picture: colin brown
Marcel Angel qualified on pole, split seconds ahead of Fabio Tafani and Sean Moore.
These three got into a huge dice in race one, which was cut short when Tafani dropped out in lap six, leaving Moore to chase Angel to the line, finishing less than half a second behind.
Tafan’s departure promoted Richard Schreuder to third, just 0.667sec ahead of hard-charging Rui Campos, while Jason Ibbotson, Roderick Simpson and Denis Gaiduk were the first three Siver Class drivers home, in seventh, eighth and ninth overall respectively.
Meanwhile, Ryan McCarthy, Andrew Moffit and rookie Hilton Pieters led the Supercar charge with McCarthy a clear winner ahead of a hotly-disputed battle in which Pieters passed Moffit in lap six and held on to take the place by a scant 0.295sec.
McCarthy, Pieters and Moffit finished in that order again after another Supercar dogfight, with Menno Parsons leading the Silver Supercars, well ahead of class rivals Massyn and Simpson.
Race three was reserved for the Makita Supercars only, led all the way by McCarthy, while Pieters fought back from fifth in lap one to finish second, albeit 16 seconds adrift.
Cedric Lebon was third, ahead of sole Silver Class finisher Massyn.
Charles Arton qualified his indecently quick Datsun 240Z on pole for the Classics races but it was Michael Hitchcock in the Cross Cape Mustang who grabbed the lead at the start of race 1, with Arton in hot pursuit until the Datsun went out in lap seven.
That handed Hitchcock an unchallenged win, well clear of Malcom Uytenbogaardt in the Carter’s Granada Perana and Geoff Bihl’s Porsche 944.
Gunther Appelgryn (BMW E36) and Rob Toscano (Technoparts MX5) led the Fine Car field to finish eighth and ninth respectively, less than a second apart, with Fred Phillips; Morgan third in class and 12th overall.
Hitchcock led race 2 from lights to flag, chased all the way by Uytenbogaardt, who finished less than four seconds adrift, while Wayne Lotter in the Killarney Gardens Motors Escort held off a determined challenge from Bihl to come home third, less than half a second ahead of the Porsche.
Toscano aced the Fine Cars division in 10th overall, well clear of Applegryn, Phillips and Rodney Green (Piri Piri MGB), who finished a lap down in 12th, 13th and 14th overall respectively.
Uytenbogaardt mounted another challenge to Hitchcock’s dominance in race 3, only to have the Granada go sick in lap five, leaving the Mustang to romp home 30 seconds ahead of an epic battle for second that saw Bihl, Lotter, Dave Alhadeff (Alfa GTAM) and Herman de Kock (Ford Escort 1.8L) finish in that order covered by just 2.539sec at the line.
Toscano notched up another Fine Cars win, 11 seconds ahead of Phillips, ninth and 10th respectively overall, with Appelgryn the final finisher in the lead lap in 12th overall.
The RST Trac-Mac Superbike riders celebrated their return to racing with three sizzling races. There were epic dices throughout the field, but all eyes were at the sharp end, where the expected confrontation between former champions Brandon Haupt (Fueled Racing R1) and Ronald; The Red Baron; Slamet (JP Marketing ZX-10R), and young gun Kewyn Snyman (Missile Motorcycles ZX-10R) did not disappoint.
Snyman qualified on pole, but it was Slamet who got the best launch to lead the race one charge into Kfm Corner, followed by Snyman and Haupt, who got a poor start from the front row of the grid.
By the end of lap one, however, Snyman was all over Slamet, with Haupt just a few seconds back, and closing.
With two laps to go, Haupt was showing Snyman a wheel on almost every corner as they slowly pulled away from Slamet.
Both posted their fastest time of the race in the final lap – 1min12.254 for Snyman and 1min12.223 for Haupt – but the Fueled Racing star’s plans for a last-corner move were foiled by yellow flags at Fastron Corner and he was forced to follow Snyman home, 0.110sec adrift at the line.
Schultz pulled a rocket-ship start to lead Haupt and Snyman into Kfm Corner at the start of race 2, but by the end of the opening lap normal service had resumed, with Haupt, Snyman and Slamet banging elbows on almost every corner.
Haupt then put in the fastest lap of the day – a superb 1min12.000 – in lap four and in real terms that won him the race, as it broke the tow and allowed him to eke out a slender lead.
Haupt was first off the line at the start of race 3 but was slowed by a huge wheelie as Snyman sliced past to lead into Kfm Corner and set the pace, showing commendable maturity and racecraft under intense pressure from Haupt.
The 2018 regional champion briefly took the lead in lap six but Snyman struck back a lap later and posted his fastest lap of the day, a 1min12.194, on the last go-round.
He came home half a second ahead of Haupt, with Slamet five seconds further adrift.
