The 2022 Power Series presented by Wingfield Motors took place this past Saturday, 12 February in a dramatic opening round that was jam-packed with excitement. The event attracted a huge crowd of motorsport fans who reminisced over the ‘good old days’ at Killarney.
The atmosphere was electric, umbrellas and gazebos were set up all around the circuit with all the pubs open and the braai fires lit. It was such a spectacle that one competitor even admitted to slowing down on the warm-up lap to take it all in.
And the racers did not disappoint!
The Thermo Fires Clubmans had a great Race 1 with Achmat taking the early lead in the Beta Machine & Tool BMW 1 Series, just ahead of Charl Visser’s Electrical 350Z. Achmat fell out on lap six and Visser and the Zee sadly went out on lap four. This left Shane du Toit in his C2C Construction/Skilpadvlei Golf Mk1 with a clear track ahead of him. He took the win from Jess Hugget in her Philwest VW/Rico Barlow Racing Jetta 2, who was followed only 0.375sec behind by Josh Dolinschek. Race 2 was abandoned after a long delay.
In the first two laps of the first Laude Classic and Bejo Trustees Fine Cars race Charles Arton and his Datsun 240Z caused a stir by leading the infamous Franco Donadio, only to go out on lap three. Donadio and his Ford Escort Mk1 ended up winning, followed by Eric van der Merwe’s Porsche 944T five seconds after, with Michael Hitchcock in his Cross Cape Forklift Services Mustang coming in third.
Donadio took first place in race two, followed by Van der Merwe and then Hitchcock.
The Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge races were two very clean and entertaining races between arch-rivals Jurie Swart in the Summit Racing Polo and Marco Busi in his Automan Polo. Swart led from start to finish in race one, followed by Busi and then Colin Meder Jnr in his International Tube Technology Polo. Jason Coetzee in his Mint Wrap works/CK Coachworks GTi took first place in race two followed by Busi and then Swart.
In the first V8 Master’s race, with the absence of Fabio Tafani, Sean Moore took the win from Mark Ridgway and Carl Nel. Tafani was back for Race 2, however, and won by little more than a second from Ridgway and Alister Brown.
In the absence of series star Byron Mitchell’s Dolphin Engineering Formula VW, Dee-Jay Booysen ran away with both Formula Libre races.
Race 2 delivered the closest finish of the day with plenty of excitement in the midfield. Zane Amundsen (Repsol Lantis), Elroy Vice (Dolphin Engineering Forza), Kelly Fletcher (Dolphin Engineering Forza) and Donovan Ramsay (Dolphin Engineering Rhema) finished fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, all within 1.13 seconds at the line.
Harp Motorsport’s Steve Humble in the Opel Mallock Mk14B got a 14-second victory in the Spitfire Furniture Sports & GT races. Team-mate Francis Carruthers in the Pilbeam MP84 came in second, with Gary Kieswetter’s Advanced Packaging Technology Porscher GT3 Cup in third place.
After a festive day of nail-biting exhilaration, the event came to a premature end after Arno Church spun his Lotus 7 Replica into a wall and had to be taken to hospital.
Pictures: Supplied
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