Summarize

Dunlop Tyres enjoyed impressive motorsport outings in two vastly different racing disciplines over a very busy past weekend. With its duties split, several Dunlop-shod Simola Hillclimb competitors delivered extraordinary performances, while Dunlop’s National Oval gang thrilled the Richards Bay faithful with brilliant opening round track action.

In perhaps the highlight of the weekend, such was the epic side-by-side battle between home heroes, son Jason, dad Neville Loosemore, and Pro Am winner Edwin van Niekerk that the side exhaust of his rivals’ cars burned the stickers off Jason’s car! Oval star and former main circuit Polo Cup champion Jason held on for the tightest of wins from Neville and van Niekerk, who also set the fastest lap of the evening.

Behind Edwin, Dick Hillard and Ruan Nagel ended second and third in Pro Am. 

Andre Swart meantime beat Tony Loosemore and Neil Strydom to the 2.1 modifieds win in a thrilling night packed with grit, speed, and edge of the seat racing under the balmy Richards Bay lights.

Fourteen-hundred kilometres to the southwest, Dunlop Tyres was faced with a vastly different challenge as it supported a significant number of competitors on the hugely popular Simola Hillclimb. Among its more successful runners used several different tyre configurations to deliver great results driving a wide variety of machinery.

Perhaps the most impressive, Steve Clark powered his classic Nissan Skyline GT-R to an incredible sub-40 second third overall in the King of the Hill shootout. Running on regular Dunlop track slick tyres versus most of his top-end rivals’ super sticky hillclimb rubber, Clark humbled many far more musclebound rivals with a meticulous run. 

Dunlop as usual shod Volkswagen Motorsport’s double class winning Simola attack. Veteran Graeme Nathan powered the hillclimb SupaPolo to yet another class victory. Rory Atkinson and Matt Merton added to that with a new Volkswagen Golf 8.5 GTI 1-2 in their road going class. SupaCup championship leader Atkinson was stunned by the performance of the road rubber versus his regular SupaPolo Dunlop racing slicks. 

Formula Vee sophomore Theodore Vermaak was delighted with his soft compound Dunlop Direzza tyres as he sped into the Top 10 shootout en route to an impressive second in class, sixth in category and 33rd overall among a highly competitive field of 85 mostly enormously powerful cars.

Nicole Doker Torres meantime impressed on her Simola debut aboard another Dunlop project, a new turbo 3-cylinder powered Formula Vee Forza Women’s single seater series. Running on Dunlop Direzza tyres, Nicole narrowly missed the top ten shootout cut against far more powerful opposition as she showed off an exciting new South African racing era.

It’s a busy May for Dunlop Motorsport with two iLamunas Killarney 9 Hour race this weekend, before the Red Star Regional Extreme Festival  on the 16th, the Zwartkops National Festival on the 23rd and the Tzaneen National Rally the following week.