Castrol MINI John Cooper Works 1st and 2nd in final race of season

The Castrol MINI John Cooper Works team of Lee Thompson and Gavin Cronje brought a successful season to an appropriate end with a convincing 1-2 finish in class T in the final race of the Bridgestone South African Production Car Championship at Kyalami on Saturday.

It was Thompson’s fifth win of the season and, together with Cronje’s six victories during the nine rounds, took the team’s total to 11 wins and 24 top-three finishes.

Cronje, who had started the day with a slim chance of overhauling championship leader Graeme Nathan, scored enough points with fifth in race one and second in race three to ensure the runner-up spot despite failing to finish race two – a broken engine mounting side-lined him at the end of the first lap of the second sprint race while he was leading.

Winning the 12-lap feature race, which counts for double points, was the best way Thompson could have bounced back from a non-finish in the opening six-lap sprint – contact with another car on the first lap resulted in a damaged front wheel – and fourth place in the second sprint.

He had been quickest in qualifying ahead of team-mate Cronje, but both cars were excluded from the qualifying result and placed at the back of the grid for the opening race for a technical infringement concerning the turbo boost. “The cars’ on-board ECU indicated we were within the allowed boost parameter, but the measuring device used by the officials said otherwise,” explained team principal Donovan van Heerden.

“We obviously weren’t very happy about this as we had a very good chance of winning the first sprint race with both cars on the front of the grid.  Finishing 1-2 in the feature race that ended the day’s programme and the season was all the sweeter.”

Gavin Cronje: “We had our chances this season and we were mostly able to take advantage of all of them. The team has worked very hard to give Lee and I a race-winning package and it’s been a challenge finding the right balance at the different circuits we visit. The MINI has a lot of power, but sometimes there’s too much power and standard components like the engine mounting can suffer, as they did today.

Lee Thompson: “It’s been a very up and down season for me with two rounds where technical problems prevented me from scoring any points at all. This effectively put me out of championship contention. However, when it all came together we had some decisive race wins and these have been most rewarding, particularly when we’ve made it a MINI one-two like we did today and also in the challenging Durban street races.”

In addition to principal sponsor Castrol, the team enjoys backing from MINI John Cooper Works, Endless Brake Pads, EPS Courier Services, Akrapovic Exhaust Systems, Powerbrake and Monster Energy.