Kyalami beckons for Bay superstars

The national motorsport calendar reaches a thrilling climax at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Johannesburg this weekend with the running of the South African Endurance Series (SAES) Nine-Hours of Kyalami Endurance race that will end an action-packed two-day racing festival. In total, 13 championships across the various classes will be at stake, including the prestigious SA Endurance National Championship, the SA Endurance Index of Performance Championship and the SA GT National Championship. Spectators are really in for a treat; after watching all of the support classes, they will be able to watch the top 44 endurance cars battling it out on track for 9 hours of non-stop action. SAES co-founder Xolile Letlaka said that his focus was growing the motorsport audience to benefit the sport as a whole. Affordability is the key to this objective, and ticket prices start at R50 for general access on Friday and R100 for Saturday. This is the first step to lowering entry barriers to South African spectators. Live SuperSport coverage of all the races from 14h30 on Friday through to the chequered flag falling at the end of the Nine-Hour on Saturday at 21h00 will keep fans who can’t make it to the circuit in the loop. Motorsport fans worldwide will also be able to follow all of the action on the SAES YouTube channel. Spectators are welcome to bring their gazebos, braais and cooler boxes with refreshments and park against the fence to watch all the on-track action.

Michael Stephen in his Audi R8
Michael Stephen is on track to claim his nineteenth national title
Picture by SA Endurance Series

In the SA Endurance championship, just seven points separate the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 entry of Xolile Letlaka, Stuart White and Mikaeel Pitamber and the Stradale Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 entry of Charl Arangies, Arnold Neveling and Kwanda Mokoena. The Into Africa trio should be considered firm favourites as each driver has current overseas GT racing experience, with White securing a win and three podium finishes in the Italian Championship, Pitamber became the youngest ever GT Open winner with a victory in Monza, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed up by a season-ending win in Spain and Letlaka having performed well in two rounds of the European Gt Open Championship. Arangies has already clinched the SA GT Extreme National Championship and will undoubtedly be in confident form along with Neveling, who has excelled in both the Extreme Supercars and the GTC SupaCup series. Mokoena joining them as the reigning SA Endurance Champion will certainly help their cause.

In the SA GT Championship, comprising of two 1 Hour sprint races per event, local superstar Michael Stephen is on the verge of clinching his 19th National Motorsport Championship, having won six out of the seven rounds so far this season in his Ultimate Outlaws Audi R8 GT3 Evo. Another local hero, Aldo Scribante, in his Scribante Concrete Lamborghini Huracan GT3, is in second place in the championship. He has enjoyed a consistent season and is just 28 points off the championship lead, with 70 points on offer this weekend. Reigning GT Champion younger brother Silvio, in his Cemza Cement Lamborghini Huracan GT3, had a disastrous start to the season and will no doubt be riding shotgun to help Aldo in the title hunt. Stephen and the Scribante brothers are also fighting for the Pro Class Championship but will be under loads of pressure from the Into Africa Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Stuart White, who will be out to win both races. The young Free State driver holds the outright lap record at Zwartkops Raceway and wants another record to be written against his name. The Teams Championship will certainly go down to the wire, with Ultimate Outlaws enjoying a slender lead over Scuderia Scribante. The advantage will lie with the Ultimate Outlaws as they have entered a third car, driven by team boss Izak Spies, a brand-new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 that only landed in the country last Monday.

Additional classes to enjoy over the weekend, each having two sprint races, are the Silvercup 2.0 Litre, Lotus Challenge and Pabar VW Challenge. The Silvercup has 50 entries and is an interesting mix of cars, with seven BMW M Performance Championship cars joining in on the action and two screaming Mazda Rotaries with a host of 111 and GT Car Care Clinic Sports & Saloons to add to the action.

In the Lotus Challenge, all cars are based on the Colin Chapman-designed Lotus 7 from 1957 and are divided into classes B and L. Class B must use a Toyota motor and run on Dunlop tyres, while class L is for Low-cost South African-built replicas using South African built Ford Rocam engines and Dunlop tyres.

The Pabar VW Challenge has 33 entries, with a handful of CompCare PoloCup cars joining in on the action. No doubt, spectators will be treated to a feast of bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door racing in one of South Africa’s most competitive classes.

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