Summarize

A special day of racing in Port Elizabeth

Endurance racing is a funny thing. One would expect the likes of Paul Hill and Michael Stephen’s GT3 Aston Martin, Riaan Bothma or SA Endurance Series runners up Fritz Kleynhans and James Forbes’ Ligiers, Alister Brown and Barry’s Shelby or Francis Carruthers and Johan Engelbrecht’s Pilbeam to be firm favourites for Port Elizabeth's annual Syarabix Recycling Aldo Scribante three-hour at Aldo Scribante Saturday 16 November.

Last year’s race however saw a shock winner when East London duo Dean Ball and Phillip Wise drove their humble BMW 328 to victory ahead of all the sports cars. So who knows who — or what will win this year's race? There are more than enough teams chasing to beat that elusive BMW as the winning 2018 crew returns to defend their title, not least all those noted above and a dazzling selection of lightweight sports cars too. 

Those include a variety of Lotus 7 contraptions for SA Endurance stalwarts Hennie Trollip and Jimbo Dunn, Eric Salomon and Clinton Thorne and Adriaan le Roux and Klippies Krige, as well as local hotshots, Chassen Bright and Bryn High, Patrick Hanly and Fred Ballinger and Jeandre and Winston Marais.

Last year’s BMW victory seems to have spurred a rash of them racing the 2019 3-hour with a fleet of five EP Modified 3 Series entered for champion Stephan and Fanie Aucamp and Henco Booysen, Wickus Basson, Shaun Benn and Darryn Vice; Ian Riddle and Rufus Neethling, Marais Ellis and Rynhardt Potgieter and Nick, Kelsey and Stu Davidson.

Add Cape visitors Franco Donadio and Claude Williams, Gary Manwaring and C Opperman, Albert and Melani Cook and even a 5-Series for Wynaad Jordaan and Theo Claassen and Bavaria’s chances of a repeat surprise victory start to look appealing. The Beemers will however enjoy rear-wheel drive tin-top opposition from a pair of Nissan 350Zs for Quinsley Sale and Richard Rath and Gareth Hudd and Justin Allen.

Being Volkswagen’s home track, there’s literal an army of them entered with Deon Slabbert, Wayne Jardine and George Van Baalen and Gordon Nolan and Du Toit Klue heading the pack in a pair of front-running EP Modified Polos. They will be chased by an upcountry Polo Cup entry for Karah Hill and Trevor Bland and a gang of Mark One Golfs.

They will be pedalled by East London sons Geoff, Jono and dad Neil Stephen, EP Modified title contender Daniel Bright and Tom Hugo; Staci and Robbie Allan, Cape Town GTi Challenge crew George Schutte and Jaco Lambert and Rikus Fourie, Neels Vosloo and Rory Eland, while Arnold and Dewald Lambert will race a Beetle.

Three Opels; Divan Wentzel and Barry Williams (Corsa), Royce and Phillip Griffin (Astra) and Hilton Africa, Elton Hurst and Byron Ryk (Kadett) will be offset by a trio of Fords for Mike and Shaun Rudolph (Cortina), Graham Cooper and Greg Ermes (Escort) and Philippe du Toit and Derick Jordaan (Sierra V6).

A couple of Alfa Romeos for Mark Schulpfort and Rane Berry (Berlina) and Angelique Griffin and Shane Coetzer (Sud Sprint) and Dewald and Jenene Erasmus and Frank Coetzee’s Mazda 323EGI round off the field, while the likes of Wayne and Stacy Wilson (Nissan Maxima); Keagan Pottas and Nic Dodds (Honda Ballade) and a Nissan STi for Jacobs, Beecroft and Vercuiel sit on the reserve list for the oversubscribed 44-car race.

The car three-hour is not the only endurance race on the Aldo Scribante bill — the Klinicare 100 and PE 200 motorcycle enduros will make the day something of an endurance feat as the full cream 40-lap PE 200 will see among SA’s top riders battling it out. Get ready to enjoy Yamaha crew Bernard Haupt, Kewyn Snyman, Ricardo Otto, Nathan Ashington and Bradley Rehse; Jaco Scholtz (Suzuki), the Kawasakis of Willem Binedell and Jacques Akerman, Devon Chatton (Honda) and Peter Hill and Mitchell Roberson (Buell) battling it out on track.
The smaller bikes will race 20 laps in the Klinicare 100, as another gang of Yamahas ridden by Johan Anker and Trevor Bush, Willy van Niekerk and Alan Westman, Jessica Howden and Slade van Niekerk take on Kawasaki riders Oliver McKay, Malcolm Botes and Andrew Thompson, KTMs ridden by Jordan and Connor Breakspear and Mitch Robinson, Andrew Liebenberg on a Cagiva and Suzuki men Malcolm Burrows, Richard Hawkins and Remi van den Berg.

The endurance races will be backed up by a pair of Allcomer Car races, Sports and GT race, Historic Car and motorcycle scratch races. The Allcomer field features many of the endurance race entries bolstered by the likes of Bryn High and Nick Davidson’s Audi S4’s Robin Spence (Subaru) and Steve High Chev Cruz, while headline Historic entries include local flyers Rudolf de Vos’s Little Chevy Can Am and Shaun Rudolph (Escort) taking on the Cape Town Escorts of Franco Donadio and Louis Powell and Brendan Smith (BMW 635 CSi).

The Sports & GT classes will likewise see several Endurance entries joined by a quality field including visiting Pirelli Cape Town S entries for Craig Jarvis Dodge (Viper), Steve Humble, (Mallock), Sandro Biccari (Juno), Cyril Ginsburg and Barry Kieswetter’s Porsche racing as one of their championship rounds, Joel Steenekamp’s Shadow Sports, as well as EP champion Gordon Nicholson (Skyline GTR).

And if that’s not enough, a superb entry of South Africa’s finest motorcycle racers is bound to get the crowd on its feet in those two sprint races too as national racers join in the fun and the Kawasaki ZX10 Masters come to town for their championship decider too. 

Practice and qualifying goes down on Friday to leave Saturday to deliver a full day for racing from 8am to 9pm, starting with the sprints through the morning until after lunch. The endurance races take over just before 4pm, with the PE200 starting 16h30 and the Syrabix 3-hour running into the dark from 6pm through Saturday’s 7pm sunset.

Sounds like the perfect reason to pack that shade tent, deck chairs and cooler box and head out to the Aldo Scribante Race Track in the Coega industrial zone just off the N2 North on Saturday. Entry fee is R50 per person and under-12s are free, there are full catering and bar facilities on site.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Aldo Scribante Racetrack

What:Endurance Racing Festival Preview
Where:Aldo Scribante Racetrack, Port Elizabeth
When:Saturday 16 November 2019
Community:Port Elizabeth, South Africa National.

For further information please contact sparkyb@vodamail.co.za

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