03.03.2018 WINNING START TO THE YEAR FOR ALFA ROMEO IN SOUTH AFRICAN ENDURANCE SERIES

ALFA ROMEO GIUIETTA 2018 SOUTH AFRICAN ENDURANCE SERIES
ALFA ROMEO GIUIETTA 2018 SOUTH AFRICAN ENDURANCE SERIES
ALFA ROMEO GIUIETTA 2018 SOUTH AFRICAN ENDURANCE SERIES

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles South Africa has kicked off its 2018 racing campaign with its Alfa Romeo Giulietta in the first round of the Mopar South African Endurance Series in some style by claiming class victory in the Phakisa 6-hour race.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles South Africa, the importer of Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Abarth and Jeep vehicles locally has kicked off its 2018 campaign with its race-prepared Alfa Romeo Giulietta during the first round of the Mopar South African Endurance Series in some style by claiming class victory in the Phakisa 6-hour race.

After finishing fourth overall in last year's championship in the Arnold Chatz Cars Racing-entered Giulietta, Theo van Vuuren, Head of Aftersales at FCA, and Bradley Scorer, Dealer Principal at Arnold Chatz Cars, are looking to improve that position this season.

Pre-season test results at Zwartkops Circuit the week before the first race saw the Giulietta posting its fastest lap time since its debut last year and that set the team up perfectly for the 6-Hour race at Phakisa in Welkom.

Qualifying showed all that promise off and meant they started at the green lights from Class B pole position and after 6 hours 2 minutes and 16 seconds of racing and 174 laps completed the Giulietta came home as the class winner in an impressive seventh place overall, the first production car home.

Ahead of the Giulietta at the chequered flag were prototype racecars, including a pair of Ligier JS53 “CN” class machines, as well as two Ferrari 458 GT3s and a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo.

They also took on, passed and beat a GT4 category Ginetta G55, Vuuren picking off the British sportscar, which was struggling with its tyres, on the penultimate lap of the race. The Ginetta would finished just behind in eighth place overall.

Seventeen cars finished the six-hour race at the 4.24-km/11-turn Phakisa Freeway while nine entrants retired.

The series "indexes" the individual car's performances, similar to handicapping, and with an index of 91.890% Vuuren and Scorer came out on top of the "index" classification ahead of the Ferrari 458 GT3 of Marcel Angel/Dayne Angel which scored an index of 89.020%.

It’s thus been perfect start to the racing season for Van Vuuren and Scorer and they actually formed the race team in 2015 with a race-prepared Alfa Romeo GT.

This is now their fourth-year racing and their second year in the Giulietta which is equipped with a 1.8-litre turbocharged engine. Both drivers have previously competed in national and international series with endurance and production level cars.

It promises to be an exciting 2018 season. Alfa Romeo and Mopar have teamed up with the local South African Endurance Series not only to grow endurance racing in South Africa but also to demonstrate the reliability and performance of Alfa Romeo cars in extreme conditions. The Giulietta's livery has been changed this year to minic the colours of the new Alfa Romeo Sauber C37 F1 car with a white body and red rear end that plays host to a large Alfa Romeo badge.

Four rounds of the 2018 South African Endurance Series remain to be contested with the next race taking the teams to Cape Town for the Killarney 4-Hour.

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Photos: South African Endurance Series & Arnold Chatz Racing / © 2018 Interfuture Media/Italiaspeed