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Wolk, Temple & van der Watt out to maintain GTC advantage

The Chemical Logistics Racing is quite literally in the pound seats, as it heads to Zwartkops Raceway’s penultimate round Global Touring Car races at the 23 October Extreme Festival in Pretoria. But while Robert Wolk may have been hoping to wrap up the title in Pretoria with his Chemical Logistics Toyota Corolla GTC, he may well have to wait for Kyalami to do so. That since the 4 December date was added to replace the Cape Town round dropped in September’s lockdown.

Not that Wolk cannot wrap it up at Zwartkops, but he'd need his closest rivals to capitulate for that to happen this weekend. “Zwartkops was initially pencilled in as the season final,” Robert explained. “Now they’ve added a Kyalami round over the 9 Hour weekend, so that’s a bit of a double edged sword! “Of course it's going to be a great privilege to race at Kyalami, but then we also now have two extra races to get through to defend our title lead!

“Anyway, we head to Zwartkops with a 12-point advantage and the best thing we can do, is build on that. “We have worked so hard to get these results in the past few races, which have been a little lucky too, but we are keen to re-establish our early season pace advantage on GTC. "Stuart and the WCT team have worked to do just that, but Zwartkops is also Michael van Rooyen’s home race and we expect his Gazoo Corolla to be super quick here. “We'll just have to be even quicker!”

The team's other two drivers, Investchem Formula 1600 graduates, second Chemical Logistics Toyota Corolla GTC driver, Scott Temple and Julian van der Watt and his Autozone Ford Focus GTC are meanwhile immersed in a frantic three-way dice for third in the championship. “I had a good run with strong results over the last four heats. “So I plan to continue on that trajectory,” Scott Temple confirmed. “The car's good, we have kept on working and I'm ready for another step up!”

“We had a couple of fourth places in the Autozone Ford Focus GTC last time out, but one of them was because the same guy bumped me out the way for the second meeting in a row!” Julian van der Watt pointed out. “So a good, clean weekend in Pretoria would be most welcome. “We also had very good pace at Red Star, but it wasn’t as consistent as I’d like it to have been. "So the plan is to maintain that speed through the weekend at Zwartkops. “I’m ready!”

“The goalposts have moved a little for us, now that we are back to a full quota of championship rounds," team manager Stuart Thompson explained. “Not that it scares us at all — in fact we relish the chance to race twice more at Kyalami. “The lads have had a brilliant run over the past few races and we are in a splendid championship position. “The plan is to keep building on that, and we can't wait for Zwartkops."

“Chemical Logistics Racing has had a brilliant GTC racing season,” team boss Ian Schofield concluded. “We have now been given two more races, which is great — Robert, Scott and Julian are ready to deliver in Pretoria and Stuart and the team have consistently delivered the best cars on the grid, so as a team we are better than ready. “Best of all is that we will see spectators again at Zwartkops and we cannot wait for that!” 

Tickets for Saturday’s races are available from Zwartkops track office.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Chemical Logistics Racing

What:Global Touring Cars Round 7 Preview
Where:Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When:Saturday 23 October 2021
Community:South Africa National

For further information please contact kgregory@investchem.co.za

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