BTCC: Bankfin; Nissan Motorsport protest changes results of Round 12

The result of round 12 of the Bankfin Touring Car Championship, held at AA Kyalami on Saturday (July 15), has been changed following a successful protest by Nissan Motorsport.

According to BTCC clerk of the course Steve Harding, Nissan alleged that Opel Vectra driver Shaun Watson-Smith took unfair advantage of defending champion and championship leader Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Primera) by performing an illegal overtaking manoeuvre in the Kink. The race stewards agreed and imposed a 10-second penalty of Watson-Smith, dropping him from his actual second place finish to fifth.

As a result, De Villiers moves up from fourth to third and instead of Watson-Smith gaining 20 points on De Villiers on the day (he won round 11 with his rival out of the points in 14th place), Watson-Smith's gain is reduced to 12 points and he remains in second place in the championship standings, 27 behind De Villiers.

The decision, handed down late on Saturday evening and which has been appealed by Opel Motorsport, means the revised top six finishing order of round 12 (subject to final confirmation by Motorsport South Africa) is as follows:

1 Anthony Taylor (Audi A4) 23m 21,754s; 2 Deon Joubert (Opel Vectra) 23m 25,160s; 3 Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Primera) 23m 26,352s; 4 Gary Formato (Nissan Primera) 23m 28,67s; 5 Shaun Watson-Smith (Opel Vectra) 23m 35,160s; 6 Duncan Vos (Nissan Primera) 24m 04,259s. <pre> Revised BTCC drivers' championship and manufacturers' championship points (subject to appeal) are as follows:

Drivers

1 Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Primera) 152; 2 Shaun Watson-Smith (Opel Vectra) 125; 3 Duncan Vos (Nissan Primera) and Deon Joubert (Opel Vectra) 86; 5 Mark Peters (Nissan Primera) 74; 6 Anthony Taylor (Audi A4) 71; 7 Terry Moss (Audi A4) 69; 8 Shaun van der Linde (BMW) 62; 9 Marco dos Santos (BMW) 34; 10 Neil Stephen (Audi A4) 20; 11 Gary Formato (Nissan Primera) 18; 12 Colin Hastie (Nissan Primera) 14; 13 Marco de Cunha (Nissan Primera) 13; 14 George Bezuidenhout (Nissan Primera) 11; 15 Richard Sorensen (BMW 320i) 6; 16 Brian Martin (Toyota Corolla) 3; 17 AJ Taylor (Nissan Sentra) 2.

Manufacturers

1 Nissan 345; 2 Opel 197; 3 Audi 153; 4 BMW 94; 5 Toyota 3.

-Colin Windell-