Audi South Africa Press Release
A DEMANDING national race day at Killarney in Cape Town saw the Audi S4 quattro competitors amongst the top finishers on the day – with the defending champion the leading Audi S4 quattro racer.
With one round left in the season, Michael Stephen (A1 – Engen Xtreme) emerged in second place overall for the day at Killarney, with Gennaro Bonafede (A32 – Ferodo Racing) hot on his heels in third place.
“First priority this weekend was to finish all three races. Winning race two and finishing in third and second in the other two went a long way to achieving our championship goals,” says Stephen. “It would have been nice to take the championship here at Killarney, that would have taken the pressure off for the final round. We've won at the final round before though and I'm confident we can do that again.”
Bonafede's second place came after a tough day at the track. His pace for the weekend not quite reflecting accurately in the results.
“We were consistent this weekend,” says Bonafede. “Everything on the car is good after this event, so we'll do some testing and then be ready for Kyalami. This race day promised to deliver a lot more and it was a bit frustrating, but the consistency was good and we can build on that for the final.”
Another consistent performance for the weekend was that of Tschops Sipuka (A2 – Engen Xtreme). Sipuka claimed fifth place in every race – and also fifth overall for the day.
“The team has accomplished what it wanted to achieve at Killarney this weekend,” says Sipuka. “As for the remaining round of the season, we'll just take it in our stride.”
For Melvill Priest (A7 – Mueller Sports Medicine) it was the final race of the day that made the weekend worthwhile. An engine which broke during qualifying saw him miss the first race completely and only join the second race after it had already started. Priest made up for this with a good qualifying time for race three – which is determined by the laptimes of race two, and he took up pole position on the grid.
“The car was superb in that final race,” says Priest. “I could drive it at the absolute limit and it would simply do whatever I asked. At one stage we had a lead of 7.5 seconds on the rest of the field.”
The Audi S4 quattros will go into race action for the final time this season at Kyalami on Saturday, 2 November, when they contest the last round of the Bridgestone Production Cars Championship.
Photo credit: MotorPress.co.za
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