livery also changed during the season as they switched from the orange to a white livery as their hunt for sponsorship continued. Nieyaaz Modack, who owns the ex-JFR Audi A4, also raced under the Johan Fourie Racing banner during select race weekend in the series. When Johan Fourie was on track he showed all of his usual promise but sadly the sponsorship issues would not be resolved. By July the news was official, Johan Fourie Racing closed its doors. The team’s Audi S4 was quickly sold for another competitor. After much rumour and speculation the news broke that Gennaro Bonnafede would be racing the Audi S4 in Ferodo Racing colours, run by VMP. 2012 was a learning year for VMP, both with their newly built Audi S4 driven by Melvill Priest and their newly acquired ex-JFR Audi S4 of Bonafede. At the front end of the title chase was the reigning champion, Michael Stephen. As was the case during 2011, consistency was the ultimate deciding factor. Michael constantly finished in the points, and despite the introduction of new machinery from the opposition, he was able to regain his title. It was a good year for the Terry Moss Racing squad as Tschops Sipuka also had a good showing. This marked the second time that an Audi driver has won the Class A championship title back-to-back, first it was Johan Fourie (2008 & 2009) and now Stephen (2011 & 2012). It is also the fifth title in total for an Audi driver in this championship (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012).

2012 Michael Stephen S4 (MP)

2012 Tschops Sipuka S4 (MP)

2012 Johan Fourie S4 (MP)

2012 Melvill Priest S4 (MP)

2012 Gennaro Bonafede S4 (MP)

2012 Nieyaaz Modack A4 (MP)

Cape Town Regionals: The Midas Clubmans Championship in Cape Town again saw the three Audi A4 cars during 2012. Nieyaaz Modack raced the ex-JFR Audi A4 which changed its livery three times (orange to white to green) during the season to match the Johan Fourie Racing Team. Modack competed with assistance from the JFR team until the team closed shop half way through the year. Iftehaar Dada competed at some of the event during 2012 with his ex-Terry Moss Racing/Sipuka Audi A4. Andre Johnson also raced his privately built turbo charged A4. Modack  was present at almost all of the events but faced a race ban near the end of the season, Kosie Swanepoel drove the A4 during the ban period. Kosie debuted the third and final livery of the car that year, a green and blue livery. Towards the end of 2012 Andre Johnson was also seen driving the ex-Terry Moss Racing/Sipuka Audi A4, however the car was suffering from misfire problems. 

The Sports and GT category which is also based at Killarney in Cape town had two Audis taking part during the year. The silver first generation Audi TT driven by Keith Fourie and an Audi R8 bodied spaceframe race car. The Audi R8 was driven by Paul Beachyhead. The R8 used a 3.6 V8 twin-turbo Audi engine. The car experienced problems during the first events as its development continued. A number of old Audis also took part in the Fine Cars/Classic Cars series which is based in Cape Town for older vehicles.

2012 Andre Johnson A4 (RG)

2012 Nieyaaz Modack (ex-Fourie A4) (RG)

2012 Iftehaar Dada (ex-Sipuka A4) (RG)

2012 Kosie Swanepoel (ex-Fourie A4) (RG)

2012 Andre Johnson (ex-Sipuka A4) (RG)

2012 Keith Fourie TT (RG)

2012 Paul Beachyhead R8 Spaceframe (EM)

Various Audis in Fine/Classic Cars (VH)

Eastern Cape Regionals: Terry Moss Racing entered their one remaining older Audi A4 B7 race car in the Eastern Cape Saloon Car Championship during September, held at Aldo Scribante. Simon Moss drove the Audi A4 at the event. He qualified on pole but an engine failure during qualifying ended their race day. Shortly after this event the car was repaired and put up for sale. 

2012 Simon Moss A4 (TM)

Gauteng Regionals: Towards the end of 2012 Terry Moss Racing sold their one remaining B7 A4 race car. The car was sold to the Du Toit family in Gauteng. The car debuted in the hands of Jonathan Du Toit at the Extreme Festival at Zwartkops in November. The car will continue racing in these events in the future.

An Audi A3 was entered in the SuperHatch series at Zwartkops. The car was driven by Jaco Lubbe and competed in Class A of the series.

2012 Jonathan Du Toit A4 (RP)

2012 Jaco Lubbe A3 (RP)

2013

As it stands 2013 will be another spectacular motorsport year for Audi in South Africa. With at least four Audi S4 cars on the ever growing production car grid it will be another great season. The number one has been retained and will once again be on the car of Michael Stephen from Terry Moss Racing. 

Michael Stephen with the retained number one (JL)

Here's to a great past and future for Audi in South African Motorsport.

Audi Racing History in South Africa article links:
Part 1: The introduction
Part 2: The beginning
Part 3: The rally legend came to SA
Part 4: quattro debuts on the track
Part 5: The mighty S4 GTO
Part 6: World class Super Touring
Part 7: The end of an era
Part 8: The return of the rings
Part 9: The reign of the A4 quattro
Part 10: The S4 supercharged arrival

Photo sources:
MSK = Marc Sing Key Photogarphy from www.marcsingkey.smugmug.com / MSK Facebook 
MP = MotorPics from www.motorpics.co.za
RP = RacePics from www.racepics.co.za
RG = Reynard Gelderblom from www.streetmotion.co.za
TM = Terry Moss Racing from www.facebook.com/terrymoss.racing
VH = Vernon Hope from www.vchphotos.com
EM = Eugene Manoek from emanoek.blogsport.com
JL = Johan Laubscher

Article cover photo = Johan Laubscher 
Bottom cover photo = Johan Laubscher / Tarek Ramchani 

All the images are labeled with an abbreviation within brackets in their caption which indicates the photo source as listed above.