Thursday, January 3, 2013

Audi Racing History in South Africa Part 7: The end of an era


Audi Racing History in South Africa Part 7 of 10 
The end of an era

By Johan Laubscher

After the excitement of Super Touring new cost-reducing rules were introduced for 1997 in South Africa. Despite less power, no wings and smaller wheels, the racing was still as spectacular as always. However the end of this era was sadly approaching. 

1997

Bankfin Touring Cars: New rules, aimed at reducing costs were introduced for South African Touring Cars in 1997. The new rules also brought with it a new series name, now being called The Bankfin Touring Car Championship. The Audi SA team would compete with front-wheel drive for the first time that year. The team decided to modify their two existing cars instead of building brand new cars for the new rules. The two Audi A4 Super Touring specification cars, which won the 1996 championship, were converted from quattro four-wheel drive into front-wheel drive and fitted with smaller diameter wheels. This was done according to the new cost-reducing rules with the first year of the Bankfin Touring Car Championship. The team had some good showings but battled overall with the front wheel drive. 1997 was also the last year that Rothmans would sponsor the factory Audi SA team.

1997 Results HERE. 

1997 Terry Moss A4 (MP)
1997 Chris Aberdein A4 (STG)

Belgian Procars: During 1997 Terry Moss joined the Belgian Audi Club for another international event at Spa-Francorchamps. It was the Spa round of the Belgian Procar Championship held in June of 1997. Moss shared an Audi A4 STW race car with Belgian Jean-Francois Hemroulle. Moss won the second race of the day and the pairing finished second overall in the aggregate results. 

1997 Procar results HERE.
1997 Terry Moss A4 at Spa (STG)

1998

Bankfin Touring Cars: 1998 would again be a struggle for the Audi SA team with the front-wheel drive. The team had new sponsorship from Engen, with a new team name “Engen Audi” and a new silver livery. Terry Moss and Chris Aberdein again drove the factory cars. A third factory car was entered, first with Mark Johnson and later replaced with Anthony Taylor. A privateer Audi A4 in the hands of Hennie Groenewald also competed occasionally.

1998 Results HERE. 

1998 Terry Moss A4 (MP)
1998 Anthony Taylor A4 (MP)
1998 Chris Aberdein A4 (MP)

Zolder 24 Hours: During 1998 Terry Moss once again joined the Belgian Audi Club for a 24 Hour race in Belgium. He joined Jean-Francois Hemroulle and Timo Verbergt in an Audi A4 Super Touring for the 1998 Zolder 24 Hours. They finished sixth overall.

1998 Zolder 24 Hours results HERE.

1998 Moss, Hemroulle and Verbergt A4 STW (STG)

Sports Cars: Terry Moss also ventured into sports car racing during 1998. The International Sports Racing Series held round 8 at Kyalami. Team Gebhardt and their Gebhardt G4 using a five cylinder turbo Audi engine came to South Africa for the round. The car was driven to ninth place overall by drivers Stanley Dickens (Swedish) and Terry Moss.

1998 Sports Cars results HERE. 

1998 Moss & Dickens Gebhardt G4 Kyalami (MP)

Le Mans Testing: At the end of 1998 South Africa and Kyalami would play a part in the development program of Audi’s Le Mans Prototype race cars. Audi Sport came to Kyalami, well known for testing due to its harsh warm climate and high altitude, to test the early development versions of the Audi R8R.

1998 Audi R8R testing at Kyalami (MP)

1999

Bankfin Touring Cars: The team showed new form in 1999 with many good performances. It was again a three car effort with three Audi A4 cars for Terry Moss, Chris Aberdein and Anthony Taylor. Hennie Groenewald stood in for Moss at East London when Moss was injured in a crash during practice. Chris Aberdein retired from racing at the end of 1999, ending a thirteen year career with Volkswagen and Audi in South Africa.

1999 Results HERE.

1999 Terry Moss A4 (MP)
1999 Anthony Taylor A4 (MP)
1999 Chris Aberdein A4 (MP)

Footage from 1999 Talyor’s first win HERE.

Sports Cars: At the end of 1999 the SportsRacing World Cup again held a round at Kyalami, round 9 of the series. Team Gebhardt and their Gebhardt G4 using a five cylinder turbo Audi engine again came to South Africa for the round. This time the car was to be driven by two South Africans, Terry Moss joined by South African sports car racing ace, George Fouché. The pair drove the car to eighth place.

1998 Sports Cars results HERE. 

1999 Moss & Fouché Gebhardt G4 Kyalami (MP)

2000

Bankfin Touring Cars: South African Touring Car racing would come to an end after 2000. Many of the manufactures including Audi SA pulled out of the championship due to issues surrounding the new 2001 rules, which resulted in the death of the series. The 2000 season was one of continued improvement for the Engen Audi team. The factory team entered two cars for Terry Moss and Anthony Taylor. The ex-Chris Aberdein car was driven by privateer Niel Stephen. Both Moss and Taylor took wins during the season after being rejuvenated by new Audi engines during the mid-season. As 2000 brought an end to Touring Car racing Moss decided to retire from active racing to concentrate his efforts in running his own race team: Terry Moss Racing. Terry Moss Racing would focus on Volkswagen based championships until much later entering Audi cars for the first time.

2000 Results HERE.

2000 Terry Moss A4 (MP)
2000 Anthony Taylor A4 (MP)
2000 Niel Stephen A4 (MP)

Footage from 2000, Terry Moss' last win HERE.

2001-2004

2001-2004 proved to be a drought for Audi fans in South Africa with no Audis competing in national South African Motorsport. However this was to change in 2005.

The rebuild: Despite no Audis competing in South Africa, there was some Audi Motorsport related activity. Audi Sport South Africa received two 1995 Super Touring Specification Audi A4 race cars for the 1996 season. These cars dominated the 1996 championship after which they were both converted to front-wheel drive for the 1997 season which saw the introduction of new rules, as mentioned above.

David Sutton from England, who had a very large collection of race cars, decided to purchase these two Audi A4 cars from Audi South Africa. The two cars underwent a restoration in South Africa where both cars were restored to Super Touring specification with quattro four-wheel drive. After Audi SA completed the restoration they were sent to England and became part of the David Sutton Historic Motorsport Collection.

Two ex-SA A4 in the David Sutton Historic Motorsport Collection (AF)


Photo sources:
MP = MotorPics from www.motorpics.co.za
AF = AudiFans.net from www.facebook.com/audifans.net
STG* = South African Touring Car Racing 1993-2000 Facebook Group HERE.

Article cover photo = 1998 Audi SA media/press photo
Bottom cover photo = Johan Laubscher / Tarek Ramchani 

All the images are labeled with an abbreviation within brackets in their caption which indicates the photo source as listed above. 

*May not include the original photo source. 


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//PART 2