By Johan Laubscher
Aldo Scribante in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, hosted a regional event
this weekend. Terry Moss Racing took part in the saloon car races and they did
not disappoint.
Michael Stephen was crowned as the 2013 Bridgestone Production Car Championship Class A champion at Kyalami a few weeks ago. This was his third consecutive Class A title behind the wheel of his Terry Moss Racing Audi S4, becoming the first driver ever to win three Class A titles.
The Kyalami finale was however not the end of Stephen’s season as he
and Terry Moss Racing entered the #A1 Audi S4 for a regional event at Aldo
Scribante in Port Elizabeth this weekend, the team's hometown.
It was the annual LUK Three Hour Challenge and PE200 event. Many
categories took part, including a category called “Allcomers" for a
mixture of saloon cars. Michael Stephen was entered in this category which had
two races on Saturday. Stephen’s entry had been confirmed well ahead of the
event, but a surprise late entry also came from the Terry Moss Racing team, as
Simon Moss, national competitor and son of Audi legend Terry Moss, was entered
in the team’s second Audi S4.
The big news ahead of this weekend was that the Audi S4s would be
competing completely unrestricted. In the national Bridgestone Production
Car Championship the cars are subjected to strict regulations imposing ballast
and restrictors, to level the playing field amongst all of the different
vehicles. These restrictions are always a talking point amongst the competitors
and fans alike. Despite the news that the cars would be unrestricted, it was
confirmed by Michael Stephen on twitter that the cars did actually run
with the restrictors fitted to the S4s, which meant that they ran similar lap
times as to the national round at Aldo Scribante earlier in April this year.
Qualifying was held early on Saturday morning and as expected the Audis
dominated proceedings at the front of the field. Michael Stephen took pole
position ahead of Simon Moss. Their fastest laps were separated by a mere 0.334
seconds, with Stephen setting a 1:05.959 for pole.
The two Allcomers saloon races were held on Saturday afternoon. Michael Stephen came home to win the first race ahead of Simon Moss, taking a 1-2 victory for the team. Simon Moss set the fastest lap in race one and finished 0.587 second behind Stephen. It was a similar story in the second and final Allcomers race, which finished with another Audi S4 1-2, with Michael Stephen finishing 0.818 seconds ahead of Simon Moss. The pair were well ahead of the rest of the field, as they finished over ten seconds ahead by the end of the two short sprint races.
It was a very exciting race day at Aldo Scribante, which saw the
participation of over a hundred and forty drivers and riders in the different
categories and events.
Note: The photos included were taken at Zwartkops and Kyalami.
