The 2019 Car Care Clinic SuperHatch championship returns to its normal format of two heats on race day after the annual long distance event at Phakisa last time out. Round 3 of the championship forms part of the Winter Challenge Race Day at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday, 29 June.
In the overall championship standings, Nic Martin (Rex Diff & Gearbox Peugeot 207) leads the way from Louis Scholtz (Car Care Clinic Honda Civic) and Wouter Roos (Nathan’s Motorsport VW Polo). Beyond the leading trio, Mel Spurr (Itre Cugini/ATT/Metal Used Spares VW Polo) and Nathi Msimanga (ASEDA Engineering VW Polo) are in joint fourth place with Brett Garland (autObarn/Incco/Sabat Honda Civic) and Tyler Scott (Episerve/Jestik/Lopec Opel Kadett TS) a point further back in sixth.
Regular Class A front-runners, Garland and Jonathan du Toit (Trans Africa Racing Honda Civic), both didn’t gather their normal points haul at Phakisa, Garland due to mechanical failure while work commitments prevented du Toit from making the trip to the Free State. Scholtz took full advantage of that to move to the top of the Class A standings, nine points ahead of Garland and Scott. Andre de Lange (Roofsure Audi A3) is a further four points back in fourth with du Toit and Francois Henning (Select Registration/River End Trading VW Polo) shared sixth place. All of them, plus Trevor Stringer (Citrine Designs Peugeot 206), will be looking for as many points as possible at Zwartkops.
Martin has yet to finish off the Class B podium this year which has allowed him to built up a nine-point advantage over Roos at the top of the standings. Spurr, who has also been a regular podium finisher this season, is four points behind Roos in third with Zane van Zyl (Credit Guarantee Golf) three points further adrift in fourth. Shane Forget (4Js Auto Opel Cub) and Bryce Pillay (VW Motorsport Polo) round out the top six in the Class B standings. While Martin is the favourite to take another pair of wins at Zwartkops, almost all of his rivals are capable of winning if things go right for them on the day.
Nobody has managed to stamp their authority on Class C yet. Msimanga had a great outing at Phakisa after a slow start to the season at Zwartkops to move to the top of the standings, but Robert Stoltz (Episerve/Jestik/Lopec Opel Kadett) is only two points adrift of the youngster. The two leaders will not have things all their own way through with a large field all out to claim the wins. Among those are Almero van Eck (Taurus Polo), Reno van Heerden (X-Box Polo), Andre Dannhauser (Pro Auto Rubber/Jestik Opel Corsa) and Reaobaka Komane (Squadra Course VW Polo).
It will be an early start for the SuperHatch drivers on Saturday morning with the opening 8-lap heat getting underway 07h40 with heat 2 scheduled to start at 11h05.