Castrol MINI John Cooper Works wins feature race in Free State

Lee Thompson (Castrol MINI John Cooper Works) scored an important win in the 12-lap double-points feature race at Welkom’s Phakisa Freeway circuit on Saturday to close to four points from third place in the Bridgestone Production Car Championship for class T cars.

With three rounds remaining, the 34-year-old former national Formula Vee champion (2001) and VW Polo Cup champion  (2007) has 82 points, 38 behind current championship leader and defending champion Graeme Nathan and four behind third-placed Michael van Rooyen.

“While we’ve enjoyed some good results so far this season, we’ve also not managed to score well in the all-important double points scoring feature races – until today. So I’m really pleased to have taken my first feature race win,” said Thompson.

The weekend started well enough, with second place in qualifying, just 0,1 sec behind Nathan.  “I had hoped for pole position on the grid for the opening 8-lap sprint race after we topped the timesheets in each of Friday’s three practice sessions. But we lacked a little bit of pace and this showed with our third place in the race. We made some changes between races and these made the difference. It took me a while to get past the three cars in front of me at the start, but I was in the lead by lap four and after that it was a relatively comfortable run to the chequered flag.”

Young team-mate Mandla Mdakane, 20, in only his second outing with the team since making his Bridgestone Production Car debut in East London a month ago, again showed signs of being a thorn in the side of his more established and experienced rivals in the hotly contested class T.

He started race one from the back of the grid after struggling for pace in qualifying and finished fifth. He started the feature race from pole position (the grid is determined by championship positions and then reversed) and did well to hang on for a fighting fourth place behind defending champion Nathan.

These two had clashed in the feature race in East London while contesting what would turn out to be first place and they clashed again at Phakisa when Nathan, who had started from the back of the grid, caught and passed his younger rival. Nathan went on to finish third, just 0,2 sec ahead of Mdakane.

“Mandla again showed a lot of guts and determination. We’re very pleased with his performances so far,” said team manager Donovan van Heerden.

Mdakane is dedicated to settling in to his new challenge as quickly as possible, but is also mindful of the big gap in experience between him and the top contenders in class B with whom he is able to compete in the Castrol MINI. “It’s a steep learning curve and I’m trying to take it one race at a time,” said the Crawford College student from Johannesburg.

In addition to principal sponsor Castrol, the team enjoys support from MINI John Cooper Works, EPS Courier Services, Powerbrake and Sony Playstation. In addition, ADF has secured a deal with one of the world‘s leading sponsorship and brand engagement agencies, Octagon.

The next round of the championship is at Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria on August 30.