This past weekend (July 1-2), Jean-Pierre van der Walt displayed his ability to craft his way through the field in Round 4 of the 2022 Global Touring Cars (GTC) SupaCup at Red Star Raceway following an early incident in Race 2.
The weekend started well for the Platinum Wheels Polo SupaCup driver, with good pace in Friday’s practice sessions. In Saturday morning’s qualifying session, he struggled to find clear air in front of him on his flying lap but set the seventh-fastest time.
In Race 1, he made a superb start to gain two places immediately and two laps later, he found himself in fourth place. He held off Keagan Campos in the closing stages to equal his best race result.
An early incident through Turn 3 on the opening lap of the second race relegated him to the back of the field, but this is where Van der Walt showed his ability to regain positions on the very technical Red Star Raceway. In just two laps, he made his way past Iain Pepper, Damian Hammond, Nick Davidson and Paul Luti. The next driver in his sights was fellow 2022 series debutant, Nathan Hammond, to move up into eighth place. He held onto the position for the remainder of the race, chasing Tato Carello to the line.
“We take the good with the bad and we had to work hard for our results today” said Van der Walt. “Qualifying did not quite go to plan, but we were able to make a good start in Race 1 and took home a good amount of points. I felt confident ahead of the reverse grid second race, but I found myself on the grass outside Turn 3, watching the rest of the field pass me. I kept my composure and made a race out of it. Fighting our way back up the field is not easy in such a competitive class, so we can also be happy with the points we took from this race. Thank you to everyone who made this weekend possible and we are looking forward to the next round. This will be a new circuit for us entirely.”
Round 5 of the GTC SupaCup will see Van der Walt taking on the East London Grand Prix Circuit on August 5-6.
Issued by Motorsport Fanatix on behalf of Platinum Wheels
