Summarize

Jurie Swart is the 2022 Alert Engine Parts Western Province GTi Challenge champion. Swart delivered another dominant performance to take his first overall GTi title at Killarney on Saturday. Second in the overall title race, Tate Bishop once again won Class B, while the absent Chase Herholdt took the Class C title.

There were some interesting nuances among the regular GTi Challenge brigade as championship leader Swart put his Summit Racing car on pole position among the all-Polo 6R Cup Class A field. Charl Visser was second in his Charl Electric car from International Tube Tech racer Colin Meder.

Former Class C regular and 2020 Polo Cup champion, Dario Busi made a racing return aboard brother Marco’s regular Simtech Automan car, from second Summit lad Nathan Victor. Jacques Geldenhuys was one of three Challenge veterans to make a return in the G+H Motorsport Polo son Schalk usually drives, ahead of young gun Kai van Zyl’s Unlimited Angri car. Two more returning old drivers, Greig Edwards’ Pixbuzz machine and Mario Roux’s Automar car closed off the A grid.

Tate Bishop took his customary Class B pole position in his Angri Academy Jetta 2 ahead of Ian Kapp’s Hydracor Polo 6R and Polo pair, Maps lad John-Henri Vaughan and Kyle Wiltshire’s Summit car. Zaki Hendricks continued the trend of returning drivers in his new WheelWorx Polo 6R from young gun Kyle Visser’s Charl Electric Polo, Daniel Sandenbergh’s Eikestad Golf 1 and Polo Classic pair, Marc Thompson and Brent van der Schyff.

With newly crowned champion Chase Herholdt sitting this one out after selling his car, Seth van de Abeele topped the all-Golf 1 GTi Brat Pack Class C grid in his Summit Golf, from Cooltouch couple, Raaziegh Harris and Sulaiman Effendi. Faizel Jacobs’ Century Karting Golf was next up from Nur Abass’ Spice mecca car, Uzair Barden in another Cooltouch car MAD Racing driver Tahier Khalfey and Darrel van Niekerk’s fourth Cooltouch entry.

Jurie Swart led away and soon made off into the distance from Dario Busi, who found his way past Colin Meder and Charl Visser early on. Kai van Zyl enjoyed a positive race to fifth ahead of battling old dogs Jacques Geldenhuys, Greig Edwards and Mario Roux a little further back, with all three covered by less than a second. That after Nathan Victor was excluded after fighting back to fifth after being underweight over the postrace scales.

Class B delivered a splendid spat. Tate Bishop and Ian Kapp fought it out with Kyle Wiltshire right there too. John-Henri Vaughan found his way past Zaki Hendricks for fourth from Kyle Visser, Marc Thompson and Brent van der Schyff, after Daniel Sandenbergh was excluded, having also stopped with two laps to race.

 

Class C was even more entertaining. Faizal Jacobs pipped race-long leader Raaziegh Harris at the post after getting away from Seth van de Abeele, who had fought hard throughout. Uzair Barden had a relatively lonely race to fourth ahead of Nur Abass, who put one on Tahier Khalfey with two laps to run. Sulaiman Effendi came off worst from a first lap quarrel in turn 3 and dropped back from second to eventually end up seventh, ahead of Darrel van Niekerk .

Jurie Swart once again sped away to take race 2, the day and the 2022 overall and Class A Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge championship. Behind him, Dario Busi, took a little longer to find his way past Colin Meder for second this time, with Nathan Victor fourth. He, Greig Edwards, Jacques Geldenhuys and Mario Roux all benefited Charl Visser and Kai van Zyl slowing each other in late race combat. 

Tate Bishop had an easy run to Class B victory in the race and for the day as he clinched that 2022 title too, ahead of Kyle Wiltshire and Ian Kapp. John-Henri Vaughan ran second early on before dropping back to fifth, but he managed to pass Zaki Hendricks back for fourth. Kyle Visser, Marc Thompson, and Brent van der Schyff followed.

 

Class C was entertaining as ever. Raaziegh Harris fought off an early attack by Faizal Jacobs before clearing off to win. He left Jacobs to fight it out with Seth van de Abeele and Nur Abas, who came from the back. Van de Abeele ended third from Abass, but Abass was handed a 30 second penalty to drop down to sixth behind third man Jacobs, Sulaiman Effendi and Tahier Khalfey. But ahead of Uzair Barden and Darrel van Niekerk.

Jurie Swart is the first new overall GTi Challenge champion in four years, following three seasons of Eden Thompson making it his own. Swart took his fourth Class A title in the process, while second overall Tate Bishop took Class B and the absent championship third man, Chase Herholdt added his name to a star-studded list of GTi Challenge Class C champions.

And so ended a fine year, its 24th season of Alert Engine Parts GTi Challenge racing. It all starts all over again as GTi Challenge lines up for a big year in its 25th year in 2023 at Killarney in February.