Keegan Campos took the team’s first 2022 Global Touring Cars (GTC) SupaCup win this past weekend (16-17 September) in the penultimate round of the championship, held at Killarney International Raceway.
Keegan, who missed Round 5 due to the birth of his daughter, looked strong throughout Friday’s timed sessions and set the third-fastest time in Saturday morning’s qualifying session. An opening lap incident saw Leyton Fourie and Jeffrey Kruger drop back in the order. A further incident involving father Rui and guest driver Iain Pepper saw the safety car’s deployment. From the restart, Keegan delivered a level-headed performance to keep Jonathan Mogotsi, Danie van Niekerk and Fourie behind him.
In Race 2, Fourie had the early lead before the red flag was deployed. Keegan took the lead off the restart and held Fourie at bay to cross the line in the first place. However, with the positions for Race 2 being determined by the aggregate time for both portions, he was classified in second place on account of Fourie’s larger lead in the first segment.
“It was an awesome day nonetheless and we finally got that win for 2022,” said Keegan Campos. “What was even more special was that my fiancé and daughter were there to witness it. Clearly, they need to attend all my races. With a round to go and no chance at winning the championship I will be pushing for another victory at Zwartkops.”
Pepper made his second appearance in the series. With Rui also back on the grid, this effectively meant that Pepper substituted for Jason Campos. After qualifying in eighth place, he and Rui were eliminated early due to the before-mentioned incident. In Race 2, he recorded a sixth-place finish after a confident performance in the midfield.
“This was the last of my confirmed outings in the series and after difficulties in Round 4 and at the start of today, it felt good to record a strong finish,” said Pepper. “There’s certainly no hard feelings after the opening race incident and we managed to get both cars ready again. Thank you to the team for this very enjoyable spell in the Campos Racing setup.”
Rui, who drover Jason’s car, also had a good second race to finish in eighth place following a good tussle with David Franco.
“Hey we took banging door mirrors to a whole new level today, we’ve gone for complete doors,” said Rui Campos. “But in all honesty, it was good to be back on the grid for the first time since May and I really enjoyed it.”
The GTC SupaCup season finale will take place at Zwartkops Raceway on 14-15 October.
Issued by Motorsport Fanatix on behalf of Campos Racing South Africa
