Bridgestone BMW Car Club hits Zwartkops black stuff hard
Action was plentiful with a few spills along the way.
Fabie Fedetto (BMW M4) and Jagger Robertson (Viking BMW M3) fight for the Class B victory in Saturday’s second race at Zwartkops. Picture: Tony Alves.
The Bridgestone BMW Car Club championship visited the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria on Saturday, with 28 cars in five classes taking to the tarmac as part of a Club Track Day.
The morning’s official qualifying session left Adrian Dalton (Xtra Shoes BMW M3 CSL) on pole position. He shared the front row of the grid with Andreas Meier (#Trained Amateurs BMW M3 STC), in front of William Einkamerer (BTAS BMW 335i) and The Citizen‘s road test editor Mark Jones (Savspeed BMW 335i).
Dalton showed his front starting position was no fluke by leading the opening race from start to finish and setting the day’s quickest racing lap at one minute, 3. 14 seconds. He was followed over the finish line by a hard dicing Meier and Einkamerer.
Renier Smith (BMW M3) took Class C in Saturday’s opening BMW Car Club race at Zwartkops. Picture: Tony Alves.
Carlo Garbini (Kimbo Coffee BMW 330i Turbo), Jagger Robertson (Viking BMW M3) and Oz Biagioni (Bio Pool BMW M3) filled out the top six places. Mark Jones’ Savspeed BMW was thumped from behind and he had to be content with the seventh place after limping around the last two laps. Afterwards, the rear suspension was found to be bent, and the car was retired.
Renier Smith (BMW M3) took Class C, Varish Ganpath (Prodigy BMW 325 Ci) Class D and Rupert Giessing (Bridgestone BMW 328i) Class E.
Race two, started from a partially inverted grid, saw Dalton leading for three laps before a brief off road excursion dropped him to fourth place. Einkamerer drove smoothly and neatly to take the win from Dalton, who managed to claw back the runner-up spot.
Pieter Zeelie took his Toyota MR2 Turbo to a sub-minute lap around Zwartkops, before crashing the car when a rear wheel hub broke. Picture: Paul Blackburn,
Robertson finished third, leading home Meier, Garbini and Jan Evertsteyn (African Surprise BMW M3). Class C went to Matthew Wadeley (BMW M3), Class D to Varish Ganpath and Class E to Rupert Giessing.
Early in the day, during one of the open track driving sessions, veteran driver Pieter Zeelie blasted his Toyota MR2 Turbo around Zwartkops in a time of 59,8 seconds. Later, when Zeelie tried to emulate the time, he crashed the car heavily after a rear wheel hub broke.
The next round of the 2021 Bridgestone BMW Car Club Championship will be held at the Zwartkops circuit on Sunday, 20 June.
