The WesBank Super Series was at Zwartkops this past weekend and SuperHatch was also there as the only non-national category on the program, and if that is not enough of a feather in our caps… we got the magic number of 40 cars on our grid, a new record for SuperHatch.
We had a short warm up session on Saturday morning and with 40 cars out there posting a time it was really busy on track and surprisingly class A’s quickest man Mark Silverwood in his OKI Printing Solutions, Q8Oils MINI, still managed a 1:14.906, the quickest ever SuperHatch lap and almost a second ahead of brothers Jono & Mark du Toit in the Trans Africa Honda Civics.
Class B saw the top 6 times covered by less than 0.6 of a second, with Andre de Lange in his ADL VW Golf quickest ahead of Pierre Lubbe in the Trio Racing VW Golf and the RDG Opel Kadett of Nic Martin
Class C saw the return of the Fury Ford Fiesta of Jeff Langeveldt, straight back to the top of the time sheets ahead of James Menin in the West cars Opel Kadett and the AFW Opel Kadett of Vernon Stoltz
Class N had the young Jacques Joubert in his Leatt Ford Fiesta going quicker than Basil van der Westhuizen in another Fiesta and Anvar Haffajee in his Toyota Conquest.
Two six lap races were the order of the day and the usual top 5 reversal of classes A & N and then Class B, followed by class C. There were so many cars that many of the class C cars actually started in and before Goldwagen Corner (turn 8). There was no delayed start and all 40 cars took the standing start together.
Race 1
Class A and N saw Mark du Toit and Geoff Tugwell (Connect-it Golf) on the front row with renowned TV commentator Greg Moloney (TAR VW Golf) starting back in 9th place. du Toit made good use of his grid position and lead the field by almost 2 seconds at the end of lap 1 with Silverwood and Jono du Toit following in 2nd and 3rd places. It took Silverwood almost three laps to catch du Toit but he could not find a way past and du Toit took the win with Jono in 3rd. Joubert had an untroubled race in class N finishing ahead of van der Westhuizen and rookie 16 year-old female driver Keola Kaltenbrun in her VW Golf.
Class B saw the Honda of Ryan Quan-Chai and the Kadett of Martin on the front row, with a cracker of a start Spurr (ASAP, Wealth Ave, Harness co, Drivelines, AGIP, Corsa) had gotten ahead of both of them by turn 2 taking De Lange and van Nieuwenhuizen (ASPA Peugeot) along with her, within no time the leading class B drivers were on the heels of the class A & N tail enders, De Lange got the lead from Spurr into turn 4 of the 3rd lap, and Van Nieuwenhuizen was now in the hunt after passing Martin, with a lap to go van Nieuwenhuizen went up the inside of Spurr into turn 8 and although a bit out of shape made the move stick, De Lange took the win from van Nieuwenhuizen, while Martin was closely following Spurr on the last few corners, but she took the defensive line into Goldwagen corner and crossed the line ahead of him to take 3rd by 0.2 of a second with Chris Davison (Opel SuperBoss) in 5th a further 0.2 of a second behind Martin.
Class C was tight as always between Langeveldt and Menin from flag to flag, with them mixing it with the tail enders of class B, just a few seconds behind were Vernon Stoltz and new addition to SuperHatch the “Renexcon man” himself Henk Swanepoel, in a BMW 1 series – the first rear wheel drive car in SuperHatch, which first time out was something to see, young Menin in the form of Walter in the VW Golf came home in 5th.
Race 2
Joubert and Brett Garland (Selftrack – Honda Civic) took up the front row and both made good starts to remain in the lead through turn 2, Garland being passed by Jono and Silverwood going through turn 4 and Joubert was passed by the more powerful class A cars up the hill before turn 5. Mark du Toit also got past so it was the top 3 from the first race going at it again but with Jono leading this time. Silverwood made his move on the next lap at turn 5 going through with a very late braking maneuver to take the lead. That’s the way it stayed to the line with Garland having a great race staying in touch with the top 3. At the line the top 4 were separated by only two seconds. Joubert was again untroubled in class N finishing ahead of brothers Basil and Jason van der Westhuizen.
Class B saw the SuperBoss of Davison on pole ahead of Martin and Spurr, and Davison used the SuperBoss’s LSD to good advantage to get off the line and straight into the class A/N battle, with Spurr, Martin, De Lange and van Nieuwenhuizen in tow, Davison made a break out of turn two and left the battle to De Lange who took 2nd from Spurr into turn 4, but something went wrong and he slowed and retired to the pits having run bearings, meanwhile van Nieuwenhuizen had overtaken Martin and was chasing Spurr, catching and finally passing her with 2 laps to go. Davison took the win ahead of Van Niewenhuizen and Spurr.
Class C, saw young Walter Menin (West cars VW Golf) on pole with the BMW of Swanepoel alongside him, within no time Langeveldt and Menin were hassling the BMW, who had gotten into the lead of the class C battle, but the old rivals got ahead and this time it was Menin who took the flag ahead of Langeveldt with Swanepoel in third, from Walter and the VW Golf of Dean Gregory
Results
Race1:
Class A – Mark du Toit; Mark Silverwood; Jono du Toit
Class B – Andre de Lange; Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen; Mel Spurr
Class C – Jeff Langeveldt; James Menin; Vernon Stoltz
Class N – Jacques Joubert; Basil van der Westhuizen; Keola Kaltenbrun
Race2:
Class A –Mark Silverwood; Jono du Toit; Mark du Toit
Class B – Chris Davison; Hilton van Niewenhuizen; Mel Spurr
Class C – James Menin; Jeff Langeveldt; Henk Swanepoel
Class N – Jacques Joubert; Basil van der Westhuizen; Jason van der Westhuizen
Overall:
Class A – Mark Silverwood; Mark du Toit; Jono du Toit
Class B – Hilton Van Nieuwenhuizen;Chris Davison; Mel Spurr
Class C – Jeff Langeveldt; James Menin;Henk Swanepoel
Class N – Jacques Joubert; Basil van der Westhuizen;Keola Kaltenbrun
In recognition of the special number of 40 cars on the grid and in thanks for her tireless efforts to make SuperHatch what it is today Peter du Toit of Zwartkops made a special award to a very deserving Mel Spurr and SuperHatch .