Summarize

Cape Town lad Jurie ‘Umpie’ Swart gave Cape Town race fans something to shout about when he raced his Alpine Autohaus GAP Racing Polo to his maiden victory on the opening Falken VW Polo Cup race at Killarney on Saturday. Swart moved up from fourth to second before chasing down and passing champion Jeffrey Kruger mid-race and then soaked up the pressure from his title leading rival to win his first main circuit race at national level.

“What an incredible day!” Umpie admitted. “We have worked so hard for this for four years now and today I finally pulled it off! “I was quickest in qualifying, but I made a small mistake to start third and initially dropped to fourth, but I managed to make it up to second with all the action around me and then set off after Jeffrey, which is never an easy task! 

“I used my push to pass to best effect to pass him into turn 5 on lap 5 and then I had to work my butt off to keep him behind, but I did so and victory was so sweet! “I have so many people to thank - not least of all my dad, Zak and Gozzi and my loyal teammates Gio and Jason who have all been so supportive and congratulations also to my teammate Dario Busi who made it two GAP Polos on the first race podium - Cape Town power!”

Unfortunately Umpie’s second race proved far more challenging: “I picked up a puncture on the warm-up lap — I pitted and the team pumped the tyre, but it was down again by the time I got back round so I pitted again to swap tyres and had to start from pit lane. “I fought back to 16th when the race was red flagged and was only able to make up one position in a wild midfield pack filled with guys who normally race up front!

 “That’s racing I suppose, but we certainly will celebrate my first win — we managed to stay seventh in the title chase in spite of that race 2 disaster and I am now really looking forward to the rest of the season.” Umpie returns to Killarney for the fourth round of the WP Burly Pro GTi Challenge Saturday 8 June, before the next Polo Cup weekend at Aldo Scribante in Port Elizabeth a week later.