10 POINTS BETWEEN TOP FOUR DRIVERS

+ Click to Enlarge EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS: Capetonian Johan Fourie (Audi A4) will need every bit of home-circuit advantage he can get - he's two points behind championship leader Anthony Taylor (BMW 330i) in the 2009 SA Production Car championship with two meetings to go. Image: Tracksidepics

September 22, 2009

With only 10 points separating the top four drivers in Class A in the SA Production Car championship, all the ingredients are there for two dramatic races at Killarney in Saturday's penultimate round of the WesBank Super Series at Killarney, a circuit that's not for the faint of heart.

Former champion Anthony Taylor (BMW 330i) leads reigning champion Johan Fourie (Audi A4) by two points, with Michael Stephen (Audi A4) and Leeroy Poulter (Nissan 350Z) breathing down their necks.

It adds up to a pressure-cooker scenario and each will be aware that one bad outing could scupper his chances.

Phakisa was such an outing for Audi driver Melvill Priest, who has all but dropped out of the championship race. Priest, however, along with Shaun Watson-Smith (Audi A4) and Dawie Olivier (Subaru Impreza) could still play decisive roles in the championship battle.

Watson-Smith is also out of the championship running but managed to win the second race at Phakisa.

All that proves is that any of the top six or seven are capable of winning races, with the reverse grid system for the second race of the day adding to the intrigue.

Fourie will be the home-town favourite but all the drivers have been to Killarney so many times that local knowledge doesn't count for much these days. This is a bunch of hard men out to prove a point and two dramatic races are a certainty.

The Class T battle is also neatly poised with 14 points separating 2008 champion Graeme Nathan (VW Golf GTi) and Gary Formato in a Ford Focus.

A Race 2 blowup at Phakisa did nothing to help Formato's cause and put a little added pressure on the multiple SA Champion.

Hein Bose, in a Mazda3 MPS, is a long way off the championship pace but looks to be the best of the rest.

There could be some interesting midfield duels but the main attention will be firmly on the Nathan/Formato confrontation.