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Page 16 - Altech Porsche Challenge
Altech Porsche Unlimited Challenge
Cape Town’s motorsport fans will be treated to the rare sight of thoroughbred racing Porsches when the Altech Porsche Unlimited Challenge visits Killarney for the first time on Saturday 10 May.
With two events already completed the championship leader is non-other than Porsche Centre South Africa boss Toby Venter in his well sorted and ultra reliable 911 GT2R. This car is the fastest production based racing car in the country and lap times of around 1 minute 12 seconds are predicted.
Just two points adrift is Barry Nel who drives an extremely well sorted Porsche 944 Turbo Cup with great verve and determination. This is one of the cars that delighted spectators 20 years ago when the LSM Porsche Turbo Cup series attracted the likes of Venter, Sarel van der Merwe, Mike Briggs, Chris Aberdeen and even Motorsport South Africa Chairman Roger Pearce.
Third in the point standings is Rolf Schlub in a Porsche 964 RS Club Sport which is, for all intents and purposes, a factory built racing car that was thinly disguised as a road car in order so Porsche could sell it as a road car!
Theo du Toit is itching for a good result and his Porsche 993 RSR is deceptively fast. Also fighting near the front could be John Greve who races an earlier model 911 RSR. Former Porsche 924 racer Lindsay Robertson, Nicky Dicks, Bert Scheepers and Peter Wharton-Hood will be at the wheel of more modern 996 GT3 Cup versions.
A unique feature of the Altech Porsche Challenge is that it is open to other exotic marques and the fleet of Ferrari F360 Challenge cars from the Forza Racing stable provides great entertainment. In fact, there aren’t many countries in the world where spectators are able to watch the rare sight of Porsches pitted against Ferraris.
TV personality Oscar de Oliveira is usually at the head of the Ferrari train but the final driver line-up hadn’t been release by the time we went to press.
Charl Joubert will be in action in the dinky looking, but very effective and powerful supercharged Lotus Exige that weighs in at less than 1000 kg which makes it quite capable of challenging its bigger engined rivals.
There’s also a strong possibility that several Cape based Porsches will join the field.
Altech Porsche 924 Challenge
Launched in the mid 70s the Porsche 924 was the sports car for the masses, the entry level Porsche that is reputed to have saved the company from bankruptcy.
It may be over 30 years old now, but it still enjoys a huge cult following and has become an extremely popular race car. “In standard road going specification it was a superb handling car which made it very popular as a ‘track day’ car that could also be used every day of the week,” explained Porsche enthusiast John Abbott.
Today’s entry-level Porsche is a used Porsche and the Altech Porsche 924 Challenge is the entry Porsche racing. Running to a simple handicap system which sees the fastest cars start first and theoretically a huge bunch of cars crosses the line together at the end. It is a lot more exciting than it seems.
Dave Parratt heads the title race but has Marius Wait and Johan Grobler breathing down his neck. Another driver to watch is former Sports 2000 racer Piet Nortje in a well sorted car that scored its first win in June 2001 at the official re-opening of Zwartkops in the hands of motoring journalist Steve Wicks.
Watch this race carefully …. It gets quite hectic on the last lap.