Mopar South African Endurance Championship – Back-to-back wins for Chevron cousins

Scribante cousins Franco and Silvio made it two Mopar African Endurance Series wins on the trot as they cruised their Chevron B26-Suzuki to victory in the Border 3-Hour at the East London Grand Prix circuit Saturday afternoon. The Chevron came home three laps clear of Michael Jensen and Mark Lauth’s Fantastic Racing Renault FR1 with Sun Moodley and Andrew Culbert completing the podium in their Bigfoot Express Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, also the first GT car home.

Fritz Kleynhans and James Forbes ended fourth overall in their Comenius Ligier JS49-Honda, but only after losing time following a long tussle with the Porsche, while Bradley Scorer and Theo van Vuuren coming home a fine fifth in the Arnold Chatz Alfa Romeo Giulietta to take both saloon car honours and the Index of Performance win. Hennie Trollip and Clinton Thorne’s Full Output Lotus Seven replica was sixth overall.

The Scribantes in essence dominated proceedings in what turned out to be a tough encounter, leading from lights out to when the flag dropped. They were initially shadowed by the Campos lads’ Campos/Turn 1 Shelby-Ford V8 before that car ran into a series of troubles to leave the chase to the Renault, the Porsche, the Ligier and Mike Verrier and Wayne Jardine in their Fantastic Racing/AidCall247 Shelby Can Am, which was also slowed with issues later in the race.

Several cars ran into side shaft and CV joint issues on the picturesque high-speed racetrack sat just off the beach, the most notable of those being Dewald Brummer and Bevan Williams, who had been running an incredible sixth overall in their MAD/Fuchs Lubricants VW Golf 1 GTi, which ground to a halt with sideshaft issues. Their young teammates — Heinrich & Nathan de Villiers’s similar Golf however came to their rescue, pushing the stricken car home, only for both cars to later be excluded from the results.

That allowed Dave Alhadeff, Martin Bensch and Chris Carolin’s Panoz Esperante up to seventh in the end, ahead of Steve Truter and Wayne Lotter’s Sasolburg Autobody BMW M3 and Eric Salamon and Dave Sinclair’s Lessons ELF S 06, with Darren Winterboer scoring well yet again, as he and Adrian Dalton closed off the top ten in their Barons/Xtra BMW 335i.

The race also turned into an economy run toward the end, with several cars, including the leaders cruising home to be sure to make the line after the chequered flag flew after the three hours were up. There were 14 finishers among the 22 starters in — Andre & Alex Johnson’s Executive Motorsport Audi A4 was 11th ahead of the delayed Verrier/Jardine Shelby, local crew Ian Thomson and Donovan Collins’s Opel Rekord V8 and Mike Schmidt and Bruce Avern-Taplin’s Bateleur Motorsport Nash MVW3, which was the last car classified in spite of also being delayed by CV joint issues.

Among the non-finishers, perhaps the hardest pill to swallow was that of another local crew Gary Schultz and Johan van der Westhuizen’s classic Renault R10 Gordini, which failed to cross the finish line to be classifed 12th overall. Mike Altona/Steve Pickering Classic Racing Porsche 910 ran into problems to retire and the Campos family Shelby eventually succumbed; Jonathan & Stuart Konig’s VW Golf MK2 was another to fall foul of CV joint issues, while Bryan Heine and Kelvin Reynolds’ S2000 retired after an all-nighter to replace the car’s Opel engine with an Isuzu unit. Locals Brendan Smith and Quentin Lessing’s Masthead/Treadz Ford Escort stopped after 28 laps.

In the sports cars, the Jensen/Lauth Renault won Class S, the winning Scribante Chevron took Class S, the Kleynhans Forbes Ligier took Class R and Trollip and Thorne’s Seven took Class X honours, the Verrier/Jardine Shelby and Schmidt/Taplin Nash both survived classes T and V respectively. Among the GTs, Moodley and Culbert took Class Y and the Alhadeff, Bensch and Carolin’s Panoz won class U while only Class B cars finished among the saloon, headed by the Scorer/van Vuuren Alfa.

Scorer and van Vuuren also won the Index of Performance award with their average pace being 95.750% of their fastest lap of the race, with the Trollip/Thorne Lotus second at 94.410% and Moodley/Culbert Porsche also third in Index at 93.930%. The Scribantes’ second win on the trot was not good enough to wrest the Mopar African Endurance championship lead however, that honour remains the domain of Darren Winterboer who leads the way on 46 points with Franco and Silvio second 6 points adrift, just one point clear of Alfa Romeo men Scorer and van Vuuren.

The Mopar SA Endurance Championship moves to another seaside racetrack at iDube on the KwaZulu Natal South Coast next for the fourth round of the series Saturday 19 August.

Border African Endurance East London 3-Hour — Results
1. Franco & Silvio Scribante (Chevron B26-Suzuki S) 125 laps
2. Michael Jensen/Mark Lauth (Fantastic Racing Renault FR1 T) 122 laps
3. Sun Moodley/Andrew Culbert (Bigfoot Express Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Y) 119 laps
4. Fritz Kleynhans/James Forbes (Comenius Ligier JS49-Honda R) 117 laps
5. Bradley Scorer/Theo van Vuuren (Arnold Chatz Alfa Romeo Giulietta B) 108 laps
6. Hennie Trollip/Clinton Thorne (Full Output Seven X) 106 laps
7. Dave Alhadeff/Martin Bensch/Chris Carolin (Panoz Esperante U) 105 laps
8. Steve Truter/Wayne Lotter (Sasolburg Autobody BMW M3 B) 105 laps
9. Eric Salamon/Dave Sinclair (Lessons ELF S 06 R) 102 laps
10. Darren Winterboer/Adrian Dalton (Barons/Xtra BMW 335i B) 99 laps
11. Andre & Alex Johnson (Executive Motorsport Audi A4 B) 98 laps
12. Mike Verrier/Wayne Jardine (Fantastic Racing/AidCall247 Shelby Can Am T) 93 laps
13. Ian Thomson/Donovan Collins (Opel Rekord V8 B) 87 laps
14. Mike Schmidt/ Bruce Avern-Taplin (Bateleur Motorsport Nash MVW3 V) 80 laps

NC. Dewald Brummer/Bevan Williams (MAD/Fuchs Lubricants VW Golf 1 GTi A) 106 laps
NC. Heinrich & Nathan de Villiers (MAD/Fuchs Lubricants VW Golf 1 GTi A) 97 laps
R. Gary Schultz/Johan van der Westhuizen (Renault R10 Gordini A) 87 laps
R. Classic MotorsportMike Altona/Steve Pickering (Classic Racing Porsche 910 S) 68 laps
R. Rui, Keegan & Jason Campos (Campos Transport / Turn1 Shelby-Ford V8 U) 67 laps
R. Jonathan & Stuart Konig (Konig Racing VW Golf MK2 A) 65 lpas
R. Bryan Heine/Kelvin Reynolds (HeineSport Sports 2000-Isuzu R) 48 laps
R. Brendan Smith/Quentin Lessing (Masthead/Treadz Ford Escort A) 28 laps

Index of Performance:
1: Scorer/van Vuuren (95.750%)
2: Trollip/Clinton Thorne (94.410%)
3: Moodley/Culbert (93.930%)