The huge appreciative crowd at an extremely hot Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town were treated to a wonderful array of vehicles ranging from 16 Formula One cars built before 1965 and brought to SA by the European-based Historic Grand Prix Car Association, pre’74 international sports racing prototypes, sports and GT cars, Opel supercars, superbikes, as well as one of the highlights of the weekend — Laude classics including V8 touring cars.
The field of 34 classic cars was spearheaded by the battle upfront between Humansdorp entrepreneur Rudolph de Vos (Gecko Lounge) with his giant-killing Chevy Can-Am that dominated the Zwartkops round last weekend, taking four-out-of-four race wins and the debut race of Franco Donadio’s (Donadio Plant Hire) newly built Chevy Can-Am.
Developed in the UK by General Motors in the late 1960s as a Vauxhall Firenza, the brand was brought to SA and rebadged as the Chevrolet Firenza at the GM factory in Gqeberha, with 1.2l and 2.5l versions.
Renowned race car developer Basil van Rooyen was looking for an alternative vehicle to take on the Ford Capri Peranas that were dominating the SA Production Car Championship and he started developing a Firenza with a Camaro Z28 V8 engine.
The results of the light-bodied car with massive V8 power grabbed the imagination of the executives at GMSA and the green light was given to start production.
To comply with racing rules, a minimum of 100 cars had to be developed to be officially homologated to compete in the production car series.
GM produced 106 in 1973, with six being purpose-built race cars.
In qualifying, Donadio got the better of De Vos by just 0.7 seconds, with Michael Hitchcock (Cross Cape Forklift Services) two seconds back with his Ford Mustang.
From the moment race one started, the crowd were on their feet as the game of cat and mouse played out between De Vos and Donadio as they went through many of the corners side-by-side.
De Vos finally found his way to the front, holding a 0.5 second lead before the race was halted on the sixth lap after Steve Bekker lost the back end of his VW Passat and ploughed into the tyre wall, ending up sideways on the track.
Race two saw the little Chevys going head-to-head again as De Vos fought his way to the front of the field in his bid to retain his four-year unbeaten streak.
From midway of the eight-lap race both drivers wove their way through the backmarkers where De Vos built up a 2.5 second lead until with one-and-a-half laps to go, fading brakes and an overheating engine, he spun out of contention.
Donadio took the race win by a massive 18 seconds from Hitchcock in second and the Ford Mustang of Ferdi Mouton (Cross Cape Forklift Services) in third.
HeraldLIVE
De Vos and Donadio steal the show at Killarney thriller
Image: GERALD BATT
The huge appreciative crowd at an extremely hot Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town were treated to a wonderful array of vehicles ranging from 16 Formula One cars built before 1965 and brought to SA by the European-based Historic Grand Prix Car Association, pre’74 international sports racing prototypes, sports and GT cars, Opel supercars, superbikes, as well as one of the highlights of the weekend — Laude classics including V8 touring cars.
The field of 34 classic cars was spearheaded by the battle upfront between Humansdorp entrepreneur Rudolph de Vos (Gecko Lounge) with his giant-killing Chevy Can-Am that dominated the Zwartkops round last weekend, taking four-out-of-four race wins and the debut race of Franco Donadio’s (Donadio Plant Hire) newly built Chevy Can-Am.
Developed in the UK by General Motors in the late 1960s as a Vauxhall Firenza, the brand was brought to SA and rebadged as the Chevrolet Firenza at the GM factory in Gqeberha, with 1.2l and 2.5l versions.
Renowned race car developer Basil van Rooyen was looking for an alternative vehicle to take on the Ford Capri Peranas that were dominating the SA Production Car Championship and he started developing a Firenza with a Camaro Z28 V8 engine.
The results of the light-bodied car with massive V8 power grabbed the imagination of the executives at GMSA and the green light was given to start production.
To comply with racing rules, a minimum of 100 cars had to be developed to be officially homologated to compete in the production car series.
GM produced 106 in 1973, with six being purpose-built race cars.
In qualifying, Donadio got the better of De Vos by just 0.7 seconds, with Michael Hitchcock (Cross Cape Forklift Services) two seconds back with his Ford Mustang.
From the moment race one started, the crowd were on their feet as the game of cat and mouse played out between De Vos and Donadio as they went through many of the corners side-by-side.
De Vos finally found his way to the front, holding a 0.5 second lead before the race was halted on the sixth lap after Steve Bekker lost the back end of his VW Passat and ploughed into the tyre wall, ending up sideways on the track.
Race two saw the little Chevys going head-to-head again as De Vos fought his way to the front of the field in his bid to retain his four-year unbeaten streak.
From midway of the eight-lap race both drivers wove their way through the backmarkers where De Vos built up a 2.5 second lead until with one-and-a-half laps to go, fading brakes and an overheating engine, he spun out of contention.
Donadio took the race win by a massive 18 seconds from Hitchcock in second and the Ford Mustang of Ferdi Mouton (Cross Cape Forklift Services) in third.
HeraldLIVE
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