Killarney to decide championship

By Barry de Klerk - Special to Motorsport.com

The South African Modified Car (SAMCAR) championship reaches it's finale on Saturday, with the championship being decided between veterans Sarel van der Merwe and Ben Morgenrood and Johan Fourie, although Van der Merwe's point lead whould be enough for him to comfortably clinch the championship.

While these three are contesting the championship, the race lead is likely to be contested by Fourie and Shaun Watson-Smith. Fourie has dominated all racing he has taken part in this year, winning in SASCAR, SAMCAR and also in a one-off appearance in the Panoz series. The races at Aldo Scribante in October marked the first time he was beaten in a straight fight, by Opel at their home track.

Shaun Watson-Smith, possibly stung by Fourie blaming his Opel crash at Kyalami on driver error rather than a stuck throttle, dominated the weekend at the tight Aldo Scribante circuit, qualifying in pole and winning the races.

At the next round on the very fast East London Grand Prix track, it was business as usual, as Fourie made the running, although it was Watson-Smith on pole. On a rainy day Fourie was in a class of his own, especially in the wet second race, which he won by a big margin, after Watson-Smith crashed out early on. While they were racing the Opel was fastest in the twisty bits, while Fourie's Mustang was best in the fast parts.

Another feature of the East London race was the drive by Morgenrood, whose car was unable to race in heat 2. Morgenrood borrowed his old car back from it's current owner, started in the pits and managed to fight his way up to 6th place, ahead of championship rival van der Merwe.

Killarney is somewhat tighter than East London, so the Opels may show the same competitiveness they showed in Port Elizabeth. The battle between Fourie and Watson-Smith should be worth the wait.