After an uninspiring start of the Intercontinental GT Challenge at the Bathurst 12 Hour, WRT dominated with authority the Kyalami 9 Hour as the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and local man Sheldon van der Linde led a 1-2 finish with the sister No. 33 car, never leaving the top-3 in any moment of the race and progressing to triumph with excellent pace.
The No. 999 GruppeM Mercedes kept the lead from the pole while the pair of WRT BMWs was getting quite risky in their ways to settle positions, with the No. 32 car going to second to chase the No. 999, and with multiple failures to pass the Mercedes from the No. 32, the sister No. 33 car and the pair of Tresor Audis came into the party.
In the Pro-Am Cup the No. 4 Grove Porsche was leading the way, but the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes was having problems to go to second in class, having to be very persistent to beat the No. 86 Stradale Mercedes, which also conceded position to the No. 3 NGK Pablo Mercedes.
The WRT BMWs were quick to establish a gap once they got ahead of the No. 999, and further demonstration that the Mercedes was having a clear pace deficit came when the pair of Tresor Audis closed in, although the No. 66 and the No. 99 opted to play it safe and try to pass the No. 999 with a cunning strategy or by clear gaps in the Mercedes’ line.
Behind the Pro Cup clash, the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes took control of the Pro-Am Cup once Jules Gounon got in while Luca Stolz put the No. 20 SPS Mercedes ahead of the No. 4 Grove Porsche, with Earl Bamber having to compensate in terms of pace to reduce the initial losses.
A while after the start of the third hour, the No. 66 Tresor Audi finally made the move to third, leaving Mikaël Grenier in the No. 999 struggling to protect himself from Markus Winkelhock in the No. 99 Tresor Audi, who made the move by being a little more forceful than needed to not risk getting stuck behind the Mercedes.
If the GruppeM team hasn’t had a bad day at the office, things were getting worse as a cable out of place turned off the radio, meaning that Maro Engel was basically muted for more than one hour until the team troubleshoots it, but then the Mercedes got stuck in gear, with neither upshift or downshift working. The car dropped behind the Pro-Am Cup podium before the team decided to bring it in to conduct proper repairs and send it back to complete the minimum mileage to score points.
The No. 32 WRT BMW led the No. 33 car in the final hours with consistent pace, never allowing the Tresor Audis to come any closer, even with a Safety Car appearing with 30 minutes to go, so the Belgian team just had to bring it home in one piece to celebrate the win.
One of the reasons why the Kyalami 9 Hour date was changed was to avoid the late storms that usually red flagged the race, and it worked well as the track was dry all race long. With an unfortunately short grid of 13 cars that saw three cars pull out after completing the hour related to the Kyalami Supercup, less yellow flags were expected, with the one at the end of the race being the only neutralization.
The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes enjoyed a more comfortable end of race as a huge gap separated them from the No. 4 Grove Porsche, which secured their win in the Pro-Am Cup.
With only two five entries moving from Bathurst to Kyalami, the SunEnergy1 drivers Kenny Habul and Jules Gounon lead the standings with 40 points despite being in a Pro-Am Cup entry, with the best Pro Cup/Overall drivers being van der Linde Vanthoor and Weerts behind them with 37 points, while Luca Stolz is in third with 35 points.
Next up in the IGTC calendar is the crown jewel of the SRO calendar, the 24 Hours of Spa on 1 and 2 July, which also counts to the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
PHOTO: SRO/Jeff Latham
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