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Port Elizabeth results

2000 BANKFIN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS 13 AND 14, ALDO SCRIBANTE CIRCUIT, PORT ELIZABETH The hometown advantage failed to materialise for the Opel team at Aldo Scribante Raceway in Port Elizabeth at the weekend when its efforts in round 13 ...

2000 BANKFIN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS 13 AND 14, ALDO SCRIBANTE CIRCUIT, PORT ELIZABETH

The hometown advantage failed to materialise for the Opel team at Aldo Scribante Raceway in Port Elizabeth at the weekend when its efforts in round 13 of the Bankfin Touring Car Championship vanished with mechanical failure, handing an easy 1-2-3 victory to the works Nissan team - repeating the effort in the second race.

Two wins from the two starts in Port Elizabeth has virtually assured Nissan's Giniel de Villiers his fourth successive championship title, the Cape Town driver now 58 points ahead of Opel's Shaun Watson-Smith.

De Villiers led race 1 from the start in his BP Nissan Primera and finished more than eight seconds ahead of Britain Mark Peters, who in turn was nearly three seconds ahead of the third Nissan of Duncan Vos. It was De Villiers' seventh victory of the season.

Watson-Smith, who started from the front row of the grid, shadowed De Villiers for 13 laps before the Petronas Syntium Opel's engine suddenly quit. Team-mate Deon Joubert ran a strong third for the first few laps before a broken control arm saw him steadily drop back through the field to finish 12th.

Anthony Taylor came from a disappointing eighth on the grid to finish a delighted fourth in his Engen Audi A4, benefiting from the problems of his works rivals. His success was tempered by the fact he was responsible for the elimination of teammate Terry Moss on the first lap when went wide onto the dirt in Honda Hairpin and the two collided as he rejoined the circuit.

Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i), Peters and Vos were involved in a spirited battle for fourth place, with the BMW driver swapping paint with both Peters and Vos on occasion. The 1994 champion's challenge ended on lap 13 when he spun off after contact with Vos. He dropped to eighth and was sixth at the finish.

Teammate Marco dos Santos went out on lap six after failing to avoid Van der Linde when he lost control while fighting off a strong challenge from Peters. Dos Santos ended up with his BMW buried in a tyre barrier.

Silvio Scribante was a surprised fifth in the third works Opel, the only points scorer from a team that had promised so much.

De Villiers again led from the start in the second race, unchallenged after Watson-Smith retired his Opel Vectra with electrical problems.

Watson-Smith was forced to start from the pit lane after his team transplanted Scribante's engine into his car. He worked his way up to sixth place by lap nine and was all over Van der Linde's BMW when his alternator failed.

Teammate Joubert, who started from sixth on the grid, was up to fourth by lap two and pushed Vos hard throughout the race, setting fastest lap of the race in the process. When the chequered flag came out, he was less than four tenths of a second behind.

Van der Linde, who was unable to get as much out of his BMW as he had done in practice, had to settle for a disappointing fifth place, ahead of Taylor's Audi. Taylor was forced to fend off a determined challenge from Dos Santos in the second works BMW during the second half of the race, until the BMW driver outbraked himself and dropped back after an excursion on top the grass. Dos Santos finished almost six seconds behind the Audi.

Moss had disputed sixth place with his Audi teammate in the early part of the race, but was forced into his second retirement of the day when a sideshaft broke.

<pre> SOUTH AFRICAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUNDS 13 & 14, ALDO SCRIBANTE (ZA), 2 x 12 LAPS, 99,2 KM, SEP 09, Race 1 1 Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Primera) 22m 35,20s; 2 Mark Peters (Nissan Primera) 22m 44,10s; 3 Duncan Vos (Nissan Primera) 22m 47,08s; 4 Anthony Taylor (Audi A4) 22m 54,39s; 5 Silvio Scribante (Opel Vectra) 23m 01,47s; 6 Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i) 23m 01,65s; 7 Marco da Cunha (Nissan Primera) 19 laps; 8 George Bezuidenhout (Nissan Primera) 19 laps; 9 Irshad Jaffer (Nissan Primera) 19 laps; 10 Richard Sorensen (BMW 320i) 19 laps. Fastest lap: De Villiers, 1m 6,25s.

Race 2 1 Giniel De Villiers (Nissan) 23 min 32,14s; 2 Mark Peters (Nissan) 23m 32,24s; 3 Duncan Vos (Nissan) 23m 33,28s; 4 Deon Joubert (Opel) 23m 33,689s; 5 Shaun Van der Linde (BMW) 23m 43,49s; 6 Anthony Taylor (Audi) 23m 50,95s; 7 Marco Dos Santos (BMW) 23m 56,88s; 8 Marco Da Cunha (Nissan) 24m 33,38s; 9 George Bezuidenhout (Nissan) 24m 39,94s; 10 Irshad Jaffer (Nissan) 19 laps. Fastest lap: Joubert, 1m 6,27s.

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (after 14 rounds of 20) Drivers 1 Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Primera) 186; 2 Shaun Watson-Smith (Opel Vectra) 128; 3 Duncan Vos (Nissan Primera) 106; 4 Mark Peters (Nissan Primera) 98; 5 Deon Joubert (Opel Vectra) 96; 6 Anthony Taylor (Audi A4) 84; 7 Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i) 73; 8 Terry Moss (Audi A4) 69; 9 Marco dos Santos (BMW 318i) 38; 10 Marco da Cunha (Nissan Primera) and Neil Stephen (Audi A4) 20; 12 Gary Formato (Nissan Primera) 18; 13 Colin Hastie (Nissan Primera) 14; 14 George Bezuidenhout (Nissan Primera) 11; 15 Richard Sorensen (BMW 320i) 6.

Manufacturers 1 Nissan 434; 2 Opel 211; 3 Audi 166; 4 BMW 110; 5 Toyota 3.

Procar Challenge 1 George Bezuidenhout (Nissan Primera) 160; 2 Marco da Cunha (Nissan Primera) 177; 3 Colin Hastie (Nissan Primera) 75; 4 Brian Martin (Toyota Corolla) 65; 5 AJ Taylor (Nissan Sentra) 61; 6 Richard Sorensen (BMW 320i) 60; 7 Irshad Jaffer (Nissan Primera) 57.

Colin Windell colin@autonews.co.za

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