Mopar title fights wrap up

The Phakisa Raceway between Welkom and Odendaalsrus in the Free State will host the finale of the 2019 Mopar South African Endurance Series this Saturday, with the season’s various title fights to be settled in two three-hour races.

Heading the 18-car and 39-driver entry list and looking to bag the respective overall race victory should be the ultra–fast Maui Motorhomes Ginetta G57-Chevrolet driven by Craig Jarvis and teenage single seater star Stuart White. They will launch an allout assault on the 4.2km Phakisa circuit’s outright lap record along the way.

RECORD RUNNERS. Stuart White and Craig Jarvis will hope to set Phakisa’s quickest ever lap time in their Ginetta G57 Chevrolet.

White, in the Ginetta, already holds the quickest lap ever around the East London Grand Prix circuit set earlier this year, during a Mopar Endurance race there. The team, bound to take pole position, will set up the car for a quick run at the race starts, attacking the current overall lap record on laps two, three and four, when White will have a clear circuit. Then, with the record set, they should put the Ginetta on harder rubber, fill up the petrol tanks and set about the task of winning the races overall. Another team will have higher, championship winning aspirations.

Leading the overall title chase is the current championship pairing of Nick Adcock/ Michael Jensen in their Aidcall247 Ligier JS53 Honda. Adcock and Jensen have a 63-point lead with 100 points still up for grabs. They will be challenged by the similar Point Blank Racing Ligier-Honda JS53 of Fritz Kleynhans and James Forbes.

The coveted Index of Performance title chase has turned into a fourway battle between the current leaders Dayne Angel/ Jarryd Evans (Autohaus Honda Civic), Howard Blake/Andre Horne (Blake Digital Capital Nash-VW), Dean Wolson/Gerald Wright (Sports 2000-Opel) and Adcock/Jensen.

The thundering Backdraft Roadster Lexus V8 entries of TrevorGraham/Brian Martin and Mike McLachlan/Tony Martin will take on the Ferrari F360 of Kishoor Pitamber/Kris Budnik for GT5 honours on the day. Six class V cars will do battle headed by Blake/ Horne and Wolson/ Wright in their Nash VW. They will be joined by the similar Nash VW entries of Paul Sullivan/Mike Kernick, John/Byron Olivier and Peter Schmidt-Loffler/ Gavin Rooke.

Saloon car enthusiasts should look out for the class B fight, featuring the Honda of Angel/Evans and Theo van Vuuren/Keegan Ward (Arnold Chatz Alfa Romeo Giulietta), while in class C, Uli Sanne/Terence Ladner and John McLachlan/Martin Botha (Alfa GT) will take on Steve Truter and Wayne Lotter’s BMW M3.

The Sports and GT One-hour race which runs concurrently with the main race will see Paul Hills’s Kalex Aston Martin Vantage GT3 take on Trevor Frost’s Strocam Mining Ligier JS49-Honda.

The first race will start at 9am with the second three-hour event scheduled for 14.15pm. Entrance will cost R50 per adult.

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