Inland Historic Tour ends 2024 on a red-hot farewell at Zwarkops

This year’s Inland Historic Tour championship ended on a high, if overheated, note at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria. The events, held in searing heat, kept a reasonably sized crowd happy.

Saloon Cars

Top billing belonged to the Marlboro Crane Hire Pre-1966 Production Cars, with veteran Ben Morgenrood winning race one with his Ford Mustang.

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He was chased to the line by Jonathan du Toit (Chevrolet Nova), Hennie Groenewald (Ford Escort RS2000), Seef Fourie Jr (Chevrolet Chevelle), Mark du Toit (Ford Fairlane) and James Temple (Ford Escort RS2000).

Morgenrood and Jonathan du Toit again finished first and second in race two, this time followed by Temple, Fourie Jr, Mark du Toit and Alan Poulter (Volvo 122S).

GT and Prototypes

After leading, Larry Wilford’s Lola T70 dropped out of the opening heat for Pre-1974 Sports Racing Prototypes.

That left Jonathan du Toit (Chevron B9) to win ahead of Peter Bailey (Porsche 917), Mark du Toit (Lola T70 Spyder) and Warren Lombard (AC Cobra).

Jonathan du Toit won race two as well, this time ahead of his brother Mark, Lombard and Andre van der Merwe (Evapco Porsche 911 RSR).

HRSA

The opening Evapco HRSA Sprint race went to Andre van der Merwe (Porsche 911 RSR), leading home Hennie Groenewald (Ford Escort RS2000), Stuart Konig (Volkswagen Scirocco) and Andre ten Napel (Volkswagen Scirocco).

Van der Merwe won race two as well, this time chased to the line by ten Napel, Gavin Lundin (Datsun 1200 GX) and John McLachlan (Datsun 1200 GX).

Clubmans

Deon du Plessis (KTM X-Bow) won the first On Track Clubmans race ahead of Adriaan le Roux (Caterham Super 7), Dirk Lawrence (Honda Ballade) and Steve Venter (Nash MVWS).

Le Roux won race two from du Plessis, Lawrence and Anton Bitzer (Mazda RX-7).

Midvaal Historics

Behind them, Eugene Gouws (Mowers Chevrolet Firenza CanAm) took the Midvaal Historics category from Johan Coetzer (Datsun 1200 GX), Dale Blignaut (Ford Escort) and JJ Venter (Volkswagen Jetta).

Gouws won race two as well, followed by Coetzer, Blignaut and Venter.

Silvercup

The opening Silvercup 2.0 race went to Marius Jacobs (Opel Tigra Spaceframe), ahead of Marnus du Plessis (Nissan Primera), Paul van Niekerk (Volkswagen Golf Turbo) and Anton Bitzer (Mazda RX-7).

Giulio Airaga (Opel Tigra Spaceframe) took the next race, followed by Riaan Draper (Beams), Jacobs and Karel Stols (Mazda RX-7).

INEX Legends

Both Liqui Moly INEX Legend races saw Tyler Robinson win from Jayden Goosen, Richard van Heerde and Gavin Botha.

Single-seaters

The wild, KTM-engine Formula M of JM Gerber easily won the first Formula Libre race.

He was followed by Neville van den Berg (Formula M), Damien Archer (Formula GTi) and Adrian Morrow (Formula M).

In race two, veteran Allen Meyer (Formula Volkswagen) finished second behind van den Berg, but ahead of Archer and Morrow.

Andrew Horne (Royale RP31) won both the Historic Single Seater races from Paul Gerber (Ray 83), Ben van der Westhuizen (Royale RP21) and Patrick Dunseith (Merlyn Mk25 FF).

Lotus Challenge

David Jermy (Taylon) took the first Lotus Challenge heat from Rudi Barnard (Birkin), Andre’ Human (Birkin) and Tinus Botes (Birkin).

Jermy, Barnard and Human filled the podium after race two as well, this time ahead of JP Nortje (Birkin).

Pursuit Series

The event’s overall Evapco HRSA Pursuit Challenge victory went to Wynand du Plessis (Porsche 944 S2), ahead of Rob van Aarle (Ford Escort Mk1), Jannie van Rooyen (Volkswagen Scirocco), Gerrit Murray (Alfa Romeo GTV6), and Gary Stacey (Ford Sierra XR8).

Final call

The last event at Zwartkops this year will be the season finale of the Regional Extreme Festival on Saturday, 16 November.

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