Saturday May 14 saw several SAGT National Championship races being fought tooth and nail on the Aldo Scribante Raceway.
Michael Stephen (Ultimate Outlaws McLaren MP4-12C GT3) set the opening benchmark in free practice 1, before Charl Arangies and Arnold Neveling, unencumbered by success ballast, raised the bar in their Stradale Audi R8 GT3 by a full second.
The Audi was quickest in FP3 before Stephen threw down the gauntlet with a target time of 57.7 seconds around the 2.48-kilometre track. When qualifying got under way, Neveling set a spectacularly fast time of 56.995 seconds, half a second ahead of Stephen, with minimum fuel and fresh Michelin rubber.
Second to fifth on the grid were covered by just a quarter of a second. Stephen duly took his place on the front row, followed by Silvio Scribante (Cemza Cement Lamborghini Huracan GT3) who was 0.06 of a second away of having set his best time ever around his home track.
Dayne Angel (Autohaus Angel Ferrari 488 GT3) was a further 10th back with Daniel Rowe coasted in third in his Scribante Concrete Lamborghini, a 0.014-second shy of the Ferrari.
Marcel Angel slotted his Angel Autohaus Ferrari 458 GT3 into sixth place ahead of Marius Jackson, having his first outing in his new MJR Motorsport Audi R8 GT3, setting a decent time of 1:00.56 to line up seventh. Teen sensation Kwanda Mokoena (MJR Motorsport Audi R8 GT4) and Sun Moodley, debuting his Bigfoot Express Mercedes-AMG, filled out the grid.
Local favourite Aldo Scribante (Scribante Concrete Lamborghini Huracan GT3) suffered mechanical problems on his out lap and did not set a time. Southern African Endurance Series’ chairperson, Izak Spies, sportingly gave up his seat in his McLaren for Scribante to compete in front of his home crowd.
Race 1:
Arangies bolted away from the chasing pack and built up a significant lead over a high-speed train of cars headed by Stephen, who was under constant attack from Silvio Scribante, Angel and Rowe.
Unable to break the stalemate, Silvio dived into the pits for an early stop. As he emerged into clear air, he put the hammer down and leap-frogged his rivals who were holding one another up as they jostled for position and encountered traffic.
When Stephen pitted and Aldo Scribante took over, Angel, in spite of running with 75 kilograms of success ballast, surged into third as Aldo got to grips with his unfamiliar car, having had just one sighting lap on the way to the grid. Marcel Angel drove a solid race having not competed for two years, claiming fifth ahead of Rowe and 78-year-old Celso Scribante’s Lambo. The elder Angel was embroiled in a fierce battle with Jackson, who hounded the Ferrari until Jackson spun three times as he found the limits in his new machine.
Jackson’s dancing elevated Hein Lategan’s BBR Racing Porsche 991 Cup car into seventh place, having started from the back of the grid due to mechanical issues in qualifying. Jackson duly took eighth, ahead of Mokoena’s Audi GT4 and Moodley, who settled into a steep learning curve in his new Merc after a decade of racing Porsches.
Race 2:
The race 2 grid is formed from drivers’ fastest lap times in race 1, so Neveling, taking the first stint, lined up on pole, followed by Silvio Scribante, Dayne Angel, Michael Stephen, Marcel Angel, Celso Scribante (now partnered by Darron Gudmanz), Lategan, Jackson, Mokoena and Moodley.
With fresh repairs under his belt, Lategan opted to conserve his Porsche for his main focus, the SA Endurance race and non-started round 4.
As the pace car peeled into the pits, Neveling nailed the accelerator to the floor and put the Stradale Audi into the lead, building up a cushion of around 10 seconds ahead of Silvio. Stephen made up a position on the first lap at Angel’s expense, followed by Gudmanz and the rest of the pack.
Twenty minutes into the hour-long race, Stephen and Silvio made contact into turn one as Silvio battled a malfunctioning ABS system. Although just a kiss, the contact broke a tyre valve on Stephen’s car and he had to complete a slow lap back to the pits with a flat tyre, which dropped the orange McLaren to fourth.
Jackson, Marcel Angel and Gudmanz had a huge fight over the opening 20 laps of the race, before Angel got ahead of the MJR Audi.
The pitstops turned the lead fight on its head. After Dayne Angel pitted, he was blisteringly quick and reeled in Neveling’s Audi at a rate of half a second a lap. After Neveling handed the car over to Arangies, Angel swept into the lead, crossing the line 13 seconds ahead of the Stradale Audi. Silvio came home third, ahead of Stephen, Marcel Angel and the Celso Scribante/Gudmanz Lambo.
Jackson made up a place to take seventh ahead of Moodley and Aldo Scribante, who raced his third different brand of car over the weekend. Kwanda Mokoena brought his GT4-spec Audi home in ninth place.
The SAGT National Championship’s next stop is set to thrill Free State fans when the teams descend on Phakisa Freeway on June 18.
Source: MotorPress
