As the Global Touring Cars (GTC) championship heads to the Western Cape this week for round three of 2019, all four manufacturers are in a position to top the points table with only 12 points separating the top five drivers. While GTC2’s Brad Liebenberg heads to Killarney International Raceway as the man to beat after a whitewash of race wins so far.
AllPower Moss Racing’s Simon Moss heads outright in his #38 Audi with 3 wins to date. including the thirst three in succession. and is followed by the Volkswagen Motorsport Jetta duo of Keagan Master and Daniel Rowe in second and third. Michael van Rooyen in the GA300 Racing South Africa Toyota Corolla sits fourth while Johan Fourie in the EPS Courier Services BMW sits in fifth.
Moss has been the pace setter throughout the opening rounds, but Masters and Rowe have not made it easy while consistently occupying the podium. For Rowe, Cape Town will bring back fond memories with this being where he took his maiden race win during 2018. While competition will be fierce from Fourie, who has yet to win a race in GTC history in front of his home crowd.
Further back, Tschops Sipuka in the second AllPower Moss Racing Audi showed good form in only his second GTC race weekend. Should he be able to continue the consistency shown, he could well find himself catching up to the leading group on the points table. Robert Wolk and Daniel Duminy in their respective Chemical Logistics and SMD Exotics BMWs will also aim to bring home results representative of the pace they have been showing.
In GTC2, The Volkswagen Motorsport Golf pair of Liebenberg and Adrian Wood find themselves in a strong position at the top of the table. Wood, in the Kyocera liveried sister-car, has finished every race on the podium yet still is chasing his second career win after taking his maiden victory at the final round of 2018.
Bob Neill in the Delmon Mining Ford Focus finds himself in third place with a host of points finishes behind his name, and will again have Lee Thompson as team mate in Cape Town. Charl Smalberger in the Universal Healthcare Volkswagen Golf enjoys competing at the circuit and will look to return to the podium. Mandla Mdakane showed good pace on debut in the Altron / Nexus MINI Johan Cooper Works, but would like to put his reliability issues from Round 2 behind in a bid to be a strong contender at the front.
After missing Round 2 due to injury, Paul Hill will be back behind the wheel of the Kalex Racing Volkswagen Golf. In his absence at Zwartkops Raceway, Trevor Bland made a cameo appearance where he scored two podium finishes in the #135 Kalex Racing Golf.
Round 3 of the GTC Championship begins with practice sessions on Friday May 10, followed by qualifying and two races on Saturday May 11. Tickets for race day Saturday can be purchased at the gate or from Killarney International Raceway.
[Issued by GTC / Reynard Gelderblom]
