KYALAMI TOURING CAR CHALLENGE
____________________________________________________________

BMW turned the AA Fleetcare Touring Car Challenge at Kyalami on 
Saturday into a benefit for themselves, winning both races overall 
on the day. The two races of two heats each did, however, produce 
some spirited performances from the other marques and a heat win for 
Opel.

Mike Briggs set the pace in practice, claiming pole position in the 
works Opel Astra from World Touring Car Champion Paul Radisich's 
Sasol-backed Ford Mondeo by just 0,09 seconds with Mike White in the 
Minolta Toyota Camry third quickest just 0,16 seconds behind. Tiff 
Needell in the BP Nissan Sentra was fourth fastest followed by Serge 
Damseaux in the Castrol Toyota Camry and then the first of the 
Envirocar BMW 318i's, that of Jo Winkelhock.

Although each driver had a partner, only one had to set the 
qualifying time for the grid for the first heat.

Damseaux was more than happy with his time having suffered a major 
fire during unofficial practice when the plastic tank on the Camry 
pressurised and chafed through. Coming into the pits, petrol started 
leaking from the tank and caught alight on the exhaust. The Camry 
made it to the Toyota pit trailing flames down the pit road - 
fortunately with not too much damage to the car.

Briggs made excellent use of his pole position to power away from 
the lights into an immediate lead he was to hold to the finish. 
Radisich set out after Briggs and began to close the gap, looking 
set to make his move to pass on lap six, but suddenly slowed and 
pulled the Mondeo off the circuit, the engine seized. This let 
Winkelhock through to second place ahead of Deon Joubert in the 
second Envirocar BMW with Anthony Reid in the PG Auto Glass Opel 
Astra claiming fourth place ahead of Kelvin Burt in the second Sasol 
Ford Mondeo.

"We've never run these cars in heat like you have in Johannesburg or 
at this altitude (6 000 feet above sea level)," said Radisich. "We 
must have been running a bit lean, but our systems are not working 
and we cannot get an engine or exhaust temperature readout."

Needell made a good start, running second for part of the first lap 
until he was punted by the charging Radisich, dropping back to 
eighth place behind the Alfa Romeo 155T of George Fouche and the 
Camry of Will Hoy. However, the second BP Nissan Sentra driven by 
Nic de Waal blew an engine on lap three - the seventh engine blowup 
in the team for the weekend.

As he came out to start heat two John Cleland, now in the Briggs 
Astra, battled to start the car and barely made the warmup lap 
before the engine expired in a cloud of smoke.

With the Opel a non-starter the heat was a superb battle between the 
BMWs of Alex Burgstaller and Shaun van der Linde. Grant McCleery in 
the PG Auto Glass Opel Astra made the early running, but was 
penalised 30 seconds for jumping the start. Burgstaller then took 
over the lead with Hannes Grobler behind him, battling with Van der 
Linde who managed to get past on lap six to finish second.

Hannes Grobler had a good run to give the surviving BP Nissan Sentra 
third place ahead of Serge Damseaux in the Castrol Toyota Camry and 
James Weaver in the Motorplan BMW 318i he was sharing with Anthony 
Taylor fifth spot ahead of Hilton Cowie (Alfa 155) and Ben 
Morgenrood (Ford Mondeo).

The hour break between races was extended by the organisers to allow 
Briggs/Cleland and Radisich/Sarel van der Merwe time to replace 
engines.

However, the first heat of the second race saw a determined Van der 
Linde claim the chequered flag. Burgstaller initially led the chase 
but was neatly passed by Van der Linde on lap three. James Weaver 
finished third with Briggs fourth ahead of Morgenrood and Van der 
Merwe in the Ford Mondeos.

The Nissan team elected to give Ivan Capelli (who was partnered with 
Nic de Waal) a drive, but after having blown two engines in practice 
by moving the sequential shift gear lever the wrong way the 
Italian's weekend completed itself in a shunt on the first corner 
with Serge Damseaux and Anthony Reid.

Jo Winkelhock made the second heat of race two all his own, powering 
the Envirocar BMW away from the line to lead all the way to the 
finish, despite the best efforts of Radisich in Mondeo who came from 
the back end of the grid to third in the first lap. Radisich then 
took three laps to pass Anthony Taylor's Motorplan BMW to claim 
second place ahead of Deon Joubert (Envirocar BMW), Tiff Needell (BP 
Nissan Sentra) and Jeff Allam in the Speedy Car Sales Vauxhall 
Cavalier he shared with Farouk Dangour.

"Kyalami is a great circuit and could be a superb venue for a 
Touring Car World Championship," said Radisich.

(Continued next message...)
---
 * CMPQwk #1.4 * UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY
               
----
Digitec Online - South Africa - telnet: saturn.digitec.co.za -
"Africa's Most Popular BBS"   - Telephone: +27-11-476-2008 -