Tension is building in King of the Hill with time running out for drivers to post competitive qualifying times. Q4 was cancelled after Farouk Dangor’s Nissan GT-R R34 dropped oil all the way through the Esses during the morning warm-up.
Once the oil had been cleaned up, the drivers began exploring the limits of their cars and of the track, with spectacular results. One of the wildest moments was Wade van Zummeren getting his custom-built rear-wheel drive Nissan GT-R completely out of shape on the grass on the exit of Turn 2, but he completed the run.
Andrew Schofield was less fortunate, as he ran wide onto the dirty section of the road going into Turn 3, with the car slewing sideways and slamming into the tyre barrier – unfortunately ending his weekend on the spot.
The times are tumbling across the classes, most notably in the Single Seaters and Sports Prototypes. Andre Bezuidenhout did 38.062 sec in the morning warm-up, but then powered his 2007 Gould GR55 to 35.804 second in Q5 – despite taking an unusually wide line in Turn 3. This puts him within 0.9 sec of his 2021 record.
Robert Wolk’s Pillbeam has developed a starter issue and he is battling understeer, but he went 2.5 seconds quicker in his first run with new slick tyres on 38.737 sec.
Regard Roets has had a frustrating morning so far, failing to post a competitive time in the BB Motorsport Nissan GT-R as the car switched to limp mode in both morning sessions. Fortunately he has a quick 40.296 sec time from Q1 yesterday, but the team needs to resolve the issue before the Class Finals and Top 10.
Franco Scribante is still exploring the limits, and went just one-tenth quicker than his Q1 time from yesterday, at 40.532 sec.
In the Road Car and Supercar category, JP van der Walt is pushing the 2016 Porsche 911 Turbo hard. Although the four-wheel drive car has excellent traction off the line, he is finding it more of a handful in the winding top section of the 1.9 km course where its additional weight, turbo lag and reduced downforce compared to the GT3 RS he drove last year is making it a real challenge to drive.
He set a time of 45.707 sec, with his closest rival in Q5 being Deon Joubert in the rear-wheel drive BMW M4 Competition (46.971 sec).
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Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)
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