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Well here we are in 2013 and round one of the SuperHatch championship has lift off… literally, but more about that a little later on.
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This past weekend saw the SuperHatch brigade set out to Zwartkops as part of the EXTREME Festival day, with 35 entries we knew we would be putting on the race of the day, unfortunately 2 cars didn’t make it to the track and another 2 on Friday went poof and Saturday morning another leaving us with 30 cars on the grid for Saturdays first race day of 2013.
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Warm-up saw a few changes from 2012 and showed that this season is not going to be like any other we have ever seen before, nobody was very quick due to the high track temperature, but from the word go, Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen (ASAP Peugeot 206) showed the rest of the field he means business in 2013, by setting the pace ahead of Geoff Tugwell (VW Mk1 Golf) and Jaco Lubbe (The Harness Company Audi A3)
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While Class B saw Nic Martin (RDG Opel Kadett) set the quickest time ahead of Ishmael Baloyi (TAR Hondas Civic) and new comer to the series Andre Calitz (AC Group VW Mk1 Golf) rounding up the top 3.
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Class C had James Fuller (New Age Tyre specialist VW Golf Mk1) putting on pole for the C’s ahead of another newcomer to the series Tony Hyams (Ford Fiesta) and yet another new comer to the series IGNITION TV’s Marius Roberts (RDG Opel Kadett) in 3rd.
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SuperHatch – Race 1
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Everyone meant business. In class A Hilton made a break from the start and left the rest of class A to find their feet, the Joubert brothers were in the mix in their Peugeot and Renault for the first little bit while 2012 champion Mark (TAR Ford Fiesta) and Davison (Opel Superboss) were all in there with the Lubbe twins in matching Audi A3’s, Tugwell in his mk1 Golf and Spurr in her Corsa (Wealth Avenue, A.S.A.P, Castrol…) showed the boys a clean pair of heels by getting into 2nd place, before the red flag came out..
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Class B, and Martin got away from the pack and had Baloyi, Menin, Calitz, Linda Henning, and cricketing ace Clive Rice (in the Spurr Racing, Car Care Clinic, AKA VW Polo – in the fight against cancer) all in tow. Further down the field were the youngsters, Jarrod Smith, Jono Konig and Chad Ten Doeschate all ahead of Radio Jacaranda’s Andrew Sorril. All battling hard, when on lap 4 in turn 4 Smith had an almighty roll and well this is the lift off I spoke about earlier, he was in the air for several seconds but thankfully walked away slight sore and with a bruised ego. This incident brought out the red flag.
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Class C had been a tight in house battle all the way throughout to, with Hyams and Louise van der Walt (Ace Graphix/The Car King) in their Ford Fiestas and new comer to the series Jacques van der Zee showing what the little Citroen C2 is capable of ahead of Vernon Visagie (Uno’s for Africa Fiat Palio), and another new comer and another lady Alta van Wyk in her VW Golf Mk1.
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The red flag meant that everyone lined up in the pits and waited for the rolled Golf to be cleared and for Smith to be checked out. Since only 4 laps had been completed the race would be a 2-part affair and everyone went to the start line, to do it all again.
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Van Nieuwenhuizen again ran away with class A from Mark du Toit (TAR Ford Fiesta ST) and Chris Davison (Opel SuperBoss) in third, while Tugwell made up lost ground.
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Martin took the class B honours from Baloyi and Calitz, and in the class C battle van der Walt took the flag ahead of Hyams and Fuller. And then the results of the 2 parts were combined and the SuperHatch committee did their magic and reversed the top 5 in each class for the 2nd heat and made it all so much more exciting…
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SuperHatch – Race 2
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Pieter Joubert (A.S.A.P Peugeot 207) was on pole with Pierre Lubbe (The Harness Co.) alongside him in his gold Audi A3 and Davison on the 2nd row, a nice clean start and van Nieuwenhuizen wasted very little time in getting to the front, and leaving du Toit and Davison in his wake. Tugwell was blocked from getting to pre-race by the crowd and had to start from the back of the grid. He did well to come through the class C and B cars and have a great drive ending up 4th on the road.
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Clive Rice was on pole in class B, but his gearbox was broken and he did not make the start. Off the line it was Menin from Calitz and Baloyi. Martin again made a break from early on and wasted no time in getting to the front of the field while Baloyi and Jaco kriel (Opel Superboss) along with Calitz had a great race between them.
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Then in the C battle the little Citroen was on pole ahead of Fuller and Roberts (who missed the start). The battle from race 1 continued and van der Zee took the Citroen to its maiden win ahead of lady racer van der Walt and Hyams rounding up the top 3.
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Results for the day:
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- Class A: Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen, Chris Davison, Geoff Tugwell
- Class B: Nic Martin, Ishmael Baloyi, Andre Calitz
- Class C: Tony Hyams, Louise van der Walt, Jacques van der Zee
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Next round of the SuperHatch championship will take place at Midvaal on the 20th of April.
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Thank you all for your support of our series.
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See you all trackside.
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