Opel Back With A Bang

There is no doubt that Class T of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship is proving to be the firecracker event in the Wesbank Super Series programme. This weekend Gary van Heerden in the first of two Opel Astra OPC challengers that will do battle against the rest of the hot hatch brigade, showed the field that these cars mean business.

The first outing was filled with great success for such a new car. “Fridays practice was the first time that I really drove the car and even I was impressed with the cars performance from the word go” said van Heerden. New cars often suffer from initial teething problems before they are on the pace, but that was not the case with the OPC. Van Heerden was consistently in the top three on the timing sheets during Fridays practice at Zwartkops and then went to qualify the car third on the grid, only 0.1 seconds off the pace of pole sitter Formato.

Starting the first race in the third position Gary managed to hold onto the position to cross the line in third place after fifteen laps of the short and twisty circuit. The Zwartkops circuit took its toll on a number of cars, who failed to finish the race due to mechanical failure. “This is a good sign for us as the OPC didn’t miss a beat under the hard fought circumstances” added Van Heerden. Iain Pepper in a Golf GTi and Graeme Nathan in the Seat Leon Cupra took the first and second places.

Race two, saw the race started in the reverse grid format, which meant Van Heerden would start in sixth position after his third place finish in the first race. Fighting hard he managed to get the brand new OPC into the lead after the first lap. But a botched overtaking move by Formato on lap six saw both cars relegated to the back of the class and then eventually retire with damage as a result of the move.
The second Opel Astra OPC which will be piloted by former production car champion, Reghard Roets, will debut at the next Kyalami round on the 5th of July.

The team would like to thank their sponsors, Webcom, Soviet eyewear, Rob Green Motorsport, SAX, TSW and Red Bull.

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