NEARLY, BUT NOT QUITE

KYALAMI: BMW and Opel shared the spoils of victory at Kyalami on 
Saturday with BMW Envirocar driver Deon Joubert notching up his 
third win of the season and Opel pilot Mike Briggs bagging his
10th in rounds 15 and 16 of the AA Fleetcare Super Touring
Championship.

Bar the shouting, it's nearly all over for the series with Briggs
now needing just three points to put himself in an unassailable
lead  in the series - with six races still to come.

Briggs put the Opel Vectra on pole position for the first race, 
going into an immediate lead followed closely by the BMW 318i 
Envirocars of Shaun van der Linde and Deon Joubert with the
second  Opel Vectra of Grant McCleery tucked in behind them.

Briggs dictated the pace from the start, strengthening his lead
as  the three cars behind him jostled for position, Joubert
moving into  second place on lap three.

On lap 7 the picture changed dramatically when Briggs went off at
high speed at the bottom of the 'Mineshaft' on oil dropped by an 
ailing Class B backmarker, allowing Joubert to take the lead. 
McCleery then took up the cudgels, passing Van der Linde and
setting  off after Joubert.

He closed and very briefly on lap 10 managed to get ahead but 
Joubert repassed him on the same lap and successfully defended
his  lead to the finish with McCleery holding second place.
Behind them  Anthony Taylor in the Castrol Toyota Camry had made
up ground to  successfully challenge Van der Linde for third
place.

Giniel de Villiers finished fifth in the BP Nissan Sentra
followed  by Sarel van der Merwe in the Sasol Ford Mondeo and
Terry Moss in  the Rothmans Audi quattro.

In the melee of the opening laps Chris Aberdein (Rothmans Audi 
Quattro) and Mike White (Minolta Toyota Camry) had a coming
together  with both cars retiring and White being fined R2 000
for the  infringement.

For the first time the South African series followed the British 
example with two separate qualifying sessions for each round and
it  was Shaun van der Linde who started Round 16 on pole position
with  Mike Briggs alongside him - the damage to the Opel from the
crash in  the previous race limited mainly to the bodywork.

Van der Linde made a good start to take the early lead but always
under pressure from Briggs whose Opel Vectra looked stronger
coming  out of the tighter corners.

On lap 3 Briggs used the advantage to take the lead he was to
hold  through to the flag. Behind him, Van der Linde immediately
came  under pressure from Grant McCleery, the pair involved in a
dog-fight  to the end, swopping places twice before Van der Linde
finally  managed to gain enough leeway to secure second place
ahead of  McCleery.

A little further back Deon Joubert and Anthony Taylor were
involved  in their own battle for fourth place, the pair changing
places  several times before Joubert gained the advantage to
finish fourth.

Steve Wyndham brought his Sasol Ford Mondeo home in sixth place 
ahead of team mate Sarel van der Merwe with Chris Aberdein eighth
in  the Rothmans Audi - Terry Moss being forced to retire his
Audi on  lap one when the steering mounting broke.

RESULTS

SOUTH AFRICAN SUPER TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUNDS 157&16,
KYALAMI  (ZA), 24 LAPS - 102,2 Km, JULY 08.

Round 15

1.  Deon Joubert (BMW 318i), 21m45,92s, 141,18 km/h ave;
2.  Grant McCleery (Opel Vectra), 21m46,37s;
3.  Anthony Taylor (Toyota Camry), 21m49,79s;
4.  Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i), 21m50,50s;
5.  Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Sentra), 22m01,82s;
6.  Sarel van der Merwe (Ford Mondeo), 22m03,83s;
7.  Terry Moss (Audi Quattro), 22m06,44s;
8.  Marco dos Santos (VW Vento), 22m20,28s;
9.  Duncan Vos (Nissan Sentra), 23m39,40s;
10. Heinrich Lategan (VW Jetta), 23m40,24s

Round 16

1.  Mike Briggs (Opel Vectra), 21m41,59s; 141,65 km/h ave;
2.  Shaun van der Linde (BMW 318i), 21m50,50s;
3.  Grant McCleery (Opel Vectra), 21m46,37s;
4.  Deon Joubert (BMW 318i), 21m45,92s;
5.  Anthony Taylor (Toyota Camry), 26m14,65s;
6.  Steve Wyndham (Ford Mondeo), 26m08,15s;
7.  Sarel van der Merwe (Ford Mondeo), 26m05,13s;
8.  Chris Aberdein (Audi Quattro), 26m29,68s;
9.  Marco dos Santos (VW Vento), 22m20,28s;
10. Duncan Vos (Nissan Sentra), 23m39,40s

Fastest lap: Grant McCleery 1m46,89s (new lap record)

Points (after 16 rounds)

1. Briggs, 103; 2. McCleery 60; 3, Joubert 54; 4. Van der Linde
40;  5. Moss 28; 6. Taylor 26.


NEWS

Terry Moss will have the latest generation Audi Sport sequential 
gearbox fitted to his Rothmans Audi quattro for the next round of
the AA Fleetcare Super Touring Championship to be run in East
London  on August 05.

Andre van der Watt, Manager of Audi Sport, confirmed what has
been a  pit-lane rumour saying: "Two of engineers, Mike Bond and
Alan  Packman, left for Germany immediately after the Kyalami
race to  undergo training at Audi Sport in the fitment and setup
of the high- tech gearbox.

"The gearbox that will be fitted to Moss' car is exactly the same
as  the one being used on the current Audi A4 which is dominating
European Super Touring racing."

Van der Watt added the sequential gearbox was developed in-house
by  Audi and differs from the system used on other Super Touring
cars in  that the drive shafts are lifted to sit right on top of
the gearbox.

"The reason for this arrangement, which is considerably less
complex  than it may sound, is to significantly lower the centre
of gravity  of the car which helps to improve handling as well as
reducing tyre  wear by limiting lateral forces as much as
possible," he said.

"We will fit the new gearbox to Moss' car as part of our ongoing 
development strategy which has already borne fruit with both cars
having lapped Kyalami in practice and the race faster than any 
previous visit to the track.

"We plan to do extensive testing at the East London circuit
before  the race and we are extremely excited about this new
addition to our  racing programme."

ends

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