Summarize

Champion Robert Wolk closed the 2024 South African Touring Cars season off with another overall victory as he and teammate Julian van der Watt ended up first and third, both on the day at Zwartkops’ Extreme Festival finale on Saturday, and in the overall championship.

Wolk started the weekend off on pole position before dicing for the lead. He later dropped behind van der Watt to maximise his teammate’s points score and see him into second in the chase. Race 2 started disastrously after both Wolk and van der Watt ended up in the turn 1 sand trap on the opening lap. That race was however stopped and restarted to allow Wolk to storm to victory in his Chemical Logistics WCT BMW 128ti TC. Van der Watt closed the day behind his rival to end third in the title chase.

“Wow, today was one of those days!” Robert Wolk admitted. “There was a second sitting there in the sand trap, when I thought, what the hell! “Somehow however the team extracted it and patched my BMW up and I was able to deliver a lights to flag win in the final to take the day. All’s well that ends well I suppose, although I’d rather have Julian finish second. We did our best to achieve that, but hey, we can’t win them all.”

“We came looking to make it a 1-2, and it was looking good, but ultimately it never went our way,” Julian van der Watt explained. “Still, a close title third is a decent result, but we always want better. We’re trying to figure what went wrong there in turn 1, but well done to the team on pulling the car out and getting it back on the grid. Unfortunately my Investchem Volkswagen Golf TC wasn’t quite as sharp from there, but still we ended up third on the day, even if we missed out on second in the chase. Thanks team, and well done on another great season!”

Andy Schofield enjoyed a decent day out in his Fly Safair Chemical Logistics WCT BMW 128ti TC. Until he had to abort the second race when the car caught alight late in the heat. “Zwartkops brought my rookie season to a fiery close,” Andy reflected. “It was all going to plan until the very end, but then the car started smoking and I had to get out of there. Still, it’s been a memorable season where I have learned so much as we progressed, so thanks to the team for a great experience.”

“That’s job done, but the boys made us work today!” WCT team boss Stuart Thompson smiled. “We were once again the pace team all weekend and in spite of some pretty scary moments, we came home first and third in the day, and first and third in the championship. This was surely our best South African Touring Car season to date, so well done to the entire team!” Team Principal Ian Schofield concluded: “As Stuart explains, that was Chemical Logistics WCT Racing’s best South African Touring Cars season yet. You guys have done us proud.”