More spectators than expected, more competitors than expected and lots more action than expected marked the highlight of the year event with these three categories alone representing close to R100 million's worth of impeccable racing machinery.
Waiting for the chequered flag to fall after the very last race of their season before class and overall championships could be clinched, were Altech GT Challenge arch rivals Nicky Dicks (Ferrari F430 Challenge) and Tato Carello (BMW M3).
Eventually the honours went to Carello after beating Dicks by a narrow 1-second margin in the first race of the day, but he still had to finish the second race to be able to put his name on the trophy. Although Dicks received the chequered flag well ahead of Carello in their final race of the season, the championship was sealed when the BMW driver crossed the line a good half-a-minute later.
"It was awesome - the excitement lasted all the way to the proverbial wire," said Dicks as he later strapped himself into his Porsche 944 Turbo Cup in the Invitational event, sharing the grid with his younger sister, Wendy, who tried her hand at racing again for the first time in over a year. She did well to finish in the middle of the pack of 24 cars, finishing 15th in race one and 10th in race two.
The overall winner of the Altech GT Challenge race was Mr Porsche South Africa, Toby Venter, who made a welcome return to the circuit after his Porsche GT2R was badly damaged in an accident at Killarney earlier in the year. "The damage wasn't as bad as we at first thought, but business commitments prevented me from returning to the circuit earlier and I was way out of the running for the overall championship anyway," he said.
Wilhelm Baard (Nissan GT-R Nismo) had no competition in Class GTC1 easily staying ahead of Nic Chapman (Ferrari F430) who had already wrapped up the class honours at the Zwartkops event held in October. Charl Arangies surprised in his Noble taking 4th in both heats, followed in both heats by Andrew Culbert in his Porsche GT3 Cup.
GTC Championships:
- Overall: Tato Carello (BMW M3)
- Open Class: Toby Venter (Porsche GT2R)
- GTC1: Nic Chapman (Ferrari F430)
- GTC2: Tato Carello (BMW M3)
- GTC3: Kris Budnik (BMW M3)
- GTC4: Anthony Blunden (Porsche RSR)
- GTC5: George Avvakoumides (Porsche 911).
But both drivers earned exactly the same amount of points on the day, securing Wise the Class 924 and overall championship for the season.
On Saturday both heats of the open class were won by Ron Harmse. The absence of championship leader Evan de Jager cost him dearly as Harmse‘s wins in the two heats scored him the maximum 50 points on offer for the day, and secured him the class championship for the year.
Altech Porsche Club Challenge Champions:
- Overall: Ray Wise
- Open Class (911s): Ron Harmse
- 924 Class: Ray Wise
