Masterful racecraft gave Francois Gerber a head start in the VSP Sports Car Racing championship which kicked off the 2004 Vodacom Power Tour at AA Kyalami on Saturday.

Powered by equally matched Nissan 3.5 litre QV motors, the two races produced racing of the highest order as fortunes changed throughout the day.

Driving the Dache Imports car, Garth Waberski was fastest in qualifying and was joined on the front row of the grid by Donovan Roscoe (Protea Playing Cards) with Francois Gerber (Auto Haus) and Dave Beattie occupying row two. Reigning champion, Neil Lobb (DK Office Furniture) was next up, but was destined not to start the first race after suffering a cv joint failure on the warm-up lap.

Roscoe got the jump on the pack to lead off the line and was followed closely by Waberski who spun out of contention at the bowl on lap one. That left Roscoe to take an narrow win ahead of a tremendous scrap between Beattie and Gerber for second, which was only resolved when Beattie spun into the barriers at Goodyear Corner on the final lap and limped home in third just ahead of Alan Eve (Powerseal Gaskets).

Fifth went to Colin Frost (Strocam) with Terry Voller (Boltt) rounding up the top six. Waberski charged back up the order after his first lap indiscretion and was up to eighth before he spun again on lap three.

Race two saw Roscoe take the lead again, but it only lasted for three laps as he retired with a suspected fuel pump failure. On the same lap Beattie suffered a catastrophic brake failure when a front calliper broke while braking for Wesbank.

That left Gerber and Waberski fighting tooth and nail for the lead, but two laps from the flag Gerber went wide into Goodyear Corner and Waberski snatched the lead.

The race ran its course with Waberski taking the win from Gerber and Lobb, the latter under pressure from Eve. Frost was fifth again, but this time it was Alan Green (DK Group) who took sixth ahead of Ruan Pretorius in the John Abbot Motorsport version.