Fans were treated to a day of thrills and spills as Round 3 of the Wesbank Super Series returned to the Scribante Raceway in Nelson Mandela Bay on the last weekend of April. This year’s series included the Volkswagen Polo Cup, SA Superbikes, Wesbank V8 Supercars, SA Single Seaters and the hotly contested Bridgestone Production Cars. The Scribante Raceway is unique in that it gives fans the opportunity of viewing the majority of the track from most seating positions, and the pit lane is always open for the spectators to meet the drivers and view the machinery.
This year’s Production Car Series has an exciting new format with two sets of back to back sprints. Local racing star Michael Stephen in the new Terry Moss Racing Audi S4 took wins in race 1 and 2. After a difficult start to the day race 3 and 4 was won by Hennie Groenewald in the Sasol Subaru. Race 4 was overshadowed by the spectacular accident of Tannith Gardener in the sister Sasol Subaru. The Subaru was nudged off the circuit hitting a safety barrier and launching into a series of barrel rolls. Miss Gardner emerged unscathed from the incident.
The notable result of the day was by former SA Supersport champion Chris Leeson, on the Siris Kawasaki, who took a pair of maiden wins in the SA Superbike category. With joint championship leader Sheridan Morais competing in Italy, the way was open for hot favourite Greg Gildenhuys (Motorrad BMW) to take full advantage of the situation to open up a gap at the top of the points table. But Leeson and Julian Odendaal (MS Aircon Kawasaki) had other ideas and showed their strongest performance in this year’s championship. Clint Seller on the Bikefin Honda took a hard fought double win in the highly competitive Supersport Championship category.
In the Volkswagen Cup hard working Devin Robertson in the Big Boss Auto VW Polo was a comfortable winner in both races. In the Wesbank V8 Supercar event there was an upset in race one when veteran Franco di Matteo took a popular win in the Super GT Class in the Varta Batteries Jaguar. The second race, from the usual inverted grid, saw the Auby family hit back. Father Deon, in the Q8 Oils/SKF Cummins Lumina, led home son Jimmy with Larry Wilford third in the Fuchs Ford Falcon running in the GT Class. Robert Wolk dominated the single seater Formula VW race with a great double win from Jayde Kruger and Simon Moss.
It was an outstanding day of racing at Scribante with great results for many of the local teams and drivers. Hennie Groenewald shared in the post race interview that NMB is a special place to come to and Scribante is a special track to race on. Catch interviews with Tschops Sipuka, Gugu Zulu as well as race winners Clint Seller, Chris Leeson and Hennie Groenewald on Kingfisher FM‘s lunch time show with Gareth and get all the results on www.wesbankmotorsport.co.za
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