Mogotsi commands SA simGT championship lead with Nürburgring double

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Jason Holden-Jones in NEWS, SA simGT Series // 0 Comments

Revlimit Racing’s Jonathan Mogotsi leads the 2016 SA simGT Series Drivers’ Championship, after securing back to back victories at the Nürburgring GP circuit.

Gerrit Crafford pressed Gert James throughout the opening stages of Race 1.

The first race saw Mogotsi start his Audi R8 LMS from pole position to comfortably lead both the AGBS Nissans of Boyd Bryson and Gert James. James proved quicker than Bryson throughout the opening stages, which promptly saw them switch positions. The move unfortunately, for the AGBS team, saw Bryson come on stronger throughout the second half of the race.The big surprise from Race 1 was the impressive performance from Revlimit Racing’s Gerrit Crafford. The GT-AM class driver qualified his McLaren in fourth position overall to go and press the AGBS Nissans throughout the race.

The show was stolen by the fight for fifth position. Ichor Racing’s Lance Garrassino, with significant success ballast, had been slowly inching towards Trigon Racing’s Peter van Vuuren from the race start. Only on lap 10, and with a better run out of the NGK Chicane, did Garassino seize his chance with an aggressive move on a very aware van Vuuren. The battle enabled H-J eSports’ Jason Holden-Jones to run his Mercedes-Benz three wide with them under braking for Turn 1. While Garassino broke away, Holden-Jones and van Vuuren put on a thrilling display of offensive and defensive manoeuvres. The cars switching positions on multiple occasions before van Vuuren ultimately won the battle.

Mark Henebury defends from Lance Garassino on the final lap of Race 2.

The starting grid for Race 2 mirrored that of Race 1’s down to sixth position. This time James scrambled to keep ahead of both Crafford and van Vuuren throughout the opening lap. This allowed Bryson to break away and stay with Mogotsi. Later, Crafford arrived at the Michael Schumacher Esses side-ways to collect and relegate himself, Holden-Jones, and Lindsay-Rae to lower positions.

Van Vuuren and Garassino, again, were involved in the arguably the battle of Race 2, this time joined by HRTs Mark Henebury . In much the same way as the van Vuuren/Holden-Jones battle in Race 1 transpired, this time van Vuuren pulled clear, and Henebury came out on-top to beat Garassino to the finishing line.

Shiraz Dada claimed his maiden class win in Race 2.

Shiraz Dada claimed his maiden GT-AM class win in Race 2.

Mogotsi maintained a slim margin back to Bryson to secure a double victory. Mogotsi now leads the Drivers’ Championship by five points ahead of Bryson, and eight points ahead of Garassino. AGBS enjoy a significant lead in the Teams’ Championshop to lead Trigon Racing by 23 points.

In the GT-AM Class, Crafford won Race 1, and RC Fanatix’s Shiraz Dada, with his season best result of ninth overall, secured his maiden class victory in Race 2.

In the new Trigon Tooling Consistency Cup, James proved the most consistent driver in Race 1 with 99.69% consistent lap times, and Bryson in Race 2 with 99.46%. Ichor Racing’s Brent Lindsay-Rae leads the new championship by six points ahead of Mogotsi.

Race video: