Phakisa Wesbank V8 series race report

Another Vodacom Roadshow Double For Johan Fourie

Cape Town whiz kid Johan Fourie had another field day at the Vodacom Roadshow national meeting at Phakisa over the weekend.

On a cold and windy Free State day Fourie warmed up proceedings by winning both Wesbank V8 championship races. For Fourie, in the MD Transport Ford Mustang, it was four out of four since the talented Capetonian joined the Wesbank fray at the opening of the Zwartkops circuit last month.

The Phakisa win also gave Fourie his fifth win in as many starts - with the Capetonian winning a Sascar event at East London a fortnight after his debut in the Wesbank series. Apart from Fourie's continued good form, it was also a good day for other Wesbank newcomers with the Petronas Opel team scoring its first podium finishes via Port Elizabeth star Shaun Watson-Smith.

Fourie won the first heat ahead of Watson-Smith and veteran Sarel van der Merwe in the Sasol Ford Mustang. The second heat, however, saw Supervan come in ahead of Watson-Smith in a result that did van der Merwe's championship hopes no harm.

On the Sasol Formula Ford front championship leader Jonathan du Toit (Big Z Van Diemen) and Morne Jurgens, in the Jurgens Truck Hire Mygale, shared wins. Pretoria based du Toit took the first heat ahead of fellow Pretoria Brett Mayberry (Investment Cars Mygale) with Jurgens third.

Race two saw Jurgens come through to take the win ahead of du Toit and Mayberry. That left du Toit 23 points clear at the top of the championship ladder, but Jurgens ended the day trailing second placed Mayberry by only three points.

There were also shared wins in the Kent engined category. Pretoria driver Andy Brown (Airex Royale) and Kempton Park rival Brian Greyling (Royal Purple/Aerosud Van Diemen) shared the honours, with Brown now eight points clear of Greyling in the championship.

As far as championships go it was also a good day for Midrand driver Graeme Nathan in the Engen Volkswagen Cup event. A second and a third - and both times Nathan had to fight his way through the pack - saw Nathan (Ciro VW Polo) extend his championship lead over Derrick Irving to 26 points.

Nathan finished second to Eastern Cape star Tschops Sipuka (Engen VW Polo) in the first heat, and was third behind veteran Neil Stephen (National Autoglass VW Polo) and Irving (National Autoglass VW Polo) in race two. Sipuka rolled during qualifying but bounced back to take a flag to flag win in the opening heat.

The veteran Stephen was having his first outing of the season and finished third on the road in the opening race, but was penalised after an altercation with Irving and was eventually classified eighth. Stephen and Irving then fought out a stirring battle in the second heat, with the Eastern Cape driver edging out the former multiple kart champion by a coat of paint.

In the championship standings Nathan now has 135 points with Irving on 109. Behind them, however, there is a huge dogfight with just four points now separating Graeme Donker, Sipuka, Stanley Thompson and two time champion Marthinus Briers in the VolkswagenSure VW Polo.

-Vodacom Roadshow