Kyalami became a dream-come-true for Shaun Watson-Smith on Saturday 
when he took on, and soundly trounced, the established drivers 
contesting the AA Fleetcare Super Touring Championships.

Deputising for champion Mike Briggs, who makes his second British 
Touring Car Championship appearance at Snetterton tomorrow, Watson-
Smith made a dream debut at the Gestetner national meeting. After 
scoring a moral victory in round 19, Watson-Smith went on to become 
the first driver to win a South African Super Touring event on 
debut.

Watson-Smith played a leading role in helping Opel Racing  - in the 
absence of Briggs - maintain the dominance they have enjoyed 
throughout the season in the AA Fleetcare series. Starting on the 
first row of the grid in round 19, Watson-Smith went into the lead 
from the lights with the BMW Envirocar pair of Deon Joubert and 
former champion Shaun van der Linde swarming all over him.

However, oil dropped after a first lap incident between three of the 
Class B cars caused Watson-Smith anxious moment in the Rothmans 
Esses midway through lap two. With cars going in all directions 
Sarel van der Merwe in the Sasol Ford Mondeo arrived on the scene as 
the Van der Linde BMW was rolling back onto the track. Van der Merwe 
had nowhere to go and T-boned the BMW, the telemetry on the Mondeo 
showing an impact speed of  92 mph.

The red flag came out and both Van der Merwe and Van der Linde were 
taken to hospital, Van der Merwe later released but in a great deal 
of pain from a bruised spleen and muscles torn in his back while Van 
der Linde was kept overnight suffering from concussion.

When the race was restarted, Watson-Smith moved ahead of Joubert on 
lap three with Grant
McCleery, in the second Opel Racing Vectra hot on their heels. Only 
two points separated Joubert and McCleery in the championship at the 
start of the race, and McCleery piled on the pressure to force his 
way past Joubert on lap five.

Behind them Anthony Taylor in the Castrol Toyota Camry was involved 
in his own race with Julian Bailey in the Minolta Camry - Bailey 
gaining the upper hand on lap five as Taylor's tyres began to go 
off. Terry Moss in the Rothmans Audi quattro then came into the 
picture, closing up on Taylor and going past him on lap seven with 
Chris Aberdein in the second Rothmans Audi (now also fitted with a 
sequential gearbox) not far behind.

Coming out of the last corner, Watson-Smith slowed to allow McCleery 
to take the win - the first five cars across the line separated by 
just 1,5 second - and maximum points to put him back in contention 
for second place overall in the series.

In round 20 Watson-Smith blasted away from the line to lead the 
opening lap but was immediately under pressure from Joubert who 
forced his past the Opel on lap two, holding the lead for two laps 
before Watson-Smith could get past and back into the lead he was to 
hold to the finish.

Joubert clung grimly to second place, the leading pair pulling away 
from the rest of the pack lead by Bailey's Toyota Camry. Bailey made 
a demon start and stayed in third place until lap nine when he 
passed by McCleery who had worked his way up from sixth overall on 
the opening lap.

When McCleery went past Bailey's Toyota, Terry Moss seized the 
opportunity and forced his Rothmans Audi through at the same time. 
Anthony Taylor finished sixth in the second Camry with Giniel de 
Villiers in the BP Nissan Sentra seventh ahead of team mate Nic de 
Waal - Chris Aberdein in the second Audi out of contention in this 
heat after bump in the early laps had upset the handling of the car.

Class B championship leader Duncan Vos, in the Accord Nissan Sentra 
cemented his hold on the title with a first and a third. After 
winning the first race, Vos finished behind Hein Lategan - a first 
heat casualty in the Beeld Motor VW Jetta - and Leon Mare in the 
BankFin Toyota Sprinter.


SOUTH AFRICAN SUPER TOURING CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUNDS 19&20, KYALAMI 
(ZA), 2x12 laps - 2x32,02 miles, AUG 26

Round 19
1 Grant McCleery (Opel Vectra), 21m46,701s 88,18 mph; 2  Shaun 
Watson-Smith (Opel Vectra) 21m46,871s; 3 Deon Joubert (BMW 318i) 
21m47,140; 4 Julian Bailey (Toyota Camry) 21m47,817; 5 Terry Moss 
(Audi Quattro) 21m48,012; 6  Anthony Taylor (Toyota Camry)    
21m53,167; 7 Chris Aberdein (Audi Quattro) 21m53,980; 8 Nic de Waal 
(Nissan Sentra) 21m59,738; 9 Sabine Reck (BMW 318i) 22m03,035; 10  
Steve Wyndham (Ford Mondeo) 22m11,362

Round 20

1 Shaun Watson-Smith (Opel Vectra) 21m35,366s 88,956 mph; 2 Deon 
Joubert (BMW 318i) 21m36,927; 3 Grant McCleery (Opel Vectra), 
21m43,162s; 4 Terry Moss (Audi Quattro) 21m44,466; 5 Julian Bailey 
(Toyota Camry) 21m46,535; 6 Anthony Taylor (Toyota Camry)    
21m52,084; 7 Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Sentra), 21m57,371; 8 Nic de 
Waal (Nissan Sentra) 22m06,599; 9 Chris Aberdein (Audi Quattro) 
22m06,660; 10 Steve Wyndham (Ford Mondeo) 22m09,879

New lap record: Watson-Smith 1m46,050s

Points

Class A:
1 Briggs 109; 2 McCleery 83; 3 Joubert 82; 4 Van der Linde 40; 5 
Moss   33; 6 Taylor 28; 7 White & Wyndham  20; 9 Van der Merwe 16; 
10
Watson-Smith 15.

Class B
1 Vos 124; 2 Swanepoel 109; 3 Lategan 70; 4 Mare 47; 5 Van Rensburg  
39; 6 D Joubert 19; 7 Bruins 16; 8 Huggett 8; 9 Lanz 2; 10 P Piazza-
Musso 1.


ends

+-------------------+---------------------------+
| ___ ___ _   _ __  |colin.windell@digitec.co.za|
| #   # # #   # #~# |---------------------------|
| #__ #_# #_( # # # |I sponsor Castle Lager     |
+-------------------+---------------------------+