Volkswagen Motorsport delivered
another exceptional performance at round three of the Sasol GTC Championship
held at Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria.
Daniel Rowe raced his
Volkswagen Motorsport Jetta GTC to a convincing lights-to-flag win from pole
position in the second GTC race while Keagan Masters excelled yet again in his
Volkswagen Advanced Driving Golf GTi, taking a solid second in the opening race
and a convincing win in the second heat from the back of the inverted
grid. Adding to VW Motorsport's joy is that Masters has taken an eight
point lead in the GTC2 Championship.
Adrian Wood drove his Kyocera
Volkswagen Golf GTi to a pair of points paying results, banking 26 points for
his efforts on raceday as he continues to improve at every outing.
Mathew Hodges was out of favour
with Lady Luck once more, forced to retire his Jetta GTC from the first race
with technical difficulties while holding a strong fourth place and closing in
on a podium finish.
In the first race of the day,
Hodges enjoyed a strong opening sequence of laps to jump from sixth place on
the grid to fourth while setting competitive lap times throughout the 12-lap
race, only to retire on the final lap. Rowe was left to battle along at the
back of the field after being knocked around by over-zealous rivals, grappling
with handling issues as his suspension was knocked awry in the incident.
In the second race, Rowe made
no mistakes and bolted away from the chasing pack to open a safe gap to Gennaro
Bonafede (BMW) in second place. While the gap closed during the mid-race phase,
deteriorating grip towards the end of the race saw Rowe's margin dwindle to 0.8
seconds as he streaked under the chequered flag. "It feels fantastic
to win again", said Rowe. "I didn't think I had a race-winning
package after the first heat so the team made some changes and they worked a
treat".
Keagan Masters was involved in
a fraught battle with Brad Liebenberg (Mini) as the pair raced side-by-side
until Masters was forced wide in turn five. Tucked in behind the race
leader, his Golf GTi suffered overheating brakes so he backed off to let them
cool, taking the second step on the podium.
In the second race, from the
back of the inverted grid, he carved his way through the field with surgical
precision after overcoming Liebenberg which saw the two cars rub fenders more
than once. "The first three laps in the second race were really
entertaining", said the 17-year old scholar. "I was often
three-abreast as I made my way to the front. My car was excellent today".
Volkswagen Motorsport Manager,
Mike Rowe was happy with his team's results: "I am disappointed about
Mathew's continued bad luck after he made a strong start to the season at
Kyalami. It's great to win the second race again but we need to start winning
race one from the front of the grid. When I tick that box I will be more
relaxed about our overall competitiveness. We still have a lot of work to do.
Keagan is driving superbly and really showed just how good he is when he had to
dig deep to take pole position".
Volkswagen Motorsport heads to
the Eastern Cape and East London's famous eponymous Grand Prix Circuit for
round four of the series on 16th June.
Volkswagen Motorsport
acknowledges all of its sponsors and partners:
MAN, Volkswagen Financial
Services, Volkswagen Genuine Parts, RG Motorsport, Ferodo
