Bonafede is back on track after Phakisa
FOURWAYS - After two race meetings that promised much yet failed to deliver this year, Audi Sasolracing driver Gennaro Bonafede’s championship aspirations received a boost at Phakisa Freeway in Bloemfontein.
Two hard-fought races gave the lanky student third overall, but perhaps more importantly, proved that the team had got rid of the gremlins that had bedevilled his car for the past couple of months.
Race one produced an entertaining duel for second place. Bonafede tried everything he knew to get past the BMW of Gavin Cronje, but while he could get alongside Cronje it was always on the dirty side of the track and he could not make a legitimate pass.
After eight laps of riveting action, Bonafede had to settle for third, just 0.19 seconds behind the BMW.
Speaking after the race Bonafede said, “I pushed Gavin hard but lacked the last tenth of a second to make a move stick.”
As usual, the cars lined up for the longer feature race in reverse championship order which put Bonafede in fourth place directly behind Cronje.
At the first corner Cronje got his BMW sideways, forcing Bonafede to take evasive action. While he missed the BMW, he did end up on the outside of the circuit for the second turn and was then forced wide at turn three. The resulting off-track excursion dropped him down to the back of the class A field.
With a realistic chance of a win gone, Bonafede set about closing the gap to the rest of the field and in the process set the second quickest lap of the race.
Bonafede eventually backed off slightly when the engine temperature in his Audi S4 started to rise and he crossed the line in fourth place.
His efforts gave him third place for the day, the leading Audi behind the two BMWs, and he remains in third place on the championship log.
The next outing is the Sasol Race Day at Zwartkops on 30 August.
