For many South African motorsport enthusiasts, the year’s highlight will arrive this weekend with the 2023 Kyalami 9-Hour.
The event will be the second round of this year’s Intercontinental GT3 Challenge powered by Pirelli. The race on Saturday will form the highlight of Kyalami’s K9H Motorfest, that will include the 2023 National Extreme Festival opener, among 12 hours of track spectacle.
Tackling the event with an eye on precious Intercontinental GT3 manufacturers’ points will be overseas teams from Mercedes-AMG, BMW, Audi and Porsche.
For local fans the absolute favourite must be defending DTM champion Sheldon van der Linde, who will share a WRT BMW M4 with Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerdts.
Backing them in the WRT garage will be a second M4 in the hands of Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin and BMW factory driver Philip Eng.
ALSO READ: Mercedes continues German domination of Kyalami 9-Hour
Topping a strong Mercedes-AMG onslaught will be the factory-backed GruppeM team of Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Raffaele Marciello.
The equipe’s driving line-up is especially impressive – Marciello is the current overall GT World Challenge champion, while Engel has won the FIA GT World Cup in the past.
The SunEnergy1 Mercedes team will have Kenny Habul and Jules Gounon, who won the season-opening Bathurst 12-Hour round last month, plus Swiss driver Yannick Mettler.
SPS Automotive Performance will have Luca Stoltz, Irishman Reece Barr and Miguel Ramos in its Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Another crowd favourite will be the South African Stradale Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, which has been nominated to score manufacturers’ points for the German marque.
Their driver line-up will be Charl Arangies, who has won 12 local championships in various sports car categories, Arnold Neveling and current Mercedes-AMG driving instructor as well as past local Group N champion, Clint Weston.
Audi will have a strong presence with two Tresor Attempto entries for the experienced all-German R8 LMS GT3 crew of Markus Winkelhock, Dennis Marschall and Alex Aka, plus Italian Mattia Drudi, Ricardo Feller and Audi works veteran Patrick Niederhauser in another R8 LMS entry.
A locally entered Audi R8 GT3 Evo 2 will be in the hands of Marius Jackson, reigning South African Endurance Champion 18-year-old Kwanda Mokoena and Mo Mia.
A lone Porsche entry from Australian-based Grove Racing, driven by the father-and-son pairing of Stephen and Brenton Grove, will be joined by the vastly exerienced Porsche factory driver Earl Bamber.
Adding spice to the event, just one driver per car will contest the opening hour’s Kyalami Supercup. They include Mikaeel Pitamber who competed at last year’s 9 Hour before venturing overseas and racing in the DTM Trophy.
He will drive NGK Pablo Clark’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 this time around. Meanwhile, 68-year-old Sun Moodley is the oldest driver on this year’s entry, also driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The youngest driver will be 18-year old VW Cup graduate Joseph Ellerine, driver of the Marius Jackson’s team second Audi R8.
The international brigade will tackle open session on Thursday morning and afternoon, plus a night racing stint.
Friday morning will see two final open sessions, before official qualifying for all drivers between 3pm and 4pm. The Kyalami 9-Hour will start at 13h00.
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