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Lee Thompson Racing is looking forward to a great weekend’s racing at home when Charl Smalberger and Simon Need take to the track at the Sasol Race Day at Zwartkops outside Pretoria Saturday 12 August. The team, which is based at the circuit, has been working hard on improving both cars in search of its best results of the year.

“Charl is the leading privateer in third in the Sasol GTC2 championship and he is ready for his first win of the season,” team principal Lee Thompson explained. “Simon recently scored his first points in the Engen Volkswagen Cup and he’s improving every time he gets in the car, so we will be working hard to make sure that both drivers get their best results at our home race.”

Charl Smalberger, who is studying final year mechanical engineering in Port Elizabeth, has been working hard on his car and with Lee Thompson has made significant progress in re-programming his iCorp Volkswagen Parts Golf GTI’s ECU software to be best suited to the needs of the track in his recent winter vacation. “We were much happier last time out, so that programming has worked very well for us,” Charl admitted. “Lee has since spent quite a bit of time on the chassis set up, so hopefully we can now steal that much needed first win of the season from our works rivals.”

Mauritius-based Welshman Simon Need is meanwhile relishing in his strides forward in his second year in the Engen Volkswagen Cup. “I am having a great season,” the gentleman racer who drives the Photonics Polo explained. “We are lying fifth in the Masters championship and I’m having a real blast racing against some of the top up-and-coming youngsters — hopefully Zwartkops will bring more progress for the team at its home round. “I can’t wait to race!”