Engen Racing Team Press Release
The Engen Racing Team finished the 2013 season by claiming their second national title of the season at Kyalami on Saturday. Michael Stephen (A1 – Engen Xtreme) claimed the Bridgestone Production Car Championship title at the final round, making it his third consecutive title in this series.
With three races on the day, Stephen claimed the victory in the second race – but not without his share of drama on the day.
“We had good pace from the practice, qualifying left me with a freak experience where the brake pressure switch disintegrated and lost brakes in qualifying so had to start from the back. In race one I touched the back of Hennie and put a hole in my radiator. I circulated and finished to get some points,” says Stephen. “For race two I must thank Tschops who chose to swop cars with me, wrapped up the championship there.”
“In that third race I dropped back a bit as Tschops' car is set up a bit differently to mine, but I managed to work my way through to finish in second – and that second place felt like a win.”
The gesture from Tschops allowed his teammate, Stephen, to win the title for a third time while effectively taking him out of contention for the final event. Sipuka still kept the team's second Audi S4 Quattro circulating to finish both the second and third races of the event.
For Kosie Weyers (5 – Engen Primax) the final event of the season was a low-pressure affair as he had already claimed the title in the Engen Volkswagen Cup series. This victory took place at the penultimate round of the series, at his home circuit in Cape Town.
The final round saw the Engen Volkswagen Cup champion race to second overall on the day.
“I had a good outing today, starting with qualifying on pole this morning. Flat-spotting my left-front tyre during race one cost me time, but I managed to close on Mark towards the end, and take second place,” says Weyers. “Engen prepared a phenomenal car for me this year. We won nine races of the 18 total and the weakest finish this whole year was a fifth place which is very good.”
The victory marks Weyers' first national circuit-racing championship title, also providing the Engen Racing Team with two victories for the year – one for each of the national motorsport series in which they compete.
For Mandla Mdakane (18) the final round of the season proved a bit of a mixed event. Good pace in the early sessions didn't see a good performance during qualifying, but he did improve on his position during the racing, finishing the day in eighth position overall for the day.
“Today went quite well,” says Mdakane. “Things were good in the practise but there was a problem in qualifying and I couldn't put in a good lap with a red flag coming out. I got up to twelfth in the first race and got up to 10th for race two. In all it was a pretty good day, even though the new brake discs took some getting used too, they are very sensitive and it was easy to lock up the wheels – I even flat-spotted a tyre in the first race.”
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