Michael Stephen scores pole position at inaugural Sasol GTC race
The Woman's Day Extreme Festival at the Zwartkops Raceway outside Pretoria saw Michael Stephen, multiple South African Production Car champion, put the new Engen Audi A3 in pole position at the inaugural Sasol GTC Africa series.
Micheal Stephen - Audi A3 GTC. ©Tony Alves
Stephen's pole time of 1 minute 6.358 seconds around the tight and demanding demanding circuit saw off Matthew Hodges, driving a Volkswagen Jetta in a lap of 1 minute 6.602 seconds, who was in turn 0.16 of a second clear of Gennaro Bonafede's Sasol BMW 220i. Hennie Groenewald was fourth in the second BMW from Graeme Nathan's second Volkswagen and Simon Moss' Audi.
Six brand new factory-entered machines turned up for the inaugural race in the new Sasol GTC Africa series set to become South Africa's premier race championship, with designs on international competition. GTC cars run manufacturer-based 375kW (500 horsepower) engines and bodywork wrapped around a common rear-wheel driven chassis, Albins transaxle gearbox, running gear and suspension in a series designed to promote closest racing at a reasonable cost.
The three factory teams - Engen Audi, Sasol BMW and Volkswagen all had two cars ready for the first race, with four more cars in current build and several others set to be developed in the short term.
A second GTC Production class for near-standard production-based 2-litre turbo machines also raced for the first time alongside the new premier category cars with Shaun Duminy putting his SMD Ford Focus on pole position ahead of factory Volkswagen GTI pair Daniel Rowe and Mandla Mdkane.
