SASOL Raceday at Zwartkops hosts round seven of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship and few are relishing the prospect more than Hennie Groenewald, who comes into battle fresh from winning at Phakisa earlier this month.
The race day will take place this coming Saturday.
With a competitive package the whole Sasolracing Subaru team is highly motivated to put on a strong showing for what is the team’s most important race of the nine-round series. “If Welkom was a new benchmark for the Sasolracing team, we will be in good shape on race day,” said Hennie.
“Zwartkops is one of my favourite tracks that draws a lot of spectators and our pit area is humming all day with fans and Sasol’s VIP guests. There’s a lot of hype around the weekend which adds an extra dimension for us,” he added.
“The Subaru is well suited to the track layout with its All-Wheel Drive and traditionally we do well there. It is our best chance of the year and we are as prepared as we can be. We’ll be going for as many wins on the day as we can – that’s our goal.”
The Sasolracing Subaru WRX STI has undergone a further 23 improvements at the SP Race Engineering workshops in Vanderbijlpark, adding another bow to the ‘six-star’ challenge for race day honours as they seek the ultimate performance package for the final three rounds of the season.
Team Principal Carel Pienaar expects a racy performance from his team on Saturday. “Two very strong finishes at least and maybe a third one, depending on the grid inversion for race two,” is his prediction.
“The team has worked harder than ever this year to make the Subaru a competitive package against its bigger-engine rivals. Every member of the team has done an exceptional job and stayed motivated even when the results haven’t been what we had hoped for,” the team boss added.
The road to the Sasol Race Day has been a roller-coaster affair stretching back to late February when the new Subaru WRX STI made its debut and delivered top-drawer results out of the box. By round two in Killarney, Cape Town, the WRX STI had its first victory under its bonnet.
Port Elizabeth and the first Zwartkops visit didn’t deliver the expected results leading into the team’s nadir event in Durban. Richard Pinard crashed heavily during qualifying, putting himself in hospital with a broken leg and leaving one car written off.
A lengthy mid-season break saw SP Racing conduct intensive development which resulted in a massive swing in performance and results at round six.
The Sasolracing Circuit Team invites race fans to come and have a close-up look at the Subaru WRX STI racecar and get a signed poster in the pits.
Sasolracing Circuit Team gratefully acknowledges their partners Subaru, Top Class Automotive, Freem Sports Clothing and Shatterprufe windscreens.
