In the words of the rock band Queen, “The show must go on” and go on it did at Aldo Scribante this past weekend in some of the worst conditions ever experienced at the circuit since it was opened in 1974. A dedicated group of marshals and officials worked tirelessly in the pouring rain and pulled out all stops to ensure that the track was cleared of all puddles that had formed on the circuit. Newly elected Honoury Life President of Algoa Motorsport Club, Barry Kapelus had the following to say, “I would just like to thank all of our marshals who stood in the rain for thirteen hours and our staff as well as some of our executive members who assisted in digging trenches and chopping kerbs to get rid of the water on the track. Also a big thank you to the race director Wayne Riddell for his guidance in getting things sorted out to ensure that we had an event in the end”.
The much anticipated battle between Michael Stephen and Stuart White, who were separated by just a few hundredths of a second in qualifying ended prematurely when the Nova Proto NP02 Le Mans style car that Stephen was sharing with Charl Visser and Nick Adcock didn’t make it out onto the start line after suffering a rare transmission failure during the morning warm-up session.
The 5-Hours of Aldo Scribante Endurance race got underway at the scheduled 4pm start and there was drama immediately when the Audi R8 of Joseph Ellerine and Marius Jackson was tagged on the main straight and hit the armco barriers forcing the first of many safety car interventions. The Lamborghini Huracan of Stuart White and Xolile Letlaka made an early pit-stop to have a faulty lambda sensor on the exhaust system seen to and this stop allowed Brad Liebenberg to open up a nine lap lead in the Audi R8 that he was sharing with Paul Hill. As the hours ticked away White and Letlaka were able to slowly but surely work their way back into contention as Paul Hill battled in the worst of the rainy conditions and the scene was set for a thrilling climax between White and Liebenberg for the last hour of the race. With a mix of great teamwork, race strategy and driving skill, White managed to get ahead of Liebenberg and lead by under just under two seconds but the arrival of monsoon type rain with forty minutes of the race remaining saw the safety car going out on the circuit for the remainder of the race.
The victorious scenes of celebration from The Into Africa Team of White & Letlaka soon turned to disappointment when they were given a twenty second penalty for overtaking under yellow flag conditions relegating them to second place, with the overall victory going to Liebenberg and Hill with the BBR Motorsport Porsche of Verissimo Tavares and Henk and Hein Lategan coming home in third.
The 5-Hour Endurance event was held in honour of the late Celso Scribante, and his son Aldo capped off an emotional weekend by winning the 1-Hour Dash in his Scribante Concrete backed Lamborghini Huracan, edging out Charl Arangies in his Stradale Porsche GT3.
The Super-Vee single seaters put on a great display in the rain with Dee-Jay Booysen dominating the open class with two race wins followed by Allen Meyer in second with Jannie Gerber third. In the Super-Vee class it was a great debut event for Bevan Williams who finished on the top step of the podium followed by Neville van der Berg and Grant Will.
The regional classes unfortunately only had one heat each in the rain interrupted day but the drivers and riders grabbed the opportunity to get out on the track and showcase their impressive racing skills with the highlight of the day being the side-by-side battle that Neil Stephen and Barry Spriggs had in their evenly matched Ford Escorts racing in the Stu Davidson & Sons Coastal Challenge for historic and classic cars.
The overall regional results were as follows –
Coastal Challenge
Class C
- 1st Aiden Barnard, Opel Kadette
Class D
- 1st Barry Spriggs, Ford Escort
Class E
- 1st Ronald Scott, Ford Escort
Class X
- 1st Daniel Bright, Lotus 7
EP Regional Saloons
Class A
- 1st Charl Visser, VW Polo GTI
- 2nd Kyle Visser, VW Polo
Class B
- 1st Ian Riddle, BMW
Class C
- 1st Marais Ellis, BMW
- 2nd Kelsey Davidson, VW Polo
- 3rd Johan Nel, BMW
Class D
- 1st Timothy Ball, BMW
- 2nd Stephan Aucamp, BMW
Class E
- 1st Juan van Rooyen, VW Polo
Class X
- 1st Charl Arangies, Porsche GT3
- 2nd Shaun Gradwell, BMW
- 3rd Philip Weise, BMW
Motorcycles
300cc
- 1st Dylan Grobler
- 2nd Ruan van Zyl
600cc
- 1st Dyllan Anderson
Unlimited
- 1st Timothy Benn
CBR150 Junior
- 1st Dylan Grobler
- 2nd Craig Benn
CBR150 Clubman’s
- 1st Ruan van Zyl