adminPeter Phiri, Sports Correspondent
DARREN Winterboer was in a class of his own when his BMW outshone Ian Howden’s Subaru in the main circuit national drag championships at Breedon Everard on Saturday. Winterboer’s high powered BMW left his closest rivals chasing wind in the Saloon A category when he came first ahead of Ian Howden who was second while Angelo Tavares also with a Subaru came third.
Howden’s Subaru has been dominating these races and all eyes were on it to repeat its exploits.
But Winterboer had other ideas as his BMW’s improved engine proved too hot to handle.
In the last race Winterboer’s car broke down with two laps to go and Howden rightly clinched first place with his Subaru.
The cars’ handicap race had Winterboer coming third behind Stephanus van der Linde who was first and Brett Cameron in a Super 7 car was second.
Darren Pragji with a Datsun won the saloon C category while Christian Berkau came second and Tyrone Car’s Toyota Corolla third.
Richard Robinson was unbeatable in the sports A category cruising home in first place with the Toyota MR2, Stuart Young in a Sports 2000 came second and Cole Bond only managed third place with a Super 7 Rotary car.
The legendary Gary Kirk and his Super 7 car came second in the Sports B category, in first place was Linde and Cameroon third.
Phil van Vuuren won the Toyota Challenge with a Toyota Corolla, Berkau’s Toyota Corolla came second while Zane Shah’s Toyota Conquest third.
Linde won the main race Toyota category leaving Vuuren and Pragji in second and third place respectively.
Howden said he enjoyed racing on Breedon Everard which he described as a good racing circuit.
‘‘I love Bulawayo and the track is great and I will only get better with my racing. I have won 11 out of the 12 races I participated in since last year,’’ said Howden.
Winterboer said: “It was a good race and I had my car’s engine improved in South Africa. Now it has a good horsepower and I am looking forward to future races with great expectations.’’
Ian Gutherless and Fuzzey Walker both with Kawasaki ZX10 were outstanding in the motorbikes category, winning most of the races against competitors from Harare.
‘‘The competition was excellent with guys from Harare offering stiff competition. We enjoyed and the level of competition was high,’’ said Gutherless.
Walker praised competitors from Harare for coming all the way to spice up the event.
‘‘It was good competing against all these guys some of them from Harare. The standards are now high and I will try my level best to keep with the rest of the guys,’’ said Walker.
Bulawayo Motoring Club (BMC) vice-chairman Shah was pleased with the turnout of participants.
‘‘It was great day and the turnout was good since there were more cars and bikes,’’ said Shah.
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