Hennie Groenewald
Hennie Groenewald
The Sasol Race Day at Zwartkops Raceway sees Hennie Groenewald and Gennaro Bonafede tackle the fifth round of the National Production Car Championship in a strong championship position as the second half of the season gets underway.
Groenewald leads the championship in his #08 Audi Sasolracing S4 quattro, a slender four points ahead of his main title rival, and is one of only two competitors to have scored points in each heat of every round of the series so far this season.
Groenewald’s scorecard consists of three race wins and six additional podium placings, while Bonafede retains third on the points log with 69 points after claiming one win and seven podium finishes this season
Gennaro Bonafede
Gennaro Bonafede
The Audi Sasolracing team is based at the Pretoria West circuit so it is very much a home track for the team. Since the formation of the Audi Sasolracing team in 2014, they have been victorious at Zwartkops on each of the four occasions the series has raced at the circuit, which bodes well for a continuation of their great form.
The Sasol Race Day is the highlight of the season for the team and a high-pressured, yet fun, environment as they perform in front of Sasol’s guests and staff, who always have high expectations on the day.
Vic Maharaj, Audi Sasolracing’s team manager, is happy to be going into the weekend leading the Production Car Championship.
“The Sasol Race Day is the focus of the season for our team and we aim to entrench our position on the championship leaderboard”, says Maharaj.
“We have enjoyed success at Zwartkops before and there is no reason why we cannot continue that trend. Having said that, our competitors know the track well and we cannot take anything for granted.
We look forward to welcoming Sasol’s guests and their families to our pits and interacting with them”.
Groenewald is equally upbeat about the Race Day: “On a personal level, it is my most important day of the year – the whole team seems to find a little extra energy and the excitement is tangible. We all want to do well to reward our loyal sponsors.
The tight nature of the Zwartkops track tends to suit the four-wheel drive cars and our aim is to keep up the tradition of winning races at the Sasol Race Day. There are a great deal of corporate and PR activities, and I’m really looking forward to it”.
Bonafede, behind the wheel of the #32 Audi racer, heads into his second Sasol Race Day and is eager to put on a great show for the spectators. “There’s a lot of pressure on us all day, which helps to focus the mind. We are permanently in demand from fans which is great – I’m used to off-track activities as I have been involved in various projects for Sasol and I’m proud to be associated with such a dynamic brand”.
“Zwartkops produces very close racing and the fans will be in for a treat. The way our cars are performing, we can win races and that will be my goal; I need to close the points gap to Hennie and Michael Stephen. We all know what we have to do – I can’t wait.!”
The Audi Sasolracing team is geared for the influx of race-goers and welcomes them to come and chat to the drivers and view the race cars in the pits during the day.
In addition to fielding two competitive race cars in 2015, Sasol is also the fuel partner for the National Production Car Championship.
Tickets sold at the gate, Adults - R90, Students - R60 and kids under 12 Free.
Tickets also available through Computicket at a discounted price.
