Engen Xtreme Team brings home a podium finish from Phakisa

Friday, 20 August 2010

Engen Xtreme Team raced off to Phakisa raceway for round five of the WesBank Super Series which took place on Saturday 14 August, 2010 in Welkom. Having shown good pace in pre race preparation and qualifying, the team unfortunately were unable to convert this into the expected results on race day as mechanical and racing incidents put pay to receiving any silverware.

Bridgestone Production Audi

With an exciting start to race one, Engen Xtreme Audi driver, Michael Stephen (A3) led the pack alongside competitor, Johan Fourie. Without any technical difficulties, Stephen moved through the fields swiftly, completing the race one in a well-deserved second place. However Engen Audi teammate, Tschops Sipuka found himself in a competitive position with GP2 driver, Adrian Zaugg with the two cars sitting at bay with each other touching on turn three and resulting in Zaugg spinning off and leaving Sipuka with damage to his radiator and forcing him to retire in race one.

With a fifth position start on the grid, Stephen showed promise and held a good pace throughout the second race, holding off tight competition and crossing the finish line in fourth position.

In the race three, Stephen experienced losing power with his Audi and by the eighth lap the Engen Xtreme stalwart was forced to retire as a result of his engine cutting out.

Engen Volkswagen Polo Cup

Engen Xtreme Polo driver, Kosie Weyers (6) showed top form at the Phakisa meeting, securing a second place finish in race one. In the opening stages of race one, Engen Xtreme teammate, Miguel Pasqualli (5) found himself in a difficult situation when his accelerator cable chose an inconvenient moment to disconnect itself from the engine, which made his performance in the race inconsistent and resulted in an 18th place finish.

Overall

Overall the Engen Xtreme Team showed great determination, despite all the mechanical difficulties. Stephen finished in 10th position for the day but still managed to hold his third place position in the championship log, with Sipuka sitting in 9th position.

A remarkable overall performance by Weyers, claiming third place overall for the day. Weyers showed his mettle in all the races and has worked his way into third place in the championships. After a challenging day, Pasqualli finished overall in 17th place and still holds first place in the Masters championship.

The Engen Xtreme Team moves ahead to Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria for round six of the 2010 championship on Saturday 11 September, 2010.

The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital continues to form part of Engen's 'Racing for Red' initiative where a generous amount of R130 is donated for every point the drivers score during the race. To date, the team scored 344 points moving this season's 'Racing for Red' campaign up to R44 720.

So far, the overall fundraising campaign has donated more than R700 000 with an aim to raise 'R1 million by 2010' across all of Engen's sport sponsorship portfolios.