SuperHatch got off a good start for 2012 at our home track at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday the 18th of February with over 30 cars taking to the track.
With a number of new drivers and the usual suspects changing class up or down while most stayed put in the class they finished off in last year.
Qualifying and class A was all about the 2 Mark’s, du Toit (Trans Africa Honda Civic) and Silverwood (Oki printing solutions Mini Cooper S) followed by Garland (JSRacing Honda Civic) the only 3 class A drivers to get into the 1:15’s on the day.
Class B’s quickest man was Pierre Lubbe (Harness co Golf Mk2) from Scois Joubert (ASAP Renault Megane) and Nic Martin in the baby blue (RDG Opel Kadett)
Class C saw the 2011 class C winner James Menin (West Cars Opel Kadett) take pole from Vernon Stoltz (AFW Engineering Opel Kadett) and Jurie van der Westhuizen in the Toyota Conquest was third
Class D has a competitor again after a long layoff and it is new comer Andrew Heyes
Race 1
And a nice clean start to the year and everyone got off the line well, class A saw some changes up front with the Mini of Silverwood dropping off slightly, du Toit was in the lead but never broke away, there was a small gap between du Toit, Silverwood, de Lange and Garland from Tugwell, Spurr and Davison, (who have both moved up from class B) however after a safety car on lap 3, from the restart the bunch stayed within just a second on each other across the line, with the positions changing throughout with the exception of du Toit who lead from flag to flag, behind him across the line was de Lange (ADL Roofing Golf mk1) and Garland in third.
Class B was all about the pole sitter Lubbe who once he got the gap kept it, behind him was Martin and Joubert with nothing in it, Smith and Konig both new comers to the series just last year finished up the top 5 spots in the class.
Class C had the battle of the ‘James’ between James Menin and newcomer James Fuller who kept Menin honest after a long layoff from racing, Stoltz was the man in third after an incident which brought out the safety car earlier in the race had caused van der Westhuizen to retire Pieter Pienaar who has moved from class B to C was in 4th and another rookie driver Moore in 5th.
Class D saw Andrew Heyes improve from one lap to the next and he finished an impressive 21st overall in the mix of class C and B.
Race 2
The ever popular top 5 in each class grid inversion was used for race 2. This placed 2011 SuperHatch champion Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen (ASAP Peugeot) on pole ahead of Silverwood and Garland, Silverwood had a terrible start after his clutch slipped. Meanwhile, de Lange had a tremendous start and was leading into turn 3, behind was Garland and du Toit. Du Toit got past de Lange on lap 4 and stayed in the lead to take the win from de Lange and Garland.
On the Class B pole for the first time ever Stuart Konig ahead of Richard Smith (an all-rookie front row) with Joubert in 3rd. A great start by Joubert saw him quickly take the lead, behind him Lubbe also had a great start and was in second. The battle between Joubert and Lubbe was ongoing for the entire race and each corner Lubbe would have a look but Joubert would have none of it, in his words ‘I have the widest padda on the track’ this was no lie, but they had a battle royale and crossed the line with less than 0.2 seconds between them. In 3rd across the line was Martin ahead of Kriel (Superboss spares, Opel SuperBoss).
There was another rookie on the Class C pole with Keith Moore taking the first spot with Pienaar next to him in second. The start was clean and off they went but it was just a matter of time until the James x 2 and Vernon got to the front and were battling hard for class honours. Menin got the flag first from Stoltz this time and Fuller in 3rd . The other Menin, in the form of Walter, came home in 4th.
Class D man Andrew again had a good battle and got his times down even more and finished 24th overall this time.
Results for the day
Class A – Mark du Toit, Andre de Lange, Brett Garland
Class B – Pierre Lubbe, Nic Martin, Scois Joubert
Class C – James Menin, James Fuller, Vernon Stoltz
Class D – Andrew Heyes
At the post-race noggin in the week the other award winners were (as voted by the drivers):
Driver of the day – Scois Joubert
Appi of the day (rookie) – Raynere Joubert
Chop of the day (self-explanatory really) – Shawn Besteman
Spectacle of the day – Jaco Kriel
Index winner of the day – Willem Kruger
Pictures by RacePics.co.za can be viewed in our Galleries here:
https://www.superhatch.co.za/index.php/2012-02-18-zwartkops-raceway
See you all trackside.
Issued by Mel Spurr – 29 February 2012