Summarize

Slick track serves up great V8 action

The results of Killarney's fifth round of V8 Masters races may have had a familiar ring to them on Saturday, but Fabio Tafani had to work hard for his double wins this time - especially in a quite thrilling second race run in the eye of an impending Cape Northwester.

Pretoria driver Tafani’s turquoise and orange Mustang-like APV347is held off arch-rival Marcel Angel’s black and yellow Autohaus Angel version for pole position, with Richard Schreuder (TRS Construction) close behind in third. Rob Warrington was next up ahead of two Johannesburg drivers, Rui Campos (Campos Transport) and Paolo Cavallieri with Brian Evans (Cape Eye Laser) next up. Sean Moore endured a troubled session to end up behind Silver Class runners, Harry Taylor, Charl van Sittert (Serr Synergy), Martin Bensch (Compact Robotics) and Tim Reddell.

Tafani took a relatively simple first race win driving off to a victory, helped by principal rival Angel out-braking himself in Turn 5 on lap 2 to leave Schreuder, Warrington, Paolo Cavallieri and Campos to chase Tafani down, with Moore and Evans in pursuit. Warrington ran strong in third until slowing on lap 5, while Angel fought back from the tail of the field, setting the fastest lap of the day in the process.

Both Warrington and Angel ended up behind the Silver Class frontrunners in the end, with Taylor fending off van Sittert for that class win ahead of Reddell and Bensch, albeit those two ended up behind the two Gold class stragglers.

While the first heat was a pretty straightforward affair, the second proved sizzling, in spite of a slick track and ominous conditions as the Northwester that had threatened all day finally began delivering a light drizzle to render the track surface quite treacherous. There was drama at the start that saw Campos slipping to the back as Tafani initially made off as usual at front, leaving Schreuder and Moore to fight it out for second early on.

Schreuder however soon found the groove and made off in pursuit of Tafani, who resisted the challenge to beat Schreuder by just eight-tenths of a second. That left Moore to deal with Angel, whom he overcame with a last lap move to retake third, while Campos fought back from his early race drama, first dealing with the Supercars before picking off a V8 rival every lap to eventually pass Evans for fifth on lap 5.

Warrington ran into trouble early on and Cavallieri did not start, while the Class B frontrunners had to deal with the nimble leading Supercars in the slippery conditions. That did not deter Harry Taylor from taking an easy win over Reddell and van Sittert after Bensch took an early start.

The V8 Masters now prepare for their annual sojourn to Kyalami, where they will star in the Festival of Motoring race bill in August.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of V8 Masters

What:V8 Masters Round 5 Report
Where:Killarney International Raceway, Cape Town
When:Saturday 6 July 2019
Community:South Africa National

For further information please contact bevans@finacta.co.za

Click on thumbnails to Download images