SATCC: Killarney Audi preview

• colin.windell@onwe.co.za (Colin Windell)
• Digitec Online - South Africa
• Thu Aug 29 12:21:31 EDT 1996

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

With just two races left in the 1996 AA Fleetcare Super Touring series, 
the final countdown to the race meeting at Killarney, Cape Town on 
September 7 is involving the Rothmans Audi in a lot of meticulous 
preparation and planning.

The two Rothmans Audi A4 super tourers were in Cape Town last week for a 
test session with both drivers - championship log leader Terry Moss and 
Chris Aberdein - putting in a number of laps.

According to Audi Sport manager Andre van der Watt the Rothmans Audi 
team experimented with a number of setup changes on the two cars.

"It's difficult to make any comparisons to our previous visits to the 
circuit since track conditions vary so much with the changes in the 
weather conditions," he said. "On each day of testing we set a base time 
and then compared each setup revise with that. At the same time we used 
the opportunity to extensively test the various tyre compound options 
against the changes.

"Almost all the testing we did was to try and minimise the weight factor 
to give our two drivers the best possible combination of speed, handling 
and tyre life."

Van der Watt added the qualifying sessions would be vital to the team's 
chances and that pole position was absoloutely imperative.

"The Killarney circuit has not had a happy record with touring car races 
this year and the spectre of a start line incident remains ever present. 
We sincerely hope the full field of cars will get away cleanly in both 
heats, but we simply cannot ignore the carnage of previous race 
meetings.

"Although it is no guarantee, having pole position and - hopefully - 
second quickest on the grid at least gives our drivers a chance to get 
away from any bumping and banging under the bridge," he says.

"We are obviously highly motivated to win the championship and will do 
everything we possibly can to ensure success for our drivers, but we are 
also hoping to achieve this by racing the other manufacturers rather 
than having them knocked out by any incidents at the start.

"The spectators coming to Killarney are also very aware of the wide open 
nature of the series and will be looking forward to two heats of top 
class serious racing - the Rothmans Audi team is planning to give them 
just that.

Points Log

1. Terry Moss (Audi A4), 81
2. Chris Aberdein (Audi A4), 72
3. Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i), 71
4. Grant McCleery (Opel Vectra), 54
5. Julian Bailey (Toyota Camry), 36
6. Deon Joubert (BMW 318i), 30

ends