Round three of the Sasol GTC Africa championship at Killarney Raceway on Saturday saw Volkswagen Golf GTI GTC racer Daniel Rowe claim all three race victories on the day, adding to his already convincing lead in this category.
Brian Joss – “Three pole positions put us in a great position for the races here at Killarney,” says Rowe. “I had to focus on breaking the tow through the long straights, so my rivals couldn’t benefit from staying close behind me to reduce their wind resistance. I managed that successfully, even though I had to work very hard for that second race win.”
“Race three, in the cooler conditions, played into our hands and we benefited from the extra power afforded by the cooler air. The next round is the start of the second half of the season and with my lead, it is going to be very hard for anyone to beat me to the title. I’m looking forward to the Kyalami event, I think the handling of the Volkswagen Golf GTI GTC is going to play an even more important role there.”
Mandla Mdakane put his Volkswagen Golf GTI GTC on to the podium twice at Killarney, moving from third in race one to second in race three.
“I brought the car home in all three races, making sure we got a one-two finish in the final race of the day,” says Mandla. “The Volkswagen Golf GTI GTC handles like it is on rails and I really enjoy the Killarney circuit. My race two result was a bit of a headache because of a problem that only seemed to appear after the fourth lap, I managed to work around the issue though and building on my results from Zwartkops and Port Elizabeth I’m now hunting for race victories and not just podium finishes.”
The Volkswagen Jetta GTCs of Graeme Nathan and Mathew Hodges were subjected to a tough weekend at the track. Qualifying results in the top five proved the highlight of their race day, after which a series of problems made life tough behind the wheel.
“All new race cars come with their own unique sets of problems to overcome,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “For the first two rounds, we had a perfect finishing record and Mathew and Graeme were running back-to-back in the championship when we got to Killarney. It seems that all the problems we expected to deal with in the opening stages were saved up just for this event.”
“With the issues faced on the two cars largely the same, it means we concentrate on solving the problems on one car and then simply duplicating the fix on the other. That allows us to start the second half of the season at Kyalami strong and focus on winning races.”
The Volkswagen Motorsport team will be in competition at Kyalami on Saturday and Sunday, October 22 and 23, for a weekend of motorsport action.
