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South African GT series starts year on the correct bang
Opening round of the series, now with championship status, saw Mercedes-AMG and Lamborghini provide the main entertainment.
The Stradale Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Charl Arangies and Clint Weston took a narrow victory in Saturday’s South African Endurance at Zwartkops. Picture: Dave Ledbitter.
The South African GT and Endurance Series performed at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria this past Saturday, with fans invited to enjoy both one-hour and a four-hour sports car races for free.
Top billing belonged to the four-hour endurance race, with 24 competitors facing the starter.
Four hours of hard racing
It turned into a rip-roaring dice between the Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan of Xolile Letlaka/Stuart White and the Stradale Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Charl Arangies/Clint Weston.
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In the end, after various safety car periods and a number of retirements, Arangies in the AMG crossed the line eight seconds ahead of White in the Lamborghini.
Experts declared White the driver of the day, since he had missed official qualifying the Friday and worked his way through the field from the very back before taking on the Arangies Mercedes. Third, eight laps behind, was the BBR Porsche 911 GT3 of Hein Lategan and Verissimo Tavares.
They led home Mo Mia/Mike McLoughlin (Toys R Us Porsche 911 GT3), Kwanda Mokoena/Andrew Rackstraw (Audi R8 LMS), Daniel Rowe/Keagan Masters (Volkswagen Motorsport SupaPolo), Gavin Rooke/Anthony Pretorius (Bucketlist VW SuperPolo), Harm/Barend Pretorius (Pesty Backdraft Roadster), and Byron Mitchell/Peter van der Spuy (Kuno Nissan).
Eleventh, in their very first race, were CJ Jackman/Jean Paul Briner/Anthony Hoare, driving their Tradecore Steel Backdraft. The threesome made it a very special occasion indeed by taking victory in the Index of Performance class.
The final finishers, in 12th place, were Phillip Meyer/ Mark Harvey/ Dean Wolson (Adapt Design Backdraft Roadster).
McLaren win
Multiple saloon car champion Michael Stephen led the first South African GT one-hour race from start to finish in the Ultimate Outlaw team’s McLaren MP4-12C, home of Andrew Culbert (Bigfoot Express Mercedes-AMG GT3), Aldo Scribante (Scuderia Scribante Lamborghini Huracan) and Marius Jackson (MJR Audi R8).
Defending champion and pre-event favourite, Silvio Scribante (Cemza Cement Lamborghini Huracan), dropped out with an electronics issue after one lap, with another prominent retirement that of Roelf du Plessis (Audi R8 GT3) and Izak Spies (Audi R8 GT3).
Race two went to Stephen, followed by Culbert, Silvio/Aldo Scribante and du Plessis.
The next event at Zwartkops will be an Inland championship event this coming Saturday (11 March). More information on the South African Endurance National Championship can be found here.
