Summarize

It was a day of high drama for the PABAR VW Challenge on Saturday as Wayne Masters, Stuart Mack and Christopher Tait all scored victories in the respective classes. It all started normally enough with an orderly race 1, but all hell broke loose on the start of the second heat. 

Performance Master Wayne started the weekend in style on pole position in his normally aspirated Class A Polo ahead of an on form Bjorn Bertholdt in his turbo Class X Sizanani Plastics version. Bevin Masters lined up behind his brother in third in The CPS Warehouse Polo, alongside Miguel Dias’s PMD car, Luigi Ferro’s Class X Ferro Energia car, Norbrake lad Dean Ross, Mike Barbaglia in another PABAR turbo X version and Clean Renewables man Mydi Mfana.

Moving on to Class B, Stuart Mack put his Creation Wealth turbo litre Polo on Class B pole position from Mohammed Karodia’s Fast 5 Motorsport Polo sedan and the rest of the normally aspirated hatchback 2-litre pack. That was led by Dubcorp driver Shiren Rajpaul, from Anthony Lessing’s C-SOL version and Mellow Veio pilot Ian Walker. Ethan Coetzee lined up sixth in his newly liveried Slayer Energy LTR Polo, from Jacques Hayes’ Platinum Wheels entry, VaporWorx man Francis Aldrich, and Chris Davison’s Himonisa and Tinahe Ncube’s Eco Simply Solar versions.

Christopher Tait was on Class C pole position in his Sportex Vivo from Goose Motorsport driver Andy Gossman, Mitch Coetzee’s Slayer Energy LTR Vivo and Kyle Petersen Insurisk car. Philip Croeser lined up fifth in class in his ATE Vivo, ahead of Insurisk lad Dimitri Zapheriou. Tyron Pillay’s VMS Paint Vivo, Rezcom driver Dino Smit, Cody Petersen in another Insurisk car and TPAS entry Vishva Govender.

There was not much to report in race 1 beyond Wayne leading Bevin Masters, Ross, Dias and Mfana home in Class A. Stuart Mack made Class B his own ahead of Karodia, Rajpaul, Lessing, Coetzee, Dewald Theron, Davison, Ncube, Walker and Aldrich. Andy Gossman however gave young Christopher Tait something to think about before Tait hit back to win from Gossman, Kyle Petersen, Croeser, Zapheriou, Coetzee, Smit, Cody Petersen and Pillay.

Race 2 was however far from calm as Class C duo Gossman and Tait tangled in turn 1 and Gossman was clobbered hard by Philip Croeser, who had no way to avoid the contact. Poor Philip lost count of how many times the ATE Vivo went over after his third roll as the red flags came out to allow rescue operations get under way. The race eventually restarted without Croeser, Gossman or Dino Smit, who became collateral damage in the crash, or Class A duo Ross and Barbaglia.

Nothing much else went wrong from there thankfully, as Wayne Masters raced home to the win from Ferro, Bertholdt, Dias and Mfana after Bevin Masters hit trouble. Stuart Mack did the Class B double too, once again ahead of Karodia, with Lessing third from Rajpaul, Theron, Walker, Coetzee, Hayes, Aldrich, Davison and Ncube. And Chris Tait got away lightest from that turn 1 crash to take the double Class C win over Kyle Petersen, Zapheriou, Coetzee, Pillay, Govender and Cody Petersen.

The Turn 1 drama was deemed a racing accident, to leave Christopher Tait to consolidate his overall title lead, and also open up his Class C championship lead. Mack Stays ahead in Class B, while Wayne Masters closed down brother Bevin’s Class A advantage. PABAR VW Challenge returns to action at its penultimate round at the  Red Star Regional Festival in Delmas on Saturday 12 October.