By Johan Laubscher
Race day dawned with very high temperatures
at Kyalami. The show piece of the day was the South African Bridgestone
Production Cars, the series wherein the Audi S4 team are competing. Four Audi
S4 cars are entered in this Championship. Terry Moss Racing with Michael Stephen
and Tschops Sipuka, and VMP Motorsport with Melvill Priest and Gennaro
Bonafede (Ferodo). The Audi teams were confident after very positive sessions on Friday.
Michael Stephen, the reigning champion, had put his car on provisional pole and
took part in SuperPole on Saturday.
The top three qualifiers from each class had one flying lap to determine the final top three qualifying order. In Class A it was a SuperPole battle between Stephen and the pair of Team Afrox BMWs. Stephen was first out on track and set a very good time. Johan Fourie (an ex-Audi driver and two-time champion) was out next and only 0.173 seconds slower than Stephen. The second BMW, driven by Etienne van der Linde, and the last runner in the Class A SuperPole, had an accident on his flying lap. The damage put the BMW out for the day and the team switched to an older spare car. The accident resulted in Michael Stephen taking the official pole position and the three championship points that came with it.
The first race of the day saw Stephen on pole followed by the other Audis in fourth, sixth and seventh. Races one and two were both six lap sprints. Michael Stephen maintained his first place off the line and went on towards a flag to flag victory. Behind him it was a very busy race with cars battling for position. Melvill Priest held on for fourth with Sipuka right behind him. Bonafede suffered technical problems during race one.
The top three qualifiers from each class had one flying lap to determine the final top three qualifying order. In Class A it was a SuperPole battle between Stephen and the pair of Team Afrox BMWs. Stephen was first out on track and set a very good time. Johan Fourie (an ex-Audi driver and two-time champion) was out next and only 0.173 seconds slower than Stephen. The second BMW, driven by Etienne van der Linde, and the last runner in the Class A SuperPole, had an accident on his flying lap. The damage put the BMW out for the day and the team switched to an older spare car. The accident resulted in Michael Stephen taking the official pole position and the three championship points that came with it.
The first race of the day saw Stephen on pole followed by the other Audis in fourth, sixth and seventh. Races one and two were both six lap sprints. Michael Stephen maintained his first place off the line and went on towards a flag to flag victory. Behind him it was a very busy race with cars battling for position. Melvill Priest held on for fourth with Sipuka right behind him. Bonafede suffered technical problems during race one.
The top six were inverted for race two. This inversion meant that Sipuka, who finished fifth in race one, would start on the front row. Sipuka is well known for making lighting fast starts with the quattro system, often dancing on the line of it being a jump start. On this occasion he timed it perfectly and rocketed himself into the lead. He maintained this lead during the race and went on to claim his first official race victory with the Audi S4. And to further prove that it was not a fluke, he set the fastest lap in the race as well, gaining him pole position for race three. Mr Consistency, Michael Stephen, had moved his way up the field to finish third after starting from sixth. The Terry Moss Racing camp were very happy as both of their drivers had taken a win a piece so far. Both Melvill and Bonafede faced problems during the second race, but most importantly Melvill had set the second fastest lap, ensuing a front row start for race three.
All four Audi cars were ready for race three which saw an Audi front row ahead of the twelve lap race. The starting order in race three is determined by the fastest laps from race two. Sipuka was on pole followed by Priest. Sipuka crept on the line at the start and would later be given a jump start penalty. Priest had a very good start in the Audi S4 and shot into the lead closely followed by Hennie Groenewald in the Subaru, who had a tremendous start from row two. Priest and Groenewald had a very good fight at the front as the field fought behind them. The two big movers were Stephen and the BMW of Fourie. Stephen had made his way through the field and was up to third battling for the lead. His progress had been shadowed by Fourie who was running with him. Stephen made the pass for second, closely followed by the BMW.
At this stage Priest lead Stephan and Fourie, but this Audi 1-2 was short lived as Johan Fourie muscled his way past both Audis and took the lead. Stephen was able to pass Priest down the inside of Sunset and put in a great lap to close down Fourie. They crossed the line together with only a few laps to go. However, Fourie was able to re-establish a gap on Stephen and maintained it to the finish. Fourie won the race followed by two Audis completing the podium, Stephen and Priest. Sipuka was ultimately placed ninth overall, sixth in Class A, after receiving a thirty second penalty for the jump start. The difficult day continued for Gennaro Bonafede, the technical issues which had plagued him all day returned in race three. He circulated slowly at the rear of the Class A field to collect points, but the Ferodo Audi team will bounce back and be ready for Cape Town.
Round two of the championship will take place at Killarney. The Cape Town based circuit is well known to suit the quattro cars, and it should be another strong showing for the Audi S4s. The event is scheduled for the weekend of 16 March.
More information:
Production Cars website
Results:
Class A Race 1
1 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
2 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
3 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
4 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
5 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
6 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
DNF Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
1 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
2 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
3 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
4 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
5 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
6 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
DNF Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
Class A Race 2
1 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
2 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
3 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
4 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
5 Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
6 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
8 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
1 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
2 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
3 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
4 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
5 Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
6 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
8 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
Class A Race 3
1 Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
2 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
3 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
4 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
5 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
6 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
8 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
Photo credit: MotorPics website / Production Cars website
1 Johan Fourie – BMW 335i – Team Afrox
2 Michael Stephen – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
3 Melvill Priest – Audi S4 – VMP Meuller Sports Medicine
4 Richard Pinard – Subaru WRX STI – Team Sasol Subaru
5 Etienne van der Linde – BMW 335 – Team Afrox
6 Tschops Sipuka – Audi S4 – Engen Xtreme
7 Gennaro Bonafede – Audi S4 – Ferodo
8 Hennie Groenewald – Subaru WRX STi – Team Sasol Subaru
Photo credit: MotorPics website / Production Cars website
