Automotive News South Africa

Volkswagen wins Bridgestone Production Car Championship

Volkswagen Golf GTI racer Graeme Nathan (T21 - IndyOil) won the 2012 Class T Bridgestone Production Car title at Kyalami near Johannesburg on Saturday. The event was the last round of the WesBank Super Series and was just one of the awards claimed by Volkswagen on the day.

In addition to the Class T championship victory, Volkswagen also claimed the Manufacturers' title, having amassed the most points during the season thanks to the Volkswagen entries, and their performances during the 2012 season.

"We officially won the championship in Cape Town," says Nathan. "There was an incident pending which postponed those celebrations, but that's all cleared up now and we have the title for this year."

Help proved successful

With the championship in hand Nathan took a back seat at the Kyalami event, focusing instead on helping Jacques Joubert (T22 - IndyOil) amass as many points as possible in an effort to claim third place in Class T for this season. This proved successful with Joubert and his Volkswagen Golf GTI filling the final podium spot for the season in the category.

"We've only had the Golf VI GTI for one full season," says Nathan. "We're on stream for a big shakedown next year, and we're going to look at putting Jacques into a Golf VI GTI as well. I haven't had that many race wins this season, but we've been in the points all the time with seconds and thirds. There are lots of drivers in the championship that can win races which is great, it is very competitive, but you have to consistently be scoring points if you want to win."

The performance of Nathan and Joubert in Class T is one of the cornerstones of the Volkswagen Motorsport philosophy. "Privateer racing - and their success - has been one of the founding features of Volkswagen Motorsport," says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. "They do an incredible amount of work to compete at a national level with our support. Clearly it is a winning recipe and we congratulate them on an excellent performance this season."

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