Garth Waberski extended his championship lead with a sensible drive to second place and comfortable win as Melvill Priest made a welcome return to the series and claimed the other win in what was a day packed with drama.

 

With all drivers in identical Nissan powered cars qualifying on Friday was hectic. Priest (Mad Buzz) outpaced championship leader Waberski (Dache Imports) to take pole by almost half a second. Row two had Alan Eve (Powerseal Gaskets) ahead of the unsponsored Dave Beattie while Francois Gerber (Autohaus) and reigning champion Neil Lobb (DK Office) rounding off the top six.

 

Priest grabbed the initiative at the start with Waberski content to follow him through the first few corners before muscling past at Clubhouse as Eve and Gerber watched. A lap later Beattie passed Gerber at the same corner and then Lobb got ahead of Gerber at the pit corner, but lost the advantage as they headed through the sweeps after the pits.

 

The pair then made contact at the second part of Nashua and both spun while leaving Gerber way down the order as Lobb got going in sixth place. A lap later Lobb spun again at Nashua and then Beattie spun into retirement at the same corner.

 

That moved Alan Green (DK/Boltt) up to fourth followed by Gerber, Lobb and Jonathan Finch (S21). On lap eight Lobb spun again and unnoticed Waberski lost the lead to Priest.

 

The race ran its course with Priest winning from Waberski as Eve had an untroubled race to third with Gerber, Green and Finch completing the top six.

 

Race two saw Waberski lead from start to finish with Lobb holding second place until half distance when Priest demoted him to third. Gerber bagged fourth, his only drama being a bit of paint swapping as he squeezed past Eve at Wesbank two laps from the end. Green put in another good drive to claim sixth ahead of Ruan Pretorius (Nusol/John Abbot Motorsport) who did well to beat Finch after starting on old rubber from the back of the grid.

 

Beattie’s day ended when he parked with a broken driveshaft after the first lap and the only other retirement was posted by Rui Campos who retired the Boltt entry when its gear linkage came apart.

 

The next round of the championship takes place at East London at the end of August.