Summarize

Lee Thompson Racing’s Charl Smalberger caused a flutter at Kyalami’s Festival of Motoring races, when he arrived with a completely new look for his Golf GTI now resplendent in the wild new hues that celebrate his new sponsors, Shield, CRC and Q20. What followed was a rollercoaster weekend with best Sasol GTC2 privateer performances before a cruel result in the second race.

“That was a bit of a crazy weekend,” Charl admitted. “Friday went well - I was quickest in the last session. Qualifying came and I put in a good lap and I was third, so went for pole but I made a mistake and ended up third. I ended up third in the first race — I had to defend from Trevor Bland while trying to attack Adrian Wood and that let  Adrian and Keagan Masters to get away, but I managed to close up a little in the end, but it was too little too late, so I concentrated on keeping Devin Robertson’s Mini behind and I was very happy with a good third.

“My second race start was not so good — I lost a place but made it back up to sixth before Keagan was taken out in that crash, so I was fifth after the red flag and chasing the pack, but I made a small mistake in the Esses and dropped back a little. “But then Devin’s Mini went on limp and Trevor ran out of brakes at WesBank so all of a sudden I was third, where I finished so was pretty happy. 

"After the race, I was one of five or six cars to be found underweight — it seems that the scales were faulty and that combined with a few laps extra behind the safety car caused half the field to be underweight and the results are still not finalised. “Some of the cars that were lighter than us were reinstated and others not, so with a little luck it will all sort itself out and we may even end up second for the day, so let’s just say we are holding thumbs!

“Not a bad weekend, we had a podium and we now look forward to Cape Town in a few weeks — bring it on”