The opening round of the PE Oval Track Raceway Championship took place in perfect summer evening conditions at their track that is situated alongside Mission Road in Greenbushes. Being the opening round of the championship it proved to be a night of attrition for a couple of the drivers who battled with mechanical issues, but that certainly didn’t detract from the action packed evening of thrills and spills across most of the classes.

East London driver Shawn du Preez enjoyed a fantastic evening competing in the 2.1 Modified Class where he held off the hard charging Neels Vermaak to not only win the class but also to win the driver-of -the-day award. Welkom resident Pieter van der Merwe brought his mighty V8 down from the Free State but unfortunately a spin on the last lap of one of the heats whilst leading scuppered his chances, allowing Juan Roesstorff to continue his great run off form to take overall line honoursin the final.  

Sixteen year old Reghardt Joubert was once again the star of the show in the 1600 Stock Saloon class holding off a spirited attack from Deon Kretzmann, he kept a calm head under pressure to win the class final. The 1660 Modified Saloons saw half the class dropping out during the evening with incidents and accidents aplenty where it was the lady drivers who had the crowds on their feet where Charne’ Schuin triumphed over Chanell van Tonder after an evening off close racing.

The next race at PEOTR will be the opening round of the regional championship that sees drivers competing at both Victory Raceway in Walmer at at PEOTR and it takes place on the 22^nd February.

The class results on the night were as follows –

Heavy Metals

 1^st Micheal Kruger (C550)

Classic 6’s

1^st Nathan Roesstorff (C133), 2^nd Andries Olwagen (67), Jabe de Kock (C140)

2.1 Modifieds

 1^st Shawn du Preez (B13), 2^nd Neels Vermaak (C64), 3^rd Tyler Mansfiled (C135)

Hot Rods

 1^st Piet Scheepers (C23), 2^nd Baba Grundlingh (C727), 3^rd Reghardt Joubert (C133)

V8 American Saloons

 1^st Juan Roesstorff (SA3), 2^nd Pieter van der Merwe (#707), 3^rd Wayne Holland (C21)

1660 Modified Saloons

 1^st Charne’ Schuin (C226), 2^nd Chanell van Tonder (C173), 3^rd Leon Smith (C24)

Driver of the day – B13 Shawn du Preez