Port Elizabeth pair Michael Stephen and Shaun Watson-Smith scored a dramatic victory in the two hour Bridgestone Production Car feature race at round eight of the WesBank Super Series at the Zwartkops Raceway last night.

Stephen and former South Afeican champion Watson-Smith, in the Xtreme Team Audi S4, took the lead in the last 10 minutes to finish 15 seconds ahead of Afrox BMW pair Anthony Taylor and Etienne van der Linde. Stephen/Watson-Smith and Taylor/van der Linde completed 89 laps in a race that started in twilight and finished in darkness.

Third place, two laps behind the two lead cars, went to Cape crew Johan Fourie and Kosie Swanepoel in the IndyOil Audi S4. Fourie went into the race leading Stephen by 16 points and with double points on offer for the endurance race, the championship situation is delicately poised with one meeting left this season.

A fine drive took multiple SA champion Gary Formato and Garth Waberski into fourth place overall in the BP/Castrol Ford Focus with the pair taking the Class T honours. Second and third in Class T were Graeme Nathan/Reghardt Roets (IndyOil/Kaye Eddie VW Golf6) and Gennaro Bonafede/Lee Thompson in the Ferodo VW Golf6.

Fifth overall went to Richard Pinnard/Jon Williams, in the Sasol Subartu, who edged out team-mates Hennie Groenewald and Jonathan du Toit, Tschops Sipuka/Simon Moss (Xtreme Team Audi S4) and Nathan/Roets who all finished on the same lap.

Earlier two back to back eight lap sprint races saw Anthony Taylor and Hennie Groenewald (Sasol Subaru) share the Class A wins. In race one Taylor came in ahead of team-mate Melvill Priest and Stephen, and in race two Stephen and Priest completed the podium.

Both Class T wins went to Gary Formato (BP/Castrol Ford Focus), who with his endurance win took a clean sweep for the second time this season, ahead of team-mate Shaun Duminy. The final podium places were shared by Gennaro Bonafede (Ferodo VW Golf6) snd Graeme Nathan (IndyOil/Kaye Eddie VW Golf 6).

On the motorcycle front one championship was decided and one left in limbo until the final event of the season. A fourth in race one and a second in race two were enough to see Greg Gildenhuys, on the factory Motorrad BMW, clinch back to back SA Superbike titles.

Both races were won by former champion Sheridan Morais, on the Emtek Kawasaki, with Gildenhuys's closest challenger, Chris Leeson (Siris Kawasaki) keeping alive a glimmer of championship hope by finishing third behind James Egan (Rocket88/Ryder Motorrad BMW) in the first heat. When Gildenhuys finished second ahead of Leeson, Julian Odendaal (MS Aircon Suzuki) and Egan in race two it wrapped up the title.

The SA Supersport title will go to the wire with Dave McFadden (Pepper Racing Kawasaki) extending his championship advantage over Clint Seller (Bikefin Honda) from four points at the start of the day to 13 - with a little help from Morais. With the McFadden/Seller scrap delicately poised Morais elected to help the Kawasaki cause and ride in both the Superbike and Supersport heats.

The move paid off in race one with McFadden winning and Morais holding off Seller. Morais won the second race, run in two parts after a Graeme Buckley crash brought out the red flag, but this time Seller came in ahead of McFadden in a damage control exercise.

Both WesBank V8 Supercar championships – the Super GT and GT Class – will also go to the wire, despite a double from Jimmy Auby in the ELT International/SKF Ford Falcon. The opening heat saw championship leader Auby come in ahead of younger brother Brandon, the reigning champion, in a second ELT International SKF Ford Falcon, and father Deon in the ELT International/SKF Lumina.

Brandon and his father, with brake and gearbox failure respectively, fell on hard times in race two run from the customary reverse grid start. Jimmy, however, gradually chased down Franco di Matteo (Varta Batteries Jaguar) who did his cause no good at all with a late race spin.

That dropped di Matteo to fourth behind Auby, comeback kid Jaco Correia (Midas Corvette) and former champion Ben Morgenrood in the IndyOil/BM Auto Ford Falcon. Gearbox failure in race one blew Morgenrood out of the title picture and the spin dented Di Matteo's challenge.

Unofficial scoring will see Jimmy Auby go into the final event with a 19 point lead over brother Brandon and a 24 point advantage over di Matteo. With 30 points up for grabs rocket science is not needed to see who is in the box seats.

Where the GT Class is concerned a second and a win brought Larry Wilford (Fuchs Ford Falcon) back into the championship picture and put pressure on reigning champion Des Gutzeit in the Dezzi/Cummins Ford Falcon. The race one win went to Patrick Seddon (Contact Aircon Lumina) ahead of Wilford and Gutzeit.

Wilford then took the second heat win from his nephew Ray, in another Fuchs Ford Falcon, with Seddon coming ahead of Gutzeit. That left Gutzeit leading Wilford by just eight points in the championship with two veterans set to slug it out over the final two races of the season.

The Engen VW Cup, Formula Volkswagen and Midas Formula 1600 events all produced double winners. Reigning champion Simon Moss (Southern Sun/Dixon batteries FVW) did the trick in the Formula VW series to come in ahead of Robert Wolk (Midas/Investchem FVW) and championship leader Jayde Kruger in the First Freight FVW in both races.

The Midas 1600 double went to James Temple (GWM Mygale) with Jason Campos (Etana Mygale) and championship leader Mathew Merton (Matsam Mygale) joining him on the podium. Race two saw Nicholsa van Weely (Anglorand Van Diemen) split Temple and Merton in an entertaining race.

Cape driver Kosie Weyers (Xtreme Team VW Polo) won both Engen VW Cup races to cement second place in the championship behind Devin Robertson who has already been crowned champion. In both races Weyers came in ahead of 16-year-old Kelvin van der Linde (Feredo VW Polo) with Kyle Barnes (PG Glass VW Polo) and Robertson (Sparco/Big Boss Auto VW) sharing third places.

Two wins also saw former champion Engen VW Cup champion Lee Thompson (Ferodo VW Polo) clinch the Masters championship for drivers over the age of 27.

Results:

WesBank V8 Supercars: Race 2: Super GT: 1 J Auby (Ford Falcon); B Auby (Ford Falcon); 3 D Auby (Lumina). GT Class: 1 P Seddon (Lumina); 2 L Wilford (Ford Falcon); 3 D Gutzeit (Ford Falcon). Race 2: Super GT: 1 J Auby (Ford Falcon); 2 J Correia (Corvette); 3 B Morgenrood (Ford Falcon). GT Class: 1 L Wilford (Ford Falcon); 2 R Wilford (Ford Falcon); 3 P Seddon (Lumina).

Bridgestone Production Car s: Race 1 – Class A 1: 1 A Taylor (BMW 335i); M Priest (BMW 335i); 3 M Stephen (Audi S4). Class T – 1 G Formato (Ford Focus); 2 S Duminy (Ford Focus); 3 G Bonafede (VW Golf6). Race 2 – Class A : 1 H Groenewald (Subaru); 2 M Stephen (Audi S4); 3 M Priest (Audi S4). Class T: 1 G Formato (Ford Focus); S Duminy (Ford Focus); 3 G Nathan (VW Golf6). Race 3 – Class A: Class T:

Engen VW Cup: Race 1 – 1 K Weyers (VW Polo); 2 K van der Linde (VW Polo); 3 K Barners (VW Polo). Masters: L Thompson (VW Polo). Race 2 – 1 K Weyers (VW Polo); 2 K van der Linde (VW Polo); 3 D Robertson (VW Polo). Masters: L Thompson (VW Polo).

Formula VW: Race 1 - 1 S Moss (FVW); 2 R Wolk (FVW); 3 J Kruger (FVW). Race 2 - 1 S Moss (FVW); R Wolk (FVW); 3 J Kruger (FVW).

Formula Midas 1600: Race 1 – 1 J Temple (Mygale); 2 J Campos (Mygale); 3 M Merton (Mygale). Race 2 – 1 J Temple (Mygale); 2 N van Weeley (Van Diemen); 3 M Merton (Mygale).

SA Superbikes: Race 1 – 1 S Morais (Kawasaki); 2 J Egan (BMW); 3 C Leeson (Kawasaki). Race 2 – 1 S Morais (Kawasaki); G Gildenhuys (BMW); 3 C Leeson (Kawasaki).

SA Supersport: Race 1 – D McFadden (Kawasaki); S Morais (Kawasaki); 3 C Seller (Honda). Race 2 – 1 S Morais (Kawasaki); 2 C Seller (Honda); 3 D McFadden (Kawasaki).