Signature Motorsport enjoyed a successful outing in East London where the fourth round of the Sasol GTC2 Championship was held this Saturday. Devin Robertson fought two extremely hard races worthy of a champion as he scorched around the historic East London Grand Prix circuit to bank his maiden series victory.
The Champion MINI John Cooper Works, along with Brad Liebenberg’s Ferodo MINI John Cooper Works were on the pace from the first practice session on Friday, setting the timesheets alight.
In official qualifying Devin had to make do with second place on the grid, 0.3 seconds off pole position while Brad was a bewildered sixth, unable to replicate his Friday speed.
In the opening race, Devin was glued to the back of Keagan Masters’ VW Golf, never more than a coat of paint behind the leader. On the second lap, the two cars ran side-by-side for the entire lap until Robertson found a way past and made the move stick.
Lap after lap, the spectators cheered the two rivals – never more than half a metre apart – as they fought for the lead. After ten fraught laps, Devin crossed the line just 0.133 seconds ahead of his rival.
Brad was involved in an equally hard race making up a quartet of GTC2 cars vying for the final place on the podium. Positions changed by the lap amongst the four drivers, with Brad taking a turn in third spot. By flag fall, he was in fourth position.
In the second race, from an inverted grid, Devin carved his way from the back of the field and into third place on the opening lap. By the next lap, Devin was into second place but stuck behind Adrian Wood for a while, which allowed him to be caught by Masters once more. After another lap, Devin was into the lead but had Masters filling his rear-view mirrors. The two great rivals tried every trick in the book to keep the lead, even banging body-panels in their quest to try unconventional racing lines.
In the end, masters took line honours by a slender 0.186 seconds.
Brad spent his second race chasing Trevor Bland (VW Golf) and fending off Dayne Angel’s Honda Civic to cross the line in fifth place.
“It’s been a long wait”, an elated Devin said after the race. “I had a fantastic scrap with Keagan after I fluffed my start. The racing was hard, clean and fair. The second race was fantastic; I made up four places by Cocabana Corner and carried on passing people until I got to the front. Keagan got passed when I missed a corner in the complex but it was my best day in a racing car for a very long time”.
I was fast in the corners”, Brad explained, but I got devoured down the straight. I had a great battle with Trevor (Bland) and Adrian (Wood) in the first race. In race two I also had a great battle which was fun”.
Brad and Devin occupy second and third places on the championship table, two points apart.
The next outing for the Signature Motorsport MINI John Cooper Team is at the Aldo Scribante circuit in Port Elizabeth on 14th July.