Historic Tour hits the right nostalgia note at Zwartkops

The penultimate rounds of this year’s Inland Historic Tour took place at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria on Saturday as part of Heritage Day celebrations.

Saloon cars

Top billing belonged to the Marlboro Crane Hire Legend Saloon Car category.

Hennie Groenewald (Mercury Comet) took the first race victory from Ben Morgenrood (Ford Mustang), Jonathan du Toit (Chevrolet Nova), Mark du Toit (Ford Fairlane) and Seef Fourie Junior (Plymouth Barracuda).

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In race two, both Groenewald and Jonathan du Toit were forced to retire, the Comet with a broken gearbox and the Nova with a popped driveshaft, leaving to Morgenrood to win ahead of of Mark du Toit, Paige Lindenberg (Ford Fairlane) and Sophos Pantazis (Datsun 240Z).

The opening Ben Morgenrood Group HRSA race was led by Andre van der Merwe (Porsche 911 RSR) until the Porsche suffered electronic maladies.

That handed the victory to Rudolf de Vos (Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am), leading home Meredith Wilks (Ford Escort), Stuart Konig (Volkswagen Scirocco) and Andre ten Napel (Volkswagen Scirocco).

With the Porsche out for the day, de Vos won race two as well, followed to the flag by Wilks, Konig and Terence Ladner (Volkswagen Scirocco).    

Sports cars

Larry Wilford (Lola T70) came from the back to win the opening Pre-1974 Sports Car race from Hennie Groenewald (Chevrolet Camaro), Mark du Toit (Lola T70 Spider) and Jonathan du Toit (Chevron B8).

Wilford’s Lola experienced electronic maladies in race two, which left Mark du Toit to win, narrowly ahead of Jonathan du Toit, with Peter Bailey (Porsche 917) and James Temple (Shelby Daytona Coupe) rounding out the top four.

Pursuit Series

Rob van Aarle (Ford Escort) took the first HRSA Pursuit handicap race from Althea Pretorius (Nissan Exa), Jose Vasquez (Mercedes-Benz 280E) and Garreth Ferreira (Alfa Romeo GTV).

Race two went to Andre Hattingh (Mercedes-Benz 190E), leading home Pretorius, van Aarle and Werner Hartzenberg (Porsche 916).

Single-seaters

Jannie Gerber won the opening Formula Monoposto race in his radical KTM-powered, Kent-bodied Formula M.

He was followed by Didier Diedericks (Formula M), Allen Meyer (Formula Volkswagen) and Clint Badoux (Ray).

Race two went to Meyer, ahead of Badoux, Damien Archer (Formula GTi) and Jeandre le Roux (Formula Vee).

The first Historic Single Seater race went to Matt Nash (Lotus FF), ahead of Paul Gerber (Ray), Ben van der Westhuizen (Royale) and Shannon Winterstein Titan).

Nash won race two as well, this time pursued by Dalon Holton (Van Diemen FF), Gerber and Alan Kernick (FF).

INEX Legends

Rounding out events were three race heats for INEX Legend Cars.

The first two went to Devin Robertson ahead of Jagger Robertson, Sebastian Lanzetti and Jayden Goosen.

Devin Robertson won the final race as well, this time followed by Lanzetti, Jagger Robertson and Goosen.

NOW READ: Action aplenty as Inland Historic Tour thrills Zwartkops