SA oval titles in the bag

POLOKWANE – Two racers from Polokwane Oval, SZ Venter and Johnny du Randt walked away with South African titles after some sterling performances in the last leg of the national oval championships in Cape Town on November 2.

Venter won the super saloon class, while Du Randt won the 2.0-litre modified class.

Du Randt in a sponsored Dura Projects 2.0-litre modified race car showed consistency throughout his campaign, but in the final leg of the race in Cape Town, his car’s engine blew a mere three hours before the start of the race.

Du Randt’s teammates from the Polokwane Oval Team worked feverishly to change the car’s engine on time.

This resulted in the team only arriving on the track with 30 minutes of the practise session remaining, which was not adequate to get some time in to do the proper settings needed for the national final round.

This setback did not deter a determined Du Randt, who raced with a cool head to accumulate enough points to secure the 2,0-litre modified class title.

In the super saloon class, the Capetonians had their money on local racers, but it was Polokwane Oval’s title campaigners Venter and Deon Voges who ultimately spoiled the party for the Cape Town supporters.

Leading competitors in the super saloon class racers had cars with V8 engines, but Venter opted for the six-cylinder Nissan Skyline engine.

Venter had a handful of problems to content with. In the first heat of three, he was involved in a skirmish that left him with an ill functioning steering.

Venter still managed to proceed to the finish, albeit in fifth spot. The steering was fixed for the second heat, but his Midas sponsored super saloon race car’s handling was still not what Venter would have preferred it to be.

He started from pole position nonetheless, but with a bit of ill handling through the race, Venter still showed his class with a vital third place before going into the final heat of the super saloon class championships.

It was in the final heat that Venter claimed the title from his rivals. Starting in third place in this last tension filled heat, he went on well among the front leaders until an accident involving the other competitors caused full course yellow flags and the racers had to remain in their current positions until the race marshals cleared the track.

With six rounds of racing still remaining, the slow down formation laps caused the engine of Venter’s car to reach boiling point, reaching 120 deg C.

But this did not deter Venter.

He dragged the V8 powered engine with a very heated up six- cylinder power unit on the main straight as soon as the green flags dropped and grabbed first place, which he held onto right to the finish to secure a win for the super saloon title.

Voges claimed second position overall on the championship ladder in a Chev Lumina V8.

According to Venter’s father, Piet, it cost around R100 000 to get the drivers and their race cars to Cape Town.

He thanked the public and businesses for their support in raising money to get them to Cape Town.