Killarney International Raceway, Cape Town – Power Series dishes up drama, domination

Saturday’s Killarney International Raceway’s second-round Wingfield Power Series races proved a day of contrasts as changeable and occasionally damp, cool conditions at the Killarney International Raceway saw to some spectacular racing on the one hand and some dominant performances on the other.

The pick of the day was the BurlyPro GTi Challenge, where Jano van der Westhuizen may have made off to a couple of easy wins, but all hell broke out behind him, while Danie van Niekerk muscled his BMW to a pair of splendidly hard-fought Mikes Place Clubmans wins and David McFadden had to fight to win the second RST Suzuki South Superbike race after being unstoppable in the first race.

For the rest it was a day of domination as Danie Maritz rode his Suzuki to his customary RST Trac Mac Classic & Clubmans Motorcycle win and JP Friederich (Suzuki) was utterly dominant in the RST Trac Mac 650 Powesport Motorcycles, while on four wheels, Dawie Joubert’s Lotus-Honda proved untouchable in the Pirelli Sports and GT car races; Fabio Tafani strolled to V8 Masters victory, Andrew Moffit was in charge in Makita Supercars, Franco Donadio made the Shatterfix Classic and Fine Races his own and it was all about Dee-Jay Booysen in the Formula Libre races.

Jano van der Westhuizen made the best of Jurie Swart’s Polo Classic qualifying problems to race away up front to win the opening BurlyPro GTi Challenge race as Swart came back from the midfield to fight off Polo 6R duo, Colin Nicholas Meder and Francois van Tonder’s Polos. Mario Roux took Class B honours in his Jetta ahead of Gideon Serfontein’s Golf 2 and young Divan Lazarus’ Jetta after Eden Thompson dramatically spun his Golf on the opening lap.

Jacques Geldenhuys held Marco Busi off to take a maiden Class C win since his return to the class with Chris Swart third from Ebrahim Levy, Giordano Lupini and Dillon Joubert in what proved a race of attrition, but that had nothing on the action at the start of race 2, when pandemonium broke out at the head of the all-Golf 1 GTi Brat Pack battle as Busi and Brett Roach tangled to spark an incident that eliminated five class front-runners including them, Lupini, Joubert and Shane Williams.

The race was stopped to clear the track before van der Westhuizen benefited pole man Swart’s poor re-start to race away to a double victory up front, while Swart had to fight off the attention of an on-form Meder. Thompson bounced back to take Class B from Roux, Serfontein and Lazarus, while Geldenhuys survived the chaos to lead the class C survivors home albeit a tenth of a second clear of Bryan Morgan with Levy third from Swart, Ian Kapp and Dario Busi.

The Mikes Place Clubmans also produced racing out of the top drawer as Danie van Niekerk muscled his BMW to a close win over Golf duo Shane du Toit and Clint Rennard, with all of half of a second separating the trio at the flag. Golf duo Michael le Sueur and Class B winner Basie Burger were fourth and fifth from Gavin Cerff in a Jetta, while Ernest Roos (BMW) took class C and Damien Lopez Class D after Mansoor Parker and George Neethling broke out. Gary Smith (Jetta) took Class E, Gilbero Nobrega (Ikon) Class F and Charl Minnie (Golf) Class X.

Race 2 was just as close as van Niekerk beat Rennard and le Sueur by half a second again, with Cerff fourth from Class B winner Paul Munnik (Golf), Class C winner Armien Levy (BMW) and Roos, while Eugene van Zyl took class D, Charlton Taylor (Polo) Class E, Francois Immelman (Golf) Class F and Minnie Class X.

David McFadden raced his Kawasaki off to a dominant RST Suzuki South Superbikes opening race win from Daryn Upton, Gerrit Visser and Trevor Westman in an epic  0.2 second fight for second, while Hayden Jonas (Yamaha) trotted to an easy Supersport 600 win over Adolf Boshoff and Jared Schultz as Rob Cragg (Kawasaki) took Masters honours. Yamaha man Brandon Haupt made McFalash work for his 0.5- second Race 2 win ahead of Visser, Westman and Upton with 600 winner Jonas sixth from Adolf Boshoff and Brandon Staffen as Quwnten Ebblen (Yamaha) won Masters.

