CARNAGE AT KILLARNEY

CAPE TOWN: Teeming rain and bitter cold did little to fob off an 
excellent crowd at Cape Town's Killarney circuit for rounds 11 and 
12 of the AA Fleetcare Super Touring Championship - one most drivers 
would like to forget.

For the third time this season sunny practice days have turned into 
wet race days and Killarney was no exception on Saturday. However, 
the weekend's drama started in practice when Mike White's Minolta 
Toyota Camry and Sabine Reck's Motorplan BMW 318i touched sending 
the German girl into the wall and leaving her with a compression 
fracture of her right leg.

Mike White was initially excluded from the meeting for the incident, 
this sparking an appeal by Toyota resulting in White being fined R5 
000, allowed to start and a case which could take some time to fully 
resolve.

However, this mattered little to championship leader Mike Briggs 
(Opel Vectra) who notched up what should have his ninth win in 11 
starts this season but found himself penalised 30 seconds and 
relegated to fourth place at the end of the race.

Using the superior traction of the 4x4 system Chris Aberdein powered 
his Rothmans Audi away from the line to lead into the first corner 
of the first race. He and Briggs touched and the Audi was sent 
spinning into the gravel trap.

>From there Briggs simply strolled away into the distance with team 
mate Grant McCleery who slotted into second spot until lap five when 
he was forced to retire with a broken steering rack.

Mike White then moved into second place followed by Steve Wyndham's 
Sasol Ford Mondeo and the BMW Envirocar of Deon Joubert, this pair 
engaged in a high speed battle until the final lap when Joubert 
punted Wyndham off the track - earning himself a 30 second penalty.

On the second lap Nic de Waal in the BP Nissan Sentra appeared to be 
pushed off line by a puddle coming onto the main straight and 
clouted the pit wall, ricocheting into Anthony Taylor in the Castrol 
Toyota Camry and putting both cars out of the running.

With the penalties applied Mike White claimed his first victory this 
year with Chris Aberdein second, Steve Wyndham third ahead of Mike 
Briggs, Deon Joubert, Sean van der Linde (BMW 318i Envirocar) and 
Sarel van der Merwe (Sasol Ford Mondeo).

For the second race the track received yet another wetting and, 
because of the delays during the day, was started in near darkness 
the drivers being forced to rely on their lights and memory to find 
a way through the gloom.

Mike White immediately found himself in trouble again earning a 30 
second penalty for jumping the start. Chris Aberdein had a new 
clutch fitted to the Rothmans Audi between races and stalled on the 
line, collecting a clout from Sean van der Linde's BMW.

The BMW retired with a burst tyre and Aberdein managed one lap 
before pitting with damage to his rear suspension.

>From his fourth place on the grid Mike Briggs took just three laps 
to move into the lead, turning in a masterful display of wet weather 
driving to lead through the flag.

Terry Moss in the second Rothmans Audi who had been a victim of the 
bumping and boring in the first race, clawed his way through the 
field from the back of the grid to be second by lap 8 and tried 
desperately to close on the Opel but was unable to make up the time.

Steve Wyndham had his lights fail on the line but still drove 
excellently to finish third overall ahead of Sarel van der Merwe and 
Mike White.

In Class B the first race went to Heinrich Lategan (VW Jetta) 
followed by Duncan Vos (Nissan Sentra) and Kosie Swanepoel (BMW 
325i). Leon Mare (Toyota Sprinter) won the second race from Vos and 
Lategan.


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Colin Windell  
CyberRace Inc  (c) 1995. All rights reserved
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