Saturday, November 2, 2013

BPCC: Melvill Priest VMP Audi S4 on pole for his Swansong at Kyalami


By Johan Laubscher

The South African Bridgestone Production Cars are at Kyalami for the ninth and final round of the season. Qualifying yielded another Audi S4 pole position.

The four regular Audi S4 cars are present at Kyalami, two each from Terry Moss Racing and VMP Motorsport. Michael Stephen arrived at Kyalami as the clear leader in the Class A championship points standings. Stephen is aiming to clinch his third consecutive Class A drivers’ title and Terry Moss Racing’s fourth since 2007.

The Terry Moss Racing squad were once again represented by Michael Stephen in the #1 Audi S4 and his teammate, Tschops Sipuka, in the #2 Audi. VMP Motorsport also had their regular two car team, with Melvill Priest in the #7 VMP Audi S4 and the #32 Ferodo Audi S4 of Gennaro Bonafede, who was aiming to take third in the points today.

Very close times were seen during the three practice sessions on Friday. Qualifying kicked off the day’s proceedings on Saturday. The battle for pole position was won by Melvill Priest in his VMP Audi S4. He took pole ahead of Johan Fourie’s BMW and Hennie Groenewald’s Subaru. Etienne van der Linde took fourth in his BMW, followed by Gennaro Bonafede in fifth and Tschops Sipuka in sixth. Michael Stephen had issues during qualifying and did not set a time, thus he will be lining up seventh on the Class A grid, last in the class.

The first of three races is scheduled for 12h00 local time. We wish the best of luck to the Audi teams and drivers.