Summarize

Perfect late summer conditions greeted East London’s racing faithful to the opening round of the 2019 Border Circuit Racing Championships at the Grand Prix Circuit on Saturday and they were treated to a great day’s track action.

A broad field of Border Saloon Cars topped the bill, but it was Class B man Shaun Gradwell’s BMW that took the opening heat, beating Johan van der Westhuizen’s Class A Camaro with Francwa Coetzer third in his Class B Opel. Class C winner Quinton Lessing put one over Dean Ball’s Class B BMW for fourth, while PE Visitor Philip Wiese was next up in his Class C BMW ahead of class Rival Chris Farley. Richard Clarke took his Honda to the Class D win over Cameron Hall; Brady de Kock beat Craig Borges (Kadett) to Class E and Allan Hurn took Class F from Sharnell Holmes.

Bevan Schwartz and his Corvette bounced back to take the second race after heat 1 issues, leading van der Westhiuizen and Class B men Gradwell and Coetzer home, while Lessing took Class C from Ball, Clarke took Class D again from Nick Naude, de Kock repeated his Class E win ahead of Cherne Marais and Hurn again took Class F from Holmes. Van der Westhuizen then made it three winners in three races when he took the final heat win from Gradwell, Wiese, Chris Farley and Class D runners Clarke and Hall, while Brady Choudree (Golf) took Class E from Marais and Allan Hurn won Class F.

One of the highlights of Border Motorsport is a strong historic racing series, which did not disappoint on Saturday as the Capri Perana V8s of Darron Gudmanz and Danian Staffen raced out front ahead of Mike Forsyth’s Cobra and Derek John Boy in another Capri Perana in race 1. Alec Gudmanz’ Capri Perana meanwhile beat Tiny Botha’s Escort to Class B, Johan van der Westhuizen’s Fairlane took Class C from Matthew Gudmanz’s Datsun; Graham Lessing and Carl Fantham’s Escorts fought over Class D and Kyle Rose's Anglia beat Quintin Bates Mini to the Class E win.

Staffen then turned the tables on Gudmanz, Forsyth and Boy in Heat 2 as Alec Gudmanz again took Class B from Botha, van der Westhuizen beat Schultz to Class C, Lessing took Class D ahead of Fantham and Rose beat Graeme Must’s Mini in Class E. Staffen took heat 3 again to take the day from Forsyth and Boy, Alec Gudmanz wrapped up Class B over Botha and van der Westhuizen took Class C from Schultz and Matthew Gudmanz. Lessing won Class D from Fantham and Andrew Karshagen’s Capri and Rose wrapped up Class E from Musto and Bates.

Jayson Lamb (Kawasaki) was the man to beat in the Border Motorcycle Championship opener as he romped to overall and Unlimited victory over Garret Nel and Pierre le Roux, while Travis Warne (Kawasaki) took Supersport Pro honours over Chris Webster and Bradley Rehse (Yamaha) and Lodewyk Hattingh won Clubmans from Sazi Petela, John Quinn (Ducati) and Martin Minnie. The Unlimited results were the same for the second race, but Nathan Ashington turned the Supersport Pro tables on Warne and Webster and Hattingh beat Petela and Quinn to the Clubmans win.

The next round of the Border Regionals is on Saturday 30 March — diarise it now.