Pretoria - It's been a long time coming, but South Africa's brand-new GTC national racing series will explode into action on Women's Day, Tuesday 9 August, at Zwartkops Raceway.
The result of four years of development, GTC stands for Global Touring Car, and that's exactly what it is, a tightly cost-controlled series combining those elements of saloon car racing series around the world best most suited to South African motorsport - and which would best appeal to local manufacturers, without whose support the class would simply fade way as the SA Production Car and V8 Supercar series did before it.
Each car has a two-litre turbocharged petrol engine, limited to 325kW and 600Nm, driving the rear wheels - and everybody has to use the same six-speed paddle-shift gearbox, suspension, dampers and brakes.
More than that, the rules will stay exactly the same for five years and no development will be allowed, which means that an entry-level privateer will have a car with the same specifications and performance as the best-funded factory teams - the only limits will be his driving ability (note that the cars have neither ABS nor traction control!) and the chassis set-up skills of his crew.
The cars will be running on slicks and will be geared for top speeds of about 280km/h at fast tracks such as the East London Grand Prix Circuit, with plenty of turbo-crackle and flames spitting out of the exhaust under braking.
The late-starting inaugural 2016 Sasol GTC series will consist of six rounds over the next five months, each featuring two 40 minute races, which will be televised on Supersport in magazine format. It has attracted entries from Audi, BMW and Volkswagen, with more manufacturers set to join the series in 2017.
So, who's in?
Audi, with backing from Engen, has entered two A3 GTC racers for Michael Stephen, arguably South Africa's most successful tin-top driver of recent years, and Simon Moss, son of former champion Terry and a driver of proven talent who has yet to fulfil his potential.
Volkswagen Motorsport has prepared a pair of Jetta GTC cars for multiple production car champion Graeme Nathan and champion rally driver Gugu Zulu. Following Zulu's recent tragic death on Mount Kilimanjaro, however, Volkswagen will be holding driver tests ahead of Tuesday's first meeting and will announce its second driver shortly afterwards.
BMW, however, has built four 2 series GTC racers - two for privateers Michael van Rooyen and former production car champion Johan Fourie from Cape Town, and two for a factory team, backed by series sponsor Sasol, to be driven by 2015 SA Production Car champion Hennie Groenewald, and Gennaro Bonafede, son of motorsport legend Vito.
A real test of ability
After their shakedown session a week ago, Groenewald in particular was positive about the new format.
"I haven't driven a real racing car for many years, so I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "The chassis is more rigid than that of a production car and the paddle-shift ‘box is superb, like a mini Formula One car, while the slick tyres provide healthy levels of grip and should make for close racing.
"Not having anti-lock braking, for example, gives me a better feeling the car's grip levels under braking, which will give me more confidence in overtaking situations - but it will be a real test of the younger drivers' ability!"
Bonafede ruefully agreed: "It's been six years since I raced a car without ABS, so I'll have to do some laps in a kart to remind myself what it's like!
"The car's power delivery is very smooth, and it sounds great; it feels alive and almost begs to be driven fast - but a key factor is going to be finding the right set-up for a given circuit as quickly as possible, so that we can concentrate on fast qualifying laps."