Mopar South African Endurance – Campos Cape 400 to race into the dark

The Mopar South African Endurance Championship returns to Killarney for the Campos Cape 400, which will see SA’s foremost long distance racers dicing into the dark Saturday evening as a top grid descends on Cape Town for the 13 May race. Starting 17h30 following a full regular Killarney Power Tour regional meeting, the 400-kilometer race should take 3 hours to complete, which means that will mostly run in the dark.

The race has drawn a star-studded entry and following a turn-up for the books when Charl and Harry Arangies brought their reliable Stradale Ferrari 360 home to steal opening round Mopar 6-hours of the Goldfields victory last time out, the Vanderbijlpark son and father duo will have a target on their backs this weekend, not just from a strong GT field, but also from a brilliant sportscar field looking for revenge after that last race defeat.

Most interesting are a trio of V8-powered machines, not least of all 2015 champion Francis Carruthers and Johan Engelbrecht’s spectacular new Aquila-Corvette, which is set to make its long-awaited SA Endurance race debut at home. But they will have their work cut out by the Campos family from Johannesburg – dad Rui and sons Jason and Keegan’s Campos Transport/Turn1 Insurance Shelby-Ford V8 comes fresh from breaking the outright Kyalami lap record a few weeks back.

Another family affair looking for overall win will be Durban cousins Franco and Silvio Scribante’s splendid Chevron B26 powered by a V8 engine forged out of a couple of Suzuki Hyabusa superbike engines. But all of the above will have to keep a beady eye out on Jozi Fantastic Racing duo, Michael Jensen and Mark Lauth in their ultra-rapid Renault FR1, which is in essence a Formula 2 single seater in drag.

Colin Plit and Nick Adcock’s Tricera Investments Juno-Honda SS3, Fritz Kleynhans and James Forbes’ Comenius Ligier JS49-Honda and Mike Verrier and Wayne Jardine Fantastic Racing/AidCall247Shelby-Nissan V6 are other racing prototypes to keep an eye on, while the baby sportscar battle will be fought out by tin-top graduates Mike Schmidt and Bruce Avern-Taplin’s Bateleur Nash-Volkswagen, Bryan Heine and Kelvin Reynolds’ HeineSport S2000-Opel; Eric Salomon and Dave Sinclair’s Lessons ELF-Toyota and the Hennie Trollip/Clinton Thorne Full Output Seven Replica.

The GT battle should provide another interesting focus, not least because all are capable of winning overall, with Jaki Scheckter and Greg Parton due to give the stunning Drizit Environmental Lamborghini Huracan its Killarney race debut. Champion Simon Murray and Gavin Cronje will want to step up to the top of the podium in the Lamborghini Gallardo that ended second in Welkom and local classic racers, Dave Alhadeff, Chris Carolin and Martin Bensch will field a PP Racing Panoz Esperante.

The tin-top battle should prove another source of prime entertainment for the Killarney faithful, with Welkom winners Bradley Scorer and Theo Van Vuuren out to do the double in their new Arnold Chatz Alfa Romeo Giulietta, while John McLachlan and Darren Winterboer will be chasing hard in their familiar Alfa Romeo GT. They will however have to keep an eye on their mirrors for a pair of BMW M3s – local duo Peet Van der Walt and Johan Dreyer’s PSW Sport version and Steve Truter and Wayne Lotter in a Sasolburg Autobody car.

Andre and Alex Johnson will be relying on local knowledge to get their Executive Motorsport Audi A4 ahead, but never under-estimate the slowest cars on track – the likes of a pair of MAD Racing/Fuchs Lubricants Volkswagen Golf 1 GTis entered for regular SA Endurance giant killers Dewald Brummer and Bevan Williams and Heinrich and Nathan de Villiers, as well as Jonathan and Stuart Konigs’ Konig Racing Volkswagen Golf 2 GTI.

With the long-term forecast suggesting yet more sunny weather for Killarney on the weekend, why not make a day of it and enjoy a fine afternoon of regular Power Tour racing rounded off by the a brilliant prospect of the Mopar Endurance Series dicing into the evening in the Campos Cape 400? See you at Killarney!