Danie Maritz rode his classic Suzuki to his customary RST Trac Mac Classic & Clubmans Motorcycle win over Chris Williams’ Clubmans A Ducati, Shamier Alexander (Yamaha), Jacques Brits (BMW), John Kosterman (Suzuki) and Clubman B winner Wayne Arendse on a Honda. Maritz rushed off again to take the race 2 win from Alexander, Williams, Arendse, Garth Livingstone (Ducati) and Kosterman.

JP Friederich (Suzuki) was another dominant winner in the RST Trac Mac 650 Powesport Motorcycles ahead of Kawasaki quintet Chris Williams, Mike van Rensburg, Ezio Miglietta, Tony Rodrigues and Andrew Thompson, while Kewyn Snyman (KTM) took 300cc honours from Zante Otto (Yamaha) and Connor Hagan (KTM). it was much the same in race 2 as Freidreich sped off to leave Williams,  van Rensburg, Miglietta and Rodrigues in his wake with 300 winner Snyman sixth from Otto and Hagan.

Dawie Joubert was untouchable in the Pirelli Sports and GT car race as he raced his Lotus-Honda to a five-second win over Andre Bezuidenhout’s Juno-Nissan, Class B winner Steve Humble’s Mallock, Sandro Biccari (Juno) Gary Kieswetter (Porsche) and Craig Jarvis (Viper), while Mike Verrier (Shelby-Nissan) took Class C and Glen Uitenbogaard (Corvette) Class D. The top three ran home in the same order in race 2 with Jarvis fourth from Clinton Thorne’s Seven and Biccari as Verrier and Uitenbogaard did the double in the classes C and D.

Fabio Tafani took an easy opening V8 Masters race win over Stephen Young, Richard Schreuder and Marcel Angel, with Silver winner Rob Warrington fifth from Harry Taylor, before Tafani made it a double when he took a dominant race 2 win from Silver winner Taylor, Schreuder and Young with Silver runner-up Sean Moore fifth from Warrington.

A little further back, Andrew Moffitt was even more dominant en route to an 18-second Makita Supercar win over Silver Class winner Shane Smith with Ryan McCarthy next up from Glen Phillips and Jarryd Evans, while Stuart Spooner took Bronze honours. McCarthy took race 2 over Evans and silver winner Smith after Moffit stopped on lap 4 with Richard Starkey fourth from Phillips and Martin Bensch as Spooner made it a double win in Bronze.

Franco Donadio cruised his rapid Ford Escort to a couple of easy Shatterfix Historics and Fine Car wins over Eric van der Merwe’s Porsche 944 and Wayne Lotter in another Escort, with Steve Bekker’s VW Passat fourth from Porsche 944 duo Geoff Bihl and Piet Matthee in the opening race. The second race produced the same top three with Bihl fourth from Matthee and Trevor Hutchings’ VW Scirocco. Donadio won Class A, Lotter took Class B honours for the day and Bihl Class C, while Philippe di Toit took Class D in his Ford Sapphire and Hutchings won Class X.

Dee-Jay Booysen was unstoppable in the Formula Libre races aboard his Dico Toyota Formula M after Andrew Rackstraw ran into problems with his Formula Ford Mygale to leave Jaco Lambert to lead the chase in his Formula VW ahead of Sean le Riche (Formula Renault) and Formula Vee trio Jason Greyling, Byron Mitchell and Cyrill Somerville. Booysen tiptoed round to a wet second race win that allowed formula Vee runners Mitchell and Somerville to shine in second and third ahead of le Riche, Lambert and Delano Fowler.

The Wingfield Power Series now takes a break until 15 May, when it will race together with the South African Endurance Series Four Hour, but the second round of the South African National Championship Extreme Festival is next up at the Killarney International Raceway Saturday 21 April.