Day of drama at packed Aldo Scribante Raceway

The many spectators who attended round six of the Algoa Motorsport Club Regional Championship at Aldo Scribante Raceway on the outskirts of Gqeberha were treated to a full day of action in perfect weather conditions.

The drama started on the first lap of the day in early morning qualifying when Cape Town visitor Dawie de Beers’ immaculate Ford Escort burst into flames on the main straight after his fuel line ruptured.

Fortunately, the track marshals were close at hand to extinguish the blaze that engulfed the car as de Beer escaped without injury.

There was a further delay during the day when young motorcyclist Emma Oberholzer took a tumble on the last lap of the CBR 150 race after having led for the better part of the race and was transported to hospital by ambulance for observation.

Keona Strode once again dominated the open motorcycle class winning heats one and two by the proverbial country mile, but broke down on the last lap in heat three with the finish line in sight, gifting the overall win to Dyllan Anderson. 

Championship leader in the API GTI Challenge, Marco Busi, slammed into the Armco barriers on the start line of the opening GTI Challenge race and had to be pushed back to the pits to carry out repairs to his car, allowing second-place championship contender Jurie Swart to move into the lead in the highly competitive class.

Kelsey Davidson was one of the stars of the day in the large field of modified saloons, qualifying fastest in her VW SuperCup Polo and going on to finish second behind the Audi S4 of Deon Neethling in race one.

In race two, while she was leading, an over-ambitious late braking move from Johan Nel in his BMW saw him slamming into the back of Davidson’s Polo that led to her spinning off the track.

However, she managed to get back on and recover to finish in 17th place in the strong 27-car field, which she followed up with a fourth-place finish in race three.

The Algoa Motorsport Club chairperson made a triumphant return to racing in his Mastercrete BMW, and after a change of tyres after an eighth-place finish in race one, stormed to the front to win both races two and three to secure the overall win in the Modified saloon class.

In the biggest class of the day, the Coastal Challenge series comprising history, classics, retro classics and open-top cars saw 42 entries battling it out on track with some epic racing all through the field.

Cape Town driver Franco Donadio took overall honours in his lightning-fast Ford Escort after some great racing against the Volvo 850 of Ian Oberholzer, as well as the ferocious V8 Ford Capri’s of Chris Nell and Darron Gudmanz.

Unfortunately, the day of racing action was cut short due to a power failure at the circuit so the scheduled Ford & Friends All-comers race, as well as the 45-minute Endurance Race did not take place due to the lights around the circuit not working.

The results were:

CBR 150 Junior Motorcycles — 1st Dylan Grobler, 2nd Caden Weise, 3rd Ethan Diener

CBR 150 Clubman Motorcycles — 1st Ruan van Zyl, 2nd Kirsty Oberholzer, 3rd Kiara Potgieter

300cc Motorcycles — 1st Dylan Grobler, 2nd Ethan Diener, 3rd Ruan van Zyl

600cc Motorcycles — 1st Dyllan Anderson, 2nd Keano Strode, 3rd Zander Taljaard

Historic Motorcycles — 1st Morne Kock

Powersport Motorcycles — 1st Rob Halgreen

Unlimited Motorcycles — 1st Donovan van der Merwe, 2nd Nkululeko Majola, 3rd Timothy Benn

API GTI Challenge Class A — 1st Jurie Swart, 2nd Shane Williams, 3rd Clinton Bezuidenhout

API GTI Challenge Class B — 1st Tate Bishop, 2nd Brett Roach, 3rd Nur Abass

API GTI Challenge Class C — 1st Dylan van Eeden, 2nd Zac Laden, 3rd Daniel Munna

EP Regional Saloons & WPMC Clubmans Class X — 1st Kai van Zyl, 2nd Charl Opperman, 3rd Carlos Goncalves

EP Regional Saloons Class B — 1st Ian Riddle, 2nd Geoff Stephen

EP Regional Saloons Class C — 1st Deon Neethling, 2nd Shaun Gradwell, 3rd Marais Ellis

EP Regional Saloons Class D — 1st Timothy Ball, 2nd Philip Weise, 3rd Juan van Rooyen

EP Regional Saloons Class E — 1st Jason Nell, 2nd Andrew Meyer, 3rd Raymond Redinger

EP Regional Saloons Class F — 1st Kiesha Potgieter

Coastal Challenge Class A — 1st Chris Nell, 2nd Derek Boy, 3rd Darron Gudmanz

Coastal Challenge Class B — 1st Nick Davidson, 2nd Jarod Thompson

Coastal Challenge Class C — 1st Aidan Barnard, 2nd Ryno Burger, 3rd Rane Berry

Coastal Challenge Class D — 1st Neil Stephen, 2nd Patrick Fourie, 3rd Barry Spriggs

Coastal Challenge Class E — 1st Ronald Scott, 2nd Aubrey Burger

Coastal Challenge Class F — 1st Johan Marais

Coastal Challenge including WPMC Historics — 1st Franco Donadio, 2nd Jarryd Evans, 3rd Wayne Botha.

VW Rookie Cup — 1st Judd Berholdt, 2nd Josh Moore, 3rd Uzair Khan

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