Summarize

The past weekend was a huge one in racing. It was a very good one for Toyota Gazoo Racing with triple victories including a Le Mans 24 Hour hat trick, another SA Cross Country win and a shock World Rally Win. The van der Linde brothers and Jonathan Aberdein also starred in Germany, national karting entertained at Zwartkops and old man Willie Hepburn is still winning in historic racing. Here's your weekly race update powered by Toyota Gazoo Racing, and delivered by theauto.page

Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Brandon Hartley won Toyota’s third Le Mans 24 Hour in a row. They beat Gustavo Menezes, Bruno Senna and Norman Nato’s Rebellion by five laps. Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez’s Toyota clawed back to third from the Dumas Berthon Deletraz Rebellion.

Paul di Resta, Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson Oreca Gibson took a hard fought LMP 2 race from the similar da Costa, Davidson and Gonzalez’ car. Aston Martin scored a GT double. Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell took GTE honours over the Calado, Guidi and Serra Ferrari. Jonathan Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc’s Aston Martin won GTE Am.

That ends the Le Mans LMP1 era ahead to an all new Hypercar and Prototype rage. Toyota showed its new road-derived 2021 Hypercar on Saturday, while Peugeot confirmed it will join in 2022.

Toyota Gazoo Racing pole man Henk Lategan fought back to win the Bothaville Total Agri 400 SA Cross Country. Brian Baragwanath starred, powering from 21st to second in his Century CR6. Shameer Variawa ended third in another Gazoo Hilux eight seconds clear of the Gareth Woolridge Ford Ranger. Giniel de Villiers was fifth ahead of Lance Woolridge in a Ranger. Malcolm Kock’s Ranger took Class T, Tim Howes’ Zarco Special vehicles Class A and Peter Walter’s Can-Am Maverick side-by-sides.

Elfyn Evans snatched a remarkable Rally Turkey win for Toyota. He leapfrogged punctured Hyundai drivers Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Loeb. Then Sébastien Ogier retired late to hand Evans a 18-point title lead with two rounds remaining. Kalle Rovanperä’s Toyota was fourth from Ford men Gus Greensmith and Esapekka Lappi. Neuville won the points-paying Power Stage from Ott Tänak Rovanperä, Evans and Loeb.

South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde and Patric Niederhauser’s Audi R8 won Sunday’s second ADAC GT Masters race at Hockenheim. The duo went one better from second behind Michael Ammermüller and Christian Engelhart’s Porsche in Saturday’s first heat. Troubled SA driver Jordan Pepper and Constantin Schöll ended 26th and 29th in the two races in their Bentley.

South African duo Sheldon van der Linde and Jonathan Aberdein delivered double top ten finishes at the weekend’s Nurburgring DTM races. Van der Linde backed his Saturday sixth up with fourth and best BMW Sunday. Aberdein fought back to tenth Sunday, adding to eighth on Saturday. Audi driver Robin Frijns won Saturday from BMW duo Rene Wittman and Philip Eng. Nico Muller beat Frijns and Rene Rast to a Sunday Audi 1-2-3.

Brad Binder failed to capitalise on his best ever sixth grid slot in the Mugello Moto GP. The KTM rider fell twice to exit early, the first being from second place. That left Maverick Vinales to win for Yamaha from Suzuki’s Joan Mir and KTM man Pol Espargaro. Younger Binder brother again fought back from a lowly grid slot to fight in the lead bunch of the fraught Moto 3 pack. He exited in a highside accident for the second weekend in a row.

Double world champion Johan Kristoffersson took his 23rd World Rallycross victory in Latvia. Saturday’s win further extends his Drivers’ Championship lead. Mattias Ekstrom used his joker lap to steal second from Timmy Hansen. So three Swedes and three World RX Drivers’ Champions stood on the podium. Ekstrom then put one over Kristofferson to stem stabilise the title race in Sunday’s double-header.

The weekend’s Zwartkops SA Rotax Max national double header delivered spectacular karting action. Cape lad Seb Boyd took premier DD2 honours over Brad Liebenberg to set up a title fight between them at Killarney in October. Nicholas Verheul won five out of six DD2 Masters wins to all but clinch that title. Another Cape kid, Tate Bishop and Aqil Alibhai shared Senior Max wins with Charl Visser and Dane van Heerde to set up another title humdinger at Killarney.

A dominant Muhammed Wally is already all but SA Junior Max champion and Mini winner Ghazi Motlekar has one hand on that title too, although KC Ensor-Smith and Troy Snyman also won races on Saturday. Caleb Odendaal won four races to set up a Micro Max title fight with Reagile Mailula and Reese Koorzen. Caleb Moss took a thrilling baby Bambino win while MJ Thekiso and Mattao Mason also won heats to take that one down to the wire too.

Willie Hepburn’s old '80s national racing Opel Rekord V8 stormed to Historic Sports & GT victory over Richard de Roos’ Porsche 911 at Red Star on Saturday. It was closer in the Saloons where men Stuart Konig and Jannie van Rooyen’s Class Sciroccos entertained. Marius Verwey’s Mazda R100 took class D from Alan Green’s Ford Escort. Rene van Rensburg romped to Class E as Sean Hepburn’s Datsun 1200 shared Class G wins with Jaco Roux’s Scirocco. Riaan de Ru’s Ford Prefect won Class G.

Riaan Roux won the first Charlies Pursuit handicap in his Fines Scirocco. Trophy winner Kola de Klerk’s Nissan 300 ZX was second from Clive Winterstein’s Trophy Porsche 356. Wynand du Plessis Sr.’s Fines Porsche won race 2 from Devon Martin’s Trophy Datsun and Frans Venter’s Fines Datsun 280 ZX